Vona Groarke has been awarded the prestigious 2024 Royal Irish Academy Michel Déon prize for non-fiction for her book, ‘Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O’Hara’, published by NYU press
The prize, sponsored by the Dept. of Foreign Affairs, was presented by Royal Irish Academy President Pat Guiry, at a ceremony on Wednesday night which also featured Académie Française Michel Déon Prize winner, Pierre Adrian, in conversation with Professor Clíona Ní Ríordáin.
“Vona Groarke builds this story from historical fact, drawing from various archives for evidence of Ellen. However, she also considers why lives such as Ellen’s seem to leave such a light trace in such records and fills in the gaps with memory and empathetic projection. Ellen—scrappy, skeptical, and straight-talking—is the heroine of Hereafter, whose resilience animates the story and whose voice shines through with vivid clarity. Hereafter is both a compelling account of an incredible figure and a reflection on how one woman’s story can speak for more than one life.” – NYU Press