Mary Morrissy is the author of three novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender and The Rising of Bella Casey and two collections of stories, A Lazy Eye and most recently, Prosperity Drive.
Mother of Pearl, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award (now Costa) and The Pretender and The Rising of Bella Casey have both been nominated for the Dublin Impac International Literary Award. Her short fiction has been anthologised widely and won her a Hennessy Award in 1984. In 1995 she was awarded the prestigious US Lannan Award which honours writers whose work “is of exceptional quality”. She is Associate Director of Creative Writing at University College Cork and a member of Aosdána. Her website and blog is at marymorrissy.com