lisa mcinerney

On Wednesday night, Irish author Lisa McInerney won the 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, The Glorious Heresies. A darkly funny story of how a murder impacts various lives in post-crash Ireland, the book explores the legacy of the country’s old-fashioned attitudes towards sex and family with clear-eyed tenderness.

McInerney started her writing career with her blog Arse End of Ireland, which she describes as a “hyperbolised, gonzo version” of her life on a council estate with a small daughter. Now, she’s joined the ranks of iconic previous winners of the Baileys Prize – from Ali Smith to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Zadie Smith.

I caught up with McInerney shortly after she was presented with the £30,000 prize. “I feel surprised, stunned, but in a very pleasant way,” she told us. “I did not foresee this at all, and I’m just obviously really pleased and really happy and really surprised. I feel very honoured actually – that shortlist was stunning and the longlist was bloody stunning, so I’m very confused!”

Q: Congratulations! How much does it mean to you to win the Baileys Prize?

A: I feel surprised, stunned… but in a very pleasant way. I did not foresee this at all and I’m just obviously really pleased and really happy and really surprised. I feel very honoured actually: that shortlist was stunning, the longlist was bloody stunning so I’m very confused!

Q: And is it significant to you that this is a prize just for women?

A: I’ve been thinking a lot about it since I got longlisted. I do feel it’s definitely a good thing. When you think of literary fiction, you immediately assume there is a male white writer behind it and his themes are literary themes. And sometimes you see a book written by someone who differs from that avatar, such as a woman writer, an LGBT writer, a trans writer, a writer of colour and their work is going to be seen in the context of that difference first of all. Their themes are going to be assumed to reflect, or be a response to their personal circumstances… Oh, this must be a book about being a woman or being trans or whatever. It almost feels that the avatar we were talking about becomes the only thing that is considered literary and all other work is assumed to be personal. And because of that, when you have a restricted prize, like a prize just for women writers, you immediately just bypass that and go straight to the work and it’s examined on its own merit and it’s really wonderful. And this prize has just such a history and it has such a devoted following too and it finds readers. I think it provides a really wonderful roadmap for readers.

Q: It’s a very dynamic prize, isn’t it?

A: Absolutely! It’s not just the same kind of themes or the same type of novels, the longlist is incredibly diverse and even the shortlist was really diverse. ‘Dynamic’ is a really good word for it.

Q: How do you feel about being considered part of an Irish literary scene?

A: The Irish literary scene is so vibrant at the moment and so supportive that it’s really wonderful to be part of it and I’m really glad to be accepted into it. From day one with this, I’ve had support from people like Kevin Barry, Joe O’Connor and Belinda McKeon. It’s a really lovely community there at the moment. And one feckin’ great debut after another! I don’t know what we have in the water over there but it’s working! It’s fantastic! We all know each other, it’s quite incestuous really!

Q: How did you achieve the discipline necessary to write this novel?

A: ‘Discipline’ is a really good word because you have to kind of be bloody-minded and this is one of the things women are not conditioned to be. I think women are conditioned to share their time and I think you have to be quite pig-headed about your time to be a writer and you have to be selfish. Luckily, I can afford to be selfish because I’ve got a lot of support at home. But if you feel there’s a story you need to tell, something that you need to get down, you have to be quite dedicated to that above all else I think. The other thing I would say, and this is kind of converse to that, is don’t listen to too much advice! You can find yourself writing to other writer’s rules but we’re all different so that in itself is dangerous.

Q: When do you write?

A: I’ll get a few chores done in the morning, walk the dog and stuff. I’m not a morning person so I would get a few things done but then I sit down and I impose upon myself that I can’t get up again until I’ve written a thousand words. I can get up and make tea or have lunch or something but I can’t stop. Now, they could be a thousand terrible words and you could edit them back to three hundred words tomorrow. Everybody’s routine is different, some people work really well late at night… but at the same time, don’t be waiting for the perfect opportune moment to write either because that will never happen.

Q: What are you going to do next?

A: My second novel will be out in 2017! We’re at the line editing stage which is exciting!

And right now I want to go to bed!