21 October 2024
Dr Emma Donoghue wins the UCD Alumni Award in Arts and Humanities 2024
Dublin-born award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, Dr Emma Donoghue has been awarded the UCD Alumni Award for Arts and Humanities for 2024.
The UCD Alumni Awards celebrate the remarkable achievements of our distinguished alumni and their far-reaching impact. Their accomplishments and successes are a source of immense pride to UCD, inspiring current and future generations of students, and recognising and showcasing the impact UCD alumni continue to have on our world.
Emma studied a BA in English & French and graduated in 1990. Her diverse body of work includes Room (2010) which was shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes and has sold almost three million copies worldwide. The novel was adapted into her first feature film, which was nominated for four Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Actress (won by lead, Brie Larson).
The Wonder (2016) was a finalist for Canada’s Giller Prize and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. This novel was adapted into a film starring Florence Pugh in 2022.
Her latest novel Learned by Heart (2023) is set in 1805 and inspired by the extraordinary regency diarist Anne Lister. Emma’s work also includes historical novels Frog Music, The Sealed Letter, Life Mask, Slammerkin, and contemporary novels Akin, Landing, Hood and Stir-fry, as well as short-story collections, literary history and two anthologies.