Keith Ridgway (born 2 October 1965) is an Irish novelist and short story writer. He has won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger, the O. Henry Award, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Life Ridgway was born in 1965 in Dublin. He has lived in London and Dublin and currently lives in south London. He has described himself as a queer, Irish, male writer and has said he is "a Dubliner for life".
Career Ridgway's novella, Horses, was included in volume 13 of the Faber First Fictions series in 1997.
In 1998, Ridgway's debut novel, The Long Falling, was published by Faber & Faber, London. Set in rural Ireland and Dublin, it tells of a woman in an abusive relationship and of her gay son who moves to Dublin. The French translation, Mauvaise Pente, was published in 2001. It won the Prix Femina Étranger and the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger. It was adapted into a film, Où va la nuit, by French director Martin Provost in 2011.
A collection of short fiction, Standard Time, was published by Faber & Faber in 2001. It was translated into French, German, and Dutch and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
Ridgway's second novel, The Parts, was published by Faber & Faber in 2003. Set in a contemporary, cosmopolitan Dublin, particularly the "underbelly" of the city, it tells the interconnecting stories of six main characters.
His next novel, Animals, a story of mental breakdown set in London, was published by 4th Estate, London, in 2006.
Ridgway's short story, 'Goo Book', was published in the April 11, 2011, issue of The New Yorker magazine.Keith Ridgway, Fiction, “Goo Book,” The New Yorker, April 11, 2011, p. 62 In the same year, his short story, 'Rothko Eggs', was published in Zoetrope: All Story. It won the O. Henry Award in 2012 and was anthologized in the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories that year.
Both these stories later became part of Ridgway's third novel, Hawthorn & Child, published by Granta Books in 2012. An "out of sync" detective story without a resolution, the novel features two London detectives and also tells the stories of several characters loosely associated with the case they are investigating.
After an eight year gap, Ridgway's fourth novel, A Shock, was published by Picador in June 2021. Set in a hot summer in south London, once again, the novel features multiple interconnecting characters and stories. It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Ridgway's next novel, Dooneen, was published in June 2026 by Fitzcarraldo Editions in the United Kingdom.
Ridgway's novels have been translated into several languages and have been published in France, Italy, and Germany.
Awards
Honours 2001 Prix du Premier Roman Etranger 2012 O. Henry Award
Literary awards Year Title Award Category Result .1998The Long FallingLambda Literary AwardGay Men's Fiction 1999Ferro-Grumley Award— 2001 Prix Femina Étranger Standard Time Rooney Prize for Irish Literature — 2012Hawthorn and Child Green Carnation Prize — Irish Book Awards Novel 2013 Believer Book Award — 2021 A Shock Goldsmiths Prize — James Tait Black Memorial Prize Fiction
Bibliography Horses in First Fictions: Introduction 13, Faber & Faber, 1997. . Republished as a standalone volume, Horses, Faber & Faber, 2003. The Long Falling, Faber & Faber, 1998. Standard Time, Faber & Faber, 2001. The Parts, Faber & Faber, 2003. Animals, 4th Estate, 2006. Hawthorn & Child, Granta, 2012. A Shock, Picador, 2021. Dooneen, Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2026.
References
External links Keith Ridgway on "Goo Book" in The New Yorker Blog: Book Bench Keith Ridgway at Pan Macmillan Keith Ridgway at Faber Academy