Monday, February 17, 2025

Mullingar woman shortlisted for the 45th Hennessy Literary Award

By Claire Corrigan

Mullingar-based writer, Anne Griffin, has been shortlisted for the 45th Hennessy Literary Awards in the First Fiction category for her story ‘Grace’.
Currently shortlisted with just five other people from all over the country, Anne said it was a great honour to be short-listed for the acclaimed prize.
Although she only began writing in 2014, Anne, who lives in Bellview Heights, already has a number of feathers to her literary cap. The Dublin native, who has been living in Mullingar for 12 years, was recently highly commended in the Writing.ie Short Story Competition and in 2014 was long-listed in the RTÉ Guide/Penguin Short Story Competition. She was also recently shortlisted for the ‘From the Well’ Short Story competition and will appear in their annual publication. “I’m in love with the world of books and fiction and I’ve never really left it. The book world is a lovely world.”
Anne’s love of books was evident in her twenties when she spent eight years working at Waterstone’s Booksellers. She also spent some time working in Mullingar’s Days Bazarr during which time her close friend, John Boyne, author of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ came down and did a reading of his book.
She is currently on a career break from Dyslexia Association of Ireland and currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing in UCD.
‘Grace’ is about an African-American woman who joins a firm in the US and doesn’t realise that her predecessor in this role has just died. The story was inspired by the death of a former work colleague. “The story kind of took on a life of its own and became completely different to that real-life experience of a colleague dying.”
The lead character, Monica, finds it difficult settling in to the new workplace. Things become stranger still when the former work colleague returns in the form of a ghost to relay a message to Monica about a young homeless man who is living in a nearby alleyway.
“She had been trying to help this young boy get back on his feet but she had died before managing to do that.”
However this is not your average ghost story and the plot is more focused on the personal development of the lead. “The story is really about Monica’s journey though. She’s fairly isolated and has a difficult couple of years. She has a son and is unmarried and is pretty much alone in the world. It’s about how this ghost not only brings about change in the life of the young homeless man but how she brings about change in her life too.” Monica then starts to find fulfillment through working at a local Parish Centre and through the experience is opened up to a whole new world.
“The story is about the emptiness that is left after death and the difficulties that can arise from that. It’s about the silence around her former colleague’s death.”
Despite her success, Anne wants to play her next career move by ear. “The next step along the line is whether you want to try and combine career and writing. So far it’s working out for me, so I just have to finish the MA and hopefully get some publisher interested in me somewhere along the line. The MA is one of the best things I’ve done in my life, outside of having my son. I would encourage anybody who is interested in creative writing to do it.”

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