Acclaimed Irish author Deirdre Madden and distinguished dramatist Sonya Kelly join the esteemed list of Windham Campbell Prize recipients, with each earning a grant of $175,000 (€162,000) to bolster their literary endeavours and enable them to focus on their craft without financial hindrances.
The identities of the choice committee are kept under wraps, but their admiration for both writers is clear. They appreciate Madden’s knack for microscopic portrayal of characters’ impulses and thoughts in her novels, which they believe displays the complexity of human existence with genuine empathy and nuanced insight. Correspondingly, Kelly’s plays are treasured for their characteristic propensity to turn mundane day-to-day moments into elegiac insight, as she conscientiously addresses human vulnerability and emotions.
Addressing the dilemmas of the unpredictable literary industry, Kelly expressed, “The Windham Campbell Prize is akin to a beacon of assurance, paving a sustainable course through my professional and personal life. Prioritising monetary gain to secure my financial stability has often led me to prematurely pitch undeveloped ideas, causing them to fail. This prize offers me the luxury of solitude and time, enabling me to craft thoughts into dramas, behind closed doors, in aspiration that I will eventually emerge with a ‘Eureka’ moment.”
As profound acknowledgement of the honour, she extended her heartfelt gratitude to the Windham-Campbell Prizes. The award left her shell-shocked and eternally grateful, reminding her of the importance of collaborative efforts in her profession. She jokingly mentioned the difficulty of expressing her overwhelming joy despite being a wordsmith.
Conversely, Madden declared, “Receiving the Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction 2024 is both a remarkable honour and a complete surprise. Usually such recognitions are associated with recent publications, but this prize acknowledges my entire body of work, making it an absolute bolt from the blue. Even now, I struggle to absorb the enormity of the news.”
At the moment, my role at Trinity entails teaching and a joint book-editing project with my fellow faculty member, Paul Delaney. It is a biography of the revered editor, David Marcus, which is on track to be published by Stinging Fly in the late summer, in time for David’s centennial. Consequently, my own novel-writing is slightly on the back burner for now.
As a cornerstone of Irish literature, Ireland-born Madden’s illustrious writing career has blossomed from her humble origins in Toomebridge, Co Antrim to her current Dublin residence. Her acclaimed writing, characterised by its subdued yet impactful style, encapsulates a variety of themes from the Troubles and self-identity to memory, human connections and the significance of the arts in everyday life. She boasts an impressive array of accolades, including the 1980 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the 1989 Somerset Maugham Award and the honour of joining the Hennessy Literary Awards Hall of Fame in 2014. Madden’s novels, ‘One by One in the Darkness’ (1996) and ‘Molly Fox’s Birthday’ (2008), were contenders for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She’s a part of Aosdána and co-leader of the MPhil in creative writing at Dublin’s Trinity College.
Dublin-based Kelly, a successful writer across theatre, cinema and television, is recognised for her elegant storytelling and stylistic finesse that lends humour and gravitas to her work. She kick-started her career with the award-winning ‘The Wheelchair on My Face’ (2011), a reminiscent look at her nearsighted childhood, and her latest work ‘The Last Return’ (2022) also secured a Fringe First award. In her narratives, Kelly skilfully employs farce and satire to reveal the inherent chaos and inhumanity lurking beneath social decorum. ‘Once Upon a Bridge’ (2021) went down to the wire for the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Best New Play Award. Among her other triumphs are the Stewart Parker Award (2018), a Writers’ Guild of Ireland Award (2019) and the 2014 Dublin Fringe Award for Best Production. A Trinity College alumna, Kelly resides in Dublin with her spouse and daughter.
Michael Kelleher, who holds the position of director for the Windham-Campbell Prizes, expresses immense pride each year in communicating the unexpected and decidedly life-altering news of a $175,000 award to the eight chosen recipients. Especially in these times, he emphasises the difficulty of surviving within the creative fields globally. Indeed, the objective of a Windham Campbell Prize is to provide financial stability and thus supply the winners with the leisure to reflect, write and invent without any stress or obligation.
The recent honourees of these awards at Yale University included Madden and Kelly, as well as eight other distinguished writers such as Kathryn Scanlan, the author of “Kick the Latch” from the US; Christina Sharpe and Hanif Abdurraqib, non-fiction writers from North America; Christopher Chen, a US playwright; and the poets M NourbeSe Philip and Jen Hadfield.
The Windham-Campbell Prizes also hold a history of honouring Irish writers, with previous winners such as Darran Anderson (2023), Wong May (2022), Danielle McLaughlin (2019), Marina Carr (2017), and Abbie Spallen (2016).
This award scheme was envisioned and initiated by book enthusiasts and lifelong partners, Donald Windham and Sandy M Campbell. The inaugural round of prizes was announced in 2013 and is overseen by Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The recipients, who can hail from any corner of the globe, must create works in the English language.