Local man wins John McGahern Award for emerging Irish fiction
Local writer Shane Tivenan has further cemented his reputation as an emerging Irish talent after securing the John McGahern Award at a Leitrim literature festival at the weekend.
A native of Drum, Roscommon, Shane was announced as the winner of the award for emerging Irish writers of fiction at the Iron Mountain Literature Festival on Saturday, October 5.
He was presented the award during the afternoon session in Carrick-on-Shannon by Leitrim County Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Paddy O'Rourke.
The John McGahern Award is part of the Iron Mountain Literature Festival, with the support of the McGahern Estate
Leitrim County Council developed the award to encourage the development of emerging Irish writers and pay tribute to the exceptional contribution of John McGahern to both literature and Leitrim.
The recipient of the award receives a prize of €2,500. Previous winners have included Sonya Gildea and Zoë Comyns .
The Iron Mountain Literature Festival ran from Friday, October 4 to Sunday, October 6, and featured other writers including Caoilinn Hughes and Kevin Barry, as well as the novelist and filmmaker Neil Jordan, actor Brendan Conroy, who starred in Pat Collins’s film 'That They May Face the Rising Sun', and Nelofer Pazira-Fisk, wife of the late journalist Robert Fisk.
Shane first came to prominence as a writer in 2020 when he won the the prestigious Francis MacManus RTÉ Short Story Competition.
He turned to writing after moving to Spain to teach English, following a career as an electronic and electro-folk music festival DJ and producer.
He previously told the Westmeath Independent that he had little interest in English as a subject in school, despite having a “really great teacher in the late Joe Ducke. I was into music at the time, mainly electronic stuff, but in terms of literature I had no interest.”
He said while living in Spain, he developed a daily writing habit, which helped him eventually develop his own voice.
“You’re working your way down to a pure style that’s your own, or as much as it can be your own. Initially, I was imitating writers, and that can be a healthy thing. Taking a piece of literature yourself and just re-writing it word for word to see how that feels can be useful.
"But consistently writing gets that stuff out of you, and you end up with something that’s worth putting out that you can get feedback from.”