Robert McLiam Wilson
Literature
Robert McLiam Wilson (born 1964 in Belfast) is a Northern Irish novelist. He studied at University of Cambridge. However he dropped out, and for a short time was homeless. This period of his life profoundly affected his later life and influenced his works.
McLiam Wilson has written three novels; Ripley Bogle (1989), Manfred’s Pain (1992) and Eureka Street (1996). Ripley Bogle is a novel about a homeless man in London. It won the Rooney Prize and the Hughes Prize in 1989, and a Betty Trask Award and the Irish Book Award in 1990. Eureka Street focuses on the lives of two Belfast friends, one Catholic and one Protestant, shortly before and after the IRA ceasefires in 1994. A BBC TV adaptation of Eureka Street was broadcast in 1999. He is also the author of a non-fiction book about poverty, The Dispossessed (1992), and has made television documentaries for the BBC.
Ripley Bogle, André Deutsch, 1989
Manfred’s Pain, Picador, 1992
The Dispossessed (with Donovan Wylie), Picador, 1992
Eureka Street, Secker & Warburg, 1996
Prizes and awards
1989 Hughes Prize, Ripley Bogle
1989 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, Ripley Bogle
1990 Betty Trask Prize, Ripley Bogle
1990 Irish Book Award Ripley Bogle
1997 Belfast Arts Award for Literature, Eureka Street
1997 Irish Times International Fiction Prize (shortlist), Eureka Street
1997 Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction (shortlist), Eureka Street
1998 UNESCO Prize (France), Eureka Street