Kilkenny woman named winner of top literary award

A Kilkenny woman has been announced as the winner of the national Molly Keane Creative Writing Award 2024.

Sophie Treacy, Stoneyford, Co. Kilkenny won the award with her short story ‘Out of Eden’.

Sophie receives a cash prize and a writing course at the Molly Keane Writers Retreat in Ardmore to a total value of €550.

Sophie is a law graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the University of Oxford. She enjoys literature in all its forms, particularly poetry, literary non-fiction and translated fiction. She is currently writing a PhD thesis on the role of human dignity in international human rights law.i

‘Out of Eden’ is the twenty seventh winner of the Molly Keane Creative Writing Award run by Waterford County Council’s Arts Office and by kind permission of the Keane family.

‘Out of Eden’ was announced as the winner on Culture Night.

Margaret Organ, Arts Officer with Waterford County Council thanked all the writers from around the country who took the time to enter the competition and said that Sophie’s entry flew the flag high for the award with it’s moving storyline.