Aoibheann Sweeney (born 1969) is an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

Biography

She was raised in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

and attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

's MFA Program, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow. Her first novel, ''

Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking ''Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking'' is a novel by Aoibheann Sweeney, published in 2007 by Penguin Press. A girl grows up alone with her father on an island in Maine and is sent to stay in New York City with gay friends of her father ...

'', is about a girl who grows up alone with her father on an island in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and is sent to stay in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with friends of her father, who open up her past, and her own world, in ways she could not have begun to imagine. It was published by

Penguin Press Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...

in 2007 and was an Editor’s Choice at the ''

New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

''. It also won a Lambda Literary Award in the Lesbian Debut Fiction category at the 2008 Lambda Literary Awards. In a lengthy review in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Ron Charles wrote about the way the book “taps into older, sometimes ancient stories...There’s real wisdom in these classic myths and there’s real talent in this sensitive novel.” Sweeney has written for the ''

'', ''

Book World'', and ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

Literary Supplement'', and is currently the Executive Director of the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center. She lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. In 2011, she gave birth to a child in a taxi cab in the middle of the day in Times Square in New York City. The event was widely covered in international media, with the mother's name spelled phonetically as "Even Sweeney." Her partner is listed as "mother" in the "attending physician" section of the child's birth certificate. The two mothers now live in Ireland.

References

External links

* ''Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking'' i
''The New York Times Sunday Book Review''
* ''Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking'' a

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Aoibheann 1969 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American women novelists Harvard University alumni Novelists from Massachusetts University of Virginia alumni Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction winners American lesbian writers American LGBT novelists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American LGBT people