Michelle Gallen is an acclaimed Irish novelist whose work brings together dark humour, social history, memory and the intimate realities of growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Born in County Tyrone in the 1970s, Gallen grew up close to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, in a landscape shaped by political division and the complexities of identity. She studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and Publishing at the University of Stirling.
Her debut novel, Big Girl, Small Town, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, Irish Book Award, Comedy Women in Print Award, Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize and Kate O’Brien Award, and longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The novel is being adapted for television by BBC production company Lookout Point.
Her second novel, Factory Girls, received widespread critical acclaim and won the Comedy Women in Print Award, while being shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. It is also being adapted for television by Deadpan Pictures.
Gallen survived what doctors now suspect was autoimmune encephalitis in her mid-twenties. Her writing is marked by a distinctive combination of wit, compassion and an unflinching engagement with history, place, identity and resilience.
She has recently completed her third novel, China Bull, and lives in Dublin with her husband and children.