Paul Murray (author)
{{Short description|Irish author (born 1975)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Paul Murray
| image =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1975}}
| birth_place = Dublin, Ireland
| death_date =
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| occupation = Writer
| education = Blackrock College
| alma_mater = Trinity College, Dublin; University of East Anglia
| period = 2003–present
| genre = Comic fiction
| subject =
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| notableworks = An Evening of Long Goodbyes (2003), Skippy Dies (2010), The Bee Sting (2023)
| website =
| awards = Irish Book Award; Nero Book Award
}}
Paul Murray (born 1975) is an Irish novelist, the author of the novels An Evening of Long Goodbyes (2003), Skippy Dies (2010), The Mark and the Void (2015), and The Bee Sting (2023). The Bee Sting was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and won an Irish Book Award as Novel of the Year, as well as 2023's inaugural Nero Book Award.
Biography
Murray was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1975, the son of a professor of Anglo-Irish Drama at University College Dublin and a teacher.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8552503/Paul-Murray-Week-One-Interview.html|title=Paul Murray: Week One: Interview|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=2011-06-02|first=Genevieve|last=Fox|url-access=subscription}} Murray attended Blackrock College in south Dublin, an experience that would later provide the basis for the school in Skippy Dies. He studied English literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently completed his master's in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. He also spent time in Barcelona, Spain, as an English teacher, a time he did not enjoy, describing it as "a brief and unhappy stint teaching English to a Catalan businessman, who pointed out many faults in my grammar I had not known about hitherto".{{cite web|url=http://keeperofthesnails.blogspot.com/2010/06/sunday-salon-interview-with-paul-murray.html|title=Sunday Salon: An Interview with Paul Murray, author of Skippy Dies|date=2010-06-27|website=keeperofthesnails.blogspot.com}}{{self-published source|date=September 2021}} He describes Gravity's Rainbow as "really inspiring for me when I was younger because it was a bridge between the world of literature and the world of pop culture."{{cite magazine|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2010/10/21/paul-murray-and-‘skippy-dies’/|title=Paul Murray and 'Skippy Dies'|magazine=The Paris Review|date=2010-10-21|first=Miranda|last=Popkey}}
Novels
Murray has written four novels: his first, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Prize in 2003{{cite web|url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/whitbread2003/0,,1076858,00.html|title=Whitbread Prize 2003|website=theguardian.com}} and nominated for the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. His second novel, Skippy Dies, was longlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize{{cite web |title=Jonathan Escoffery, Chetna Maroo and Paul Murray among 2023 Booker Prize Shortlist |url=https://www.aussieosbourne.com/2023/09/jonathan-escoffery-chetna-maroo-and.html |website=Aussie Osbourne |date=September 2023|access-date=22 September 2023}}{{cite web |url=http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1427 |title=Longlist announced for Man Booker Prize 2010: Man Booker Prize news |access-date=2010-08-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521065805/http://themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1427 |archive-date=2011-05-21 }} and shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Prize, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. It was also number three on Time magazine's top-ten works of fiction from 2010. His third novel, The Mark and the Void, was one of Time{{'}}s top-ten best fiction books for 2015, and joint winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize in 2016.
His most recent novel, The Bee Sting, was published in 2023. Described as "a tragicomic triumph"{{Cite news |last=Jordan |first=Justine |date=2023-05-31 |title=The Bee Sting by Paul Murray review – a tragicomic triumph |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/31/the-bee-sting-by-paul-murray-review-a-tragicomic-triumph |access-date=2023-07-06 |issn=0261-3077}} and a source of "pure page-turning pleasure"{{Cite journal |title=Irish writers, debuts – and groundbreaking sci-fi: the Booker longlist in depth |journal=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/01/booker-prize-2023-irish-debuts-groundbreaking-sci-fi |last=Jordan |first=Justine |date=2023-08-01}} in The Guardian, it was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize,{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Porter |date=2023-09-21 |title=In England: The Booker Prize for Fiction Names Its 2023 Shortlist |url=https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/09/in-england-the-booker-prize-names-its-2023-shortlist/ |access-date=2023-09-22 |website=Publishing Perspectives |language=en-US}} won an Irish Book Award as 2023 Novel of the Year,{{Cite web|last=Falvey |first=Deirdre |date=2023-11-22 |title=Paul Murray wins Novel of the Year for The Bee Sting at the An Post Irish Book Awards |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2023/11/22/paul-murray-wins-novel-of-the-year-at-the-an-post-irish-book-awards/ |website=irishtimes.com |access-date=2023-11-23}} and won the inaugural £30,000 Nero Gold prize for the 2023 Book of the Year.{{Cite journal |title=Paul Murray's The Bee Sting wins inaugural Nero book of the year prize |journal=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/14/paul-murrays-the-bee-sting-wins-inaugural-nero-book-of-the-year-prize |last=Creamer |first=Ella |date=2024-03-14}} The Bee Sting was included on the New York Times list (along with four others works) of “The Best Fiction Books of 2023”.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/top-books-list.html#fiction-2023 | title=The Book Review's Best Books Since 2000 | work=The New York Times | date=29 April 2024 }}
''Metal Heart''
Murray wrote the screenplay for 2018 Irish film Metal Heart, which was directed by Hugh O'Conor.{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/metal-heart-hugh-o-conor-s-charming-comedy-set-in-middle-class-suburban-dublin-1.3937086|title=Metal Heart: Hugh O'Conor's charming comedy set in middle-class suburban Dublin|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=2019-06-26|first=Donald|last=Clarke|url-access=subscription}}{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/metal-heart-star-jordanne-jones-on-the-role-she-was-born-to-play-hlxf9dn96|title=Metal Heart star Jordanne Jones on the role she was born to play|newspaper=The Times|first=Eithne|last=Shortall|date=2019-06-16|url-access=subscription}}
List of works
- An Evening of Long Goodbyes (2003)
- Skippy Dies (2010)
- The Mark and the Void (2015)
- The Bee Sting (2023)
Personal life
Murray lives in Dublin with his wife and son.{{Cite journal |title=Paul Murray: 'I just dumped all my sadness into the book' |journal=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/27/paul-murray-i-just-dumped-all-my-sadness-into-the-book-the-bee-sting |last=Fox |first=Killian |date=2023-05-27}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
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Category:21st-century Irish male writers
Category:21st-century Irish novelists
Category:21st-century Irish screenwriters
Category:Alumni of the University of East Anglia
Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin