Michael Magee (born May 1990, also known as Michael Nolan) is a writer from Northern Ireland. His first novel, ''Close to Home'', won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, was a category winner in the Nero Book Awards, and was the Waterstone's Irish Book of the Year.

Early life and education

Magee was born in May 1990 in a republican family and grew up in Poleglass, on the edge of west Belfast. He attended the

Christian Brothers school The following is a list of the schools, colleges, and other educational institutions founded, run or staffed (in any capacity) by the Congregation of Christian Brothers (sometimes called the Irish Christian Brothers) since 1802. Some schools no l ...

at Andersonstown "sporadically", but went on to study at

Liverpool John Moores University , mottoeng = Fortune favours the bold , established = 1823 – Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts1992 – Liverpool John Moores University , type = Public , endowment = , coor ...

and earn a PhD in creative writing at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

Writing career

Magee's first novel, ''Close to Home'' (2023), won the 2023 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was category winner for debut fiction in the 2023 Nero Book Awards, and was the Waterstones Irish Book of the Year. '' The Guardian'' reviewer described it as "a staggeringly humane and tender evocation of class, violence and the challenge of belonging in a world that seems designed to keep you watching from the sidelines.", and a representative of Waterstones said that it was "the unanimous choice for Irish Book of the Year by all the booksellers in Ireland, north and south". The publishers,

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''James'' the English form – which was ...

, have also bought the rights to Magee's second novel. Magee has been published in ''

Winter Papers Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different culture ...

'', '' The Stinging Fly'' and ''The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices'' (2021, Unbound: ), In 2014, he published an ebook novella ''The Blame'', under the name Michael Nolan. He is fiction editor of '' The Tangerine'', a Belfast literary magazine, and was one of the team which launched it in 2016.

Selected publications

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References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century male writers from Northern Ireland 21st-century novelists from Northern Ireland Alumni of Liverpool John Moores University Alumni of Queen's University Belfast {{NorthernIreland-writer-stub