Colin Barrett (born April 26, 1982) is an Irish Canadian writer, published since 2009. He started his career with the 2009 publication of Let's Go Kill Ourselves in The Stinging Fly. Barrett released one novella and six short stories with Young Skins in 2013. He released an additional eight short stories with Homesickness in 2022.

Barrett received multiple awards for Young Skins. These included the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2014. For adaptations of his short stories, two of his works were made into plays for the New Theatre, Dublin in 2017 while Calm With Horses debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.

Early life and education

After Barrett's 1982 birth in Fort McMurray, Barrett and his family moved to Toronto.[1][2] Upon leaving Canada for Ireland at the age of four, Barrett spent his childhood in Knockmore, between Ballina and Foxford in County Mayo,[3] with his four siblings and his parents.[4] He was on Gaelic football teams as an adolescent in Ballina.[5] Barrett studied at University College, Dublin (UCD), and was awarded a BA in English, 2003; MA in Creative Writing, 2009; MFA in Creative Writing 2015.[4]

Career

Barrett started his literary career with comic books during his childhood before he moved on to poetry and books as an adult.[6] For his earlier works, Barrett "spent 10 years not finishing anything".[4] One of the short stories that Barrett did not finish was titled Ontario.[7] In between his college studies, Barrett was hired by Vodafone as a customer representative from 2003 to 2008.[8]

Barrett's first published short story, Let's Go Kill Ourselves, appeared in the Winter 2009-10 issue of The Stinging Fly literary magazine.[9][6] During the following years he worked on material that would later feature in Young Skins, a cycle of seven stories set in the fictional town of Glanbeigh.[10] Calm With Horses, the fifth story in the collection, is written in novella form.[11] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Barrett completed two books.[2] In 2022, he released Homesickness, which was comprised of eight new stories.[12] Of these, seven were set in County Mayo and one, The Low, Shimmering Black Drone, in Toronto.

Between 2014 and 2018, director Nick Rowland worked on adapting Calm with Horses into a film of the same name.[13] In 2019, Calm With Horses debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and starred Cosmo Jarvis and Barry Keoghan in leading roles.[14] Bait and The Clancy Kid, both of which were published inYoung Skins, were made into plays for New Theatre, Dublin in 2017.[15][16]

Barett's debut novel, Wild Houses, was published in January 2024.[17]

Writing process and themes

To create his stories, Barrett said he would "look for one tiny detail and expand upon it".[6] He also focuses on the people instead of the events to make his works.[18] Some of his inspirations include Flannery O'Connor and Denis Johnson.[6] With Let's Go Kill Ourselves, Barrett created Dunvale, Ireland for his short story.[9]

Barrett had Young Skins occur in a made up location called Glanbeigh, Ireland.[19] With Homesickness, Barrett continued to use locations in Ireland while also using Canada for one of his short stories.[20] Some of the topics that Barrett wrote about were about a missing child with The Clancy Kid.[21] With A Shooting in Rathreedane, Barrett wrote about a member of the Garda who investigates a shooting.[22]

Awards and personal life

During the 2010s, the Arts Council gave Barrett a bursary three times.[23] At the Irish Book Awards in 2013, Barrett was nominated for the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year award with Bait and the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year award with Young Skins.[24] For Young Skins, Barrett received the 2014 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.[25] Additional awards Barrett won in 2014 with Young Skins were the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Guardian First Book Award[26][27] In 2015, the National Book Foundation selected him as one of their 5 Under 35.[28] Barrett is married and has two children.[2]

References

  1. ^ Tyrkus, Michael J., ed. (2016). "Colin Barrett 1982-". Contemporary Authors. Vol. 377. Farmington Hills and Chicago: Gale. p. 59. ISBN 9781410311313. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Beattie, Steven W. (11 May 2022). "From rural Ireland to downtown Toronto, Colin Barrett's telling stories are beginning to reflect his life". Niagara Falls Review. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  3. ^ Fennell, Hilary (10 September 2016). "This much I know: Colin Barrett, writer". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Shortall, Elaine (17 July 2014). "In the short haul". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  5. ^ Moynihan, Michael (28 September 2016). "'For people my age in Mayo, this is all it's been, losing every which way'". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d Lee, Jonathan (3 March 2013). "The Right Kind of Damage: An Interview with Colin Barrett". The Paris Review. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  7. ^ Barrett, Colin (6 March 2015). "Ontario, a short story by Colin Barrett". The Irish Times. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  8. ^ Nolan, Larissa (28 August 2016). "At call centre I was too scared to talk, but with writing I found my voice". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  9. ^ a b Barrett, Colin (24 July 2014). "Let's Go Kill Ourselves". The Stinging Fly. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  10. ^ Cogan, Shell (30 November 2013). "Small lives, small towns". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  11. ^ Power, Chris (7 March 2014). "Young Skins review – 'An extraordinary debut short-story collection'". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  12. ^ Dybek, Stuart (30 April 2022). "In County Mayo and Beyond, Characters on the Edge". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  13. ^ Grater, Tom (3 November 2018). "The story behind 'Calm With Horses' starring Barry Keoghan, Cosmo Jarvis". Screendaily. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  14. ^ "Calm With Horses". Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  15. ^ BWW News Desk (16 May 2017). "The Clancy Kid and Bait Opens Next Week at The New Theatre". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  16. ^ O'Kelley, Emer (29 May 2017). "Theatre: Sometimes the words are just not enough". Independent.ie. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  17. ^ "Wild Houses". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  18. ^ Gopal, Kevin (11 March 2022). "Author Q&A: Colin Barrett". Big Issue North. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  19. ^ Williams, John (12 March 2015). "In Colin Barrett's 'Young Skins,' a Small Irish Town's Aimless Denizens". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  20. ^ Patrick, Bethane (3 May 2022). "Beyond Sally Rooney: Among the Irish new wave, Colin Barrett's short stories stand out". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  21. ^ Kehoe, Ted (13 April 2015). "Book Review: "Young Skins" – The Precariousness of Even a Timid Existence". The Arts Fuse. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  22. ^ Leyshon, Cressida (6 December 2021). "Colin Barrett on Cops as Outsiders". The New Yorker. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  23. ^ "Colin Barrett". The Arts Council. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  24. ^ "Irish Book Awards shortlist announced". The Irish Times. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  25. ^ Flood, Allison (11 July 2014). "Frank O'Connor short story award goes to 'new, young, genius' Colin Barrett". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  26. ^ McGarry, Patsy (1 September 2014). "Colin Barrett wins Rooney Prize for 'Young Skins' short story collection". The Irish Times. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  27. ^ Lea, Richard (26 November 2014). "Guardian first book award 2014 goes to Irish writer 'who can go the distance'". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  28. ^ "Colin Barrett". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
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