Liz Nugent
Irish writer
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Biography
Liz Nugent attended Holy Child Killiney, in County Dublin. At the age of six she suffered a brain injury which left her with dystonia. After leaving school she moved to London for a time.[1]
After her return to Ireland, she enrolled in an acting course at the Gaiety School of Acting but soon switched to stage management. She toured the world with Riverdance as a stage manager and later worked in an administrative role in RTÉ on its flagship soap Fair City.[2]
During her time at RTÉ, she was commissioned to write an animation series for Irish language TV station TG4 and also wrote a full-length radio play for RTÉ Radio. She subsequently won a European Broadcasting Union competition for a TV pilot.[1]
Her first novel began life as a short story called Alice which made the shortlist of the RTÉ Francis McManus Short Story Competition in 2006.[1] Further exploration into the main character produced her first best-selling novel Unravelling Oliver. She is published by Penguin Sandycove in Ireland and the UK,[3] and by Scout Press (Simon & Schuster) in the US.[4]
Bibliography
- Unravelling Oliver (2014)
- Lying In Wait (2016)
- Skin Deep (2018)
- Our Little Cruelties (2020) (as Little Cruelties in United States)
- Strange Sally Diamond (2023)
- The Truth About Ruby Cooper (2026)
Recognition
Unravelling Oliver
- Winner: Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award at the Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards in 2014[5]
- Longlist: Dublin International Literary Award (formerly the IMPAC) 2016[6]
Lying In Wait
- Winner: Ryan Tubridy Listeners' Choice Award - Irish Book Awards 2016[7]
- Longlist: Dublin International Literary Award 2018[8]
Skin Deep[9]
- Winner of two An Post Irish Book Awards 2018: Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year and RTÉ Radio 1's The Ryan Tubridy Show Listeners’ Choice Award[10]
- Longlist: Dublin International Literary Award 2020[11]
- "Cancel All Plans for the Book You Can't Put Down Award" - Dead Good Books at the Harrogate Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in 2019[12]
Our Little Cruelties[13]
- Nominated for 'Crime Novel of the Year' at the 2020 An Post Irish Book Awards[14]
- Listed by the New York Times as one of 7 recommended thrillers of 2020[15]
Strange Sally Diamond[16]
- Winner of 'Crime Novel of the Year' at the An Post Irish Book Awards in 2023[17]
- Second best-selling book of 2023 in Ireland behind Booker Prize winner 'Prophet Song' by Paul Lynch[18]
- Longlisted for the 'Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year' by Harrogate Festivals[19]
- Featured on BBC's Between the Covers sixth season[20]
Other awards and bursaries
In 2016, Nugent was awarded the Ireland Funds Monaco Bursary to be the Writer-in-Residence at The Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco[21] and was also Writer-In-Residence in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris[22] in April 2019.
She was awarded the Woman of the Year Award for Literature 2017.[23]
In February 2021, she was awarded the James Joyce Award by the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin.[24]
Liz was awarded the Goss.ie 'Writer of the Year' at the Women of the Year Awards October 2023.[25]