Billy O'Callaghan was born in Cork in 1974, and is the author of three novels: The Dead House, (Brandon/O'Brien Press, 2017), My Coney Island Baby (Jonathan Cape/Harper Collins, 2019), Life Sentences (Jonathan Cape, 2021) and four short story collections: In Exile (Mercier Press, 2008), In Too Deep (Mercier Press, 2009) The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind (New Island Books, 2013) and The Boatman and Other Stories (Harper Collins, 2020)

Winner of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award for Short Story of the Year in 2013, and the recipient of literature bursaries from both the Arts Council and the Cork County Council, his story, 'The Boatman', was a finalist for the 2016 Costa Short Story Award while My Coney Island Baby was shortlisted for the Encore Award 2020 presented by Royal Society of Literature. 

More than one hundred of his short stories have appeared in literary journals and magazines around the world, most recently in Agni, the Chattahoochee Review, Kenyon Review, London Magazine, Ploughshares, Salamander and the Saturday Evening Post.

https://billyocallaghan.ie/en/

Photo credit: Hedwig Schwall