NOVELIST Anne Enright has won a prestigious literary prize in recognition of her “momentous” body of work.
The Dubliner, who is now 62, is one of eight authors to each be given the $175k Windham-Campbell Prize for 2025.
Anne Enrght has been awarded the $175k Windham-Campbell PrizeA Man Booker Prize-winner, Enright, who is the author of eight novels and two short story collections, was Ireland’s first Laureate for Irish Fiction from 2015-2018.
While announcing the winners, the Windham-Campbell Prize judges describe Enright's work, which largely explores family themes, as “nothing short of momentous”.
“In her wide-ranging and wryly unsentimental fiction, Anne Enright explores the limitations and joys of our human need for belonging,” they explain.
“Her domestic portraits are startingly potent in that they contain within them all the most pressing issues of our time - from suicide to changing sexual norms and environmental collapse,” the judges add.
Responding to the news, which she received via Zoom call, Enright admitted “the sense of unreality has not left me since the news came in”.
“What an astonishing thing to drop out of a clear blue sky,” she added.
“I am floored by the Windham-Campbell Prize’s generosity and goodwill.”
Ireland's Culture Minister Patrick O’Donovan sent a message of congratulations to the author today.
“I am delighted that this prestigious award has been bestowed on Anne Enright," he said.
"Anne is one of our greatest living Irish writers and the Windham-Campbell Prize is further recognition of the remarkable body of work she has created over the past 30 years or more."
He added: "The achievements of Irish writers are recognised around the world and her novels are a worthy addition to that proud tradition.
"Anne has been to the forefront of contemporary Irish writing for decades and is one of our most beloved writers with legions of readers at home and around the world.
"Anne, as a former winner of the Man Booker Prize, is no stranger to international accolades and I offer her my warmest congratulations on this well merited recognition of her work.”
American writer Sigrid Nunez was also one of this year’s prize winners, along with British playwright Roy Williams, who was recognised in the drama category, and Scottish poet Anthony V Capildeo who takes one of this year's poetry prizes.
Eight $175k Windham Campbell prizes are awarded each year, to writers living in any part of the world who write in English.
First awarded in 2013, the awards are administered by Yale University’s Beinecke rare book and manuscript library.
See More: Anne Enright, Author, Dublin, Windham-Campbell Prize
