Professor Ruth Gilligan

• PhD English, University of Exeter (2014)
• MA Creative Writing, University of East Anglia (2011)
• MA English, Yale University (2010)
• BA English, Cambridge University (2009)

At the age of 18 I published my debut novel, Forget, becoming the youngest ever person to reach number one on the Irish bestsellers’ list. Since then I have published four more novels which have been translated into multiple languages and shortlisted for an array of international prizes.

My short stories have appeared in publications such as Wasifiri, The Istanbul Review, The Irish Pages, Ambit and Banshee. I also write regular literary reviews for The Guardian and The Irish Independent where I was a columnist for a number of years.

My debut play, We Love and Then We Drown, was first performed in London in January 2026 and will appear at the Camden Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe and Bloomsbury Festivals later this year.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ruthgilligan.com/

I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate Creative Writing modules, and have a particular interest in contemporary fiction, novel and short story writing, and writing for the stage. I also occasionally deliver English Literature lectures on contemporary or Modernist Irish writers.

I would be interested in receiving proposals for postgraduate projects on any themes related to my research (eg. narrtive structure and form; empathy and writing the ‘other’; intertextuality; storytelling for the climate crisis). Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any queries!

Find out more - our PhD Creative Writing  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

My novels braid together multiple timelines and points of view to tell character-led stories set against the backdrop of particular moments in Irish history. My critical research, meanwhile, examines the formal strategies of other contemporary Irish novelists such as Colum McCann, Eimear McBride and Maggie O’Farrell.

I have long been interested in the concept of empathy and its relationship to narrative form; more recently this has evolved to consider how different modes of storytelling seek to engage with the climate emergency – which led to me writing my first ever, climate-related, play.

Since 2014 I have been working for the global storytelling charity (Narrative 4 ). Founded by a group of writers and activists, N4 uses the power of personal stories to break down barriers and foster empathy between diverse young people around the world. I have facilitated ‘story exchange’ projects across the UK, Ireland and US, including a 2018 initiative that brought together teenagers from Birmingham and Limerick; this formed the basis of a feature in the Guardian magazine and ultimately inspired the documentary Some Stories (watch the trailer).

Since 2018, I have also been one of the academic leads working in partnership with the National Literacy Trust. In 2019, we launched Birmingham Stories, a literacy hub that combines arts initiatives with a place-based approach to tackle low literacy levels and inspire a love of stories across the region. You can read more about the hub and its activities at the National Literacy Trust site.