Michelle Gallen

Michelle Gallen was born in Tyrone in the 1970s and grew up during the Troubles a few miles from what she was told was the “Free” State and the “United” Kingdom. She studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and won several prestigious prizes as a young writer before a devastating brain injury in her mid-twenties. Michelle's debut Big Girl, Small Town is being adapted for TV by BBC production company Lookout Point and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, an Irish Book Award, the Comedy Women in Print Award and Kate O'Brien Award. It was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje prize. Her second novel, Factory Girls, will be published in the UK, Ireland and USA in 2022. She lives in Dublin with her husband and kids.