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Elaine Feeney Wins Emerging Writer Award 2021

Elaine Feeney has been named Emerging Writer for her debut novel As You Were at this year’s Dalkey Literary Awards. Dearbhail McDonald, Aideen Howard and Declan Hughes, the Emerging Writer judges, called As You Were, about a businesswoman keeping a terrible secret from her family, and the people she shares a ward with, “a mighty, turbulent firestorm of a book, with a pulsing, rhythmic narrative voice. A compelling cast of characters with pitch perfect dialogue, it is tender, nuanced, forensically controlled and thrillingly unrestrained.”

Elaine Feeney said: “It is a huge honour to win the Dalkey Emerging Writer Award. I spent five years writing As You Were, and though no one forces anyone to write a book, it’s often a long journey, my journey was filled with self-doubt, and at times obsession – so it’s reassuring to have my work recognised by the judges. An award like Dalkey can really help an artist buy some time to be creative, to take time to work on your art, (and not feel guilty about it) so I’m very grateful. I can now take some more time off the day job to write full-time. Finally, never give up – if you’ve a book burning inside you, get it out! A writer can emerge at any stage in life – it’s safe to say that I wasn’t an overnight success, but I’m very glad now that I kept going! Many thanks to my editor, agent, readers, book sellers, judges, Sian and all at Dalkey Book Festival!”

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