Roisin Meaney

In 1977 Roisin Meaney finished a sentence and won a car. The sentence was 'I would like to win a Ford Fiesta because ...my father won't let me drive his.' Over the years that followed she wrote a lot more sentences and won a lot more prizes. In 2001 she finally decided to keep writing sentences until she filled a book, and in 2008, with three published novels under her belt, she gave up her teaching job to become a fulltime writer. Since 2001 she's written twenty-one adult novels and three children's books. Her work has been translated into German, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Polish and Slovenian. Two of her books have also been published in the US: Semi-Sweet (Irish title Love in the Making) and Life Drawing for Beginners (Irish title The Things We Do for Love), and several books have been distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Hachette Australia.

All of Roisin's novels have made it into the Irish bestseller list. Four of them, One Summer (2012), After the Wedding (2014), I'll Be Home for Christmas (2015) and The Birthday Party (2019) form a series; all are set on Roone, a small make-believe island (but strongly inspired by the very real Valentia Island) located off the west coast of Ireland.

Roisin was shortlisted in the 2022 Irish Book Awards in the Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year category. Her latest book, Moving On, was published in Ireland on Feb 6th 2025, and will be published in the UK on July 31 2025. She is currently working on a novel that's earmarked for a Spring 2026 publication. She lives in a West of Ireland cottage with three greedy cats. For more information follow her on Twitter or Bluesky.