Emma Donoghue

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a writer of contemporary and historical fiction whose novels include the bestselling "Slammerkin," "The Sealed Letter," "Landing," "Frog Music," "Life Mask," "Hood," "Room," and "Stirfry." Her story collections are "The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits," "Kissing the Witch," and "Touchy Subjects." She also writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio.

Although Donoghue works in many genres, she is best known for her fiction works, which have been translated into over forty languages. Her latest novel, "Frog Music" (2014), is a multi-faceted murder mystery set in San Francisco in 1876. "Room" (2010) is narrated by a five-year-old called Jack, who lives in a single room with his Ma and has never been outside. An international bestseller, "Room" won the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Prize (Canada & Caribbean Region), the Canadian Booksellers’ Association Libris Awards (Fiction Book and Author of the Year), the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and the W.H. Smith Paperback of the Year Award. "Room" was adapted into a film in 2015.

Donoghue holds a BA in English and French from University College Dublin. She also holds a PhD on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction from the University of Cambridge.