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Awards: Emma Donoghue wins 2016 Ireland Fund Literary prize

Emmadonoghue

Room novelist Emma Donoghue has been granted this year’s AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award, a $25,000 prize recognizing excellent literary achievement. Donoghue received the honour at Dublin’s Mansion House on June 23, later donating the full prize to the UN Refugee Agency. This isn’t the first time Donoghue has contributed a large sum to a philanthropic cause: her $20,000 Golden Box Office Award winnings went to a Canadian indigenous arts organization in March.

The Irish-Canadian author has had a banner year after Room was adapted into a feature film, for which its star, Brie Larson, won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for best actress. Donoghue was also nominated for an Oscar for the film’s screenplay, and received numerous nods for the title and the adaptation, including the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and a Goodreads Choice Award.