Gráinne Murphy
The judge for the 2023 Best in Rural Writing Contest is Gráinne Murphy.
Gráinne is a Cork-based novelist and occasional short story writer. Her debut novel, Where the Edge Is, was published by Legend Press in 2020, followed by The Ghostlights in 2021, and Winter People in 2022. Her fourth novel, Greener, will be published in April 2024, also by Legend Press.
Gráinne’s short story, “Further West,” was longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award in 2021, while other short stories have been published in The Holly Bough, the Fish Anthology, and Nivalis Anthology, among others. “Time Immemorial,” her essay on grief and the quiet power of country graveyards, was published by The Milk House in April 2021 and later nominated for that year’s Pushcart Prize.
Gráinne grew up in Kilmichael, Co. Cork and, after spending some time in towns and cities in Ireland and abroad, is now happily back in West Cork. The rural landscape is very much part of her writing, and her novels and stories are typically set in rural communities, among the people, language and nature with which she is most familiar. She is endlessly interested in family and identity, particularly those moments where we have to stare life down and choose who we want to be. Even if she starts somewhere else and with something else in mind, her stories and characters often end up wondering who they are and what they want, somewhere in rural Cork.
Gráinne has a BA and MPhil in Applied Psychology from University College Cork, and an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University. She works as a freelance proofreader and language editor on research reports for EU consultancies, often on human rights and environmental issues.
Winter People (2022) is Gráinne’s third novel and was published by Legend Press.
Details on how to enter the 2023 Best in Rural Writing Contest are available here.