Author Emma Donoghue Opens Up About Her Secret Side

In a recent interview with The Irish Times, author Emma Donoghue reflects on the duality of her identity and the evolution of her literary work, contrasting the timeless nature of her recent historical novels with the dated feel of her debut fiction.

Donoghue describes a childhood where she appeared very normal and approved of, while simultaneously harboring a secret side she feared others would perceive as foul. She suggests that this internal conflict is a universal experience, stating that any individual can be both a nice normal person and the monster.

The Evolution of Literary Perspective

The author discusses the stark difference in how her works age, specifically comparing her 2025 novel, The Paris Express, and her 2022 novel, Haven, to her debut. The Paris Express was inspired by the 1895 Montparnasse rail crash, and Haven focuses on the seventh-century founding of a monastery on Skellig Michael.

In contrast, Donoghue notes that her 1994 debut novel, Stir-Fry, feels as if it belongs to another world. Stir-Fry is a coming-out story set in Dublin during the author’s youth, featuring a closeted student protagonist who is unaware that her flatmates are gay.

Donoghue attributes this discrepancy to the rapid pace of social change in Ireland, remarking that the geological layers are compressed because the country changed so quickly. She notes that contemporary fiction tends to date faster, mentioning a reviewer who mistakenly believed Stir-Fry was set in the 1960s, despite it depicting Ireland in the 1990s.

Academic and Personal Background

Born in Dublin in October 1969, Donoghue is the youngest of eight children and the daughter of literary critic Denis Donoghue and Frances Donoghue. Her academic background includes a first-class honours Bachelor of Arts from University College Dublin in English and French, as well as a PhD in English from Girton College, Cambridge.

During her time at Cambridge, she met her partner, Christine Roulston, a Canadian professor of French and Women’s Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Donoghue’s experience living in a women’s co-operative at Cambridge served as the inspiration for her short story The Welcome.

Donoghue moved permanently to Canada in 1998 and became a Canadian citizen in 2004. She currently resides in London, Ontario, with Roulston and their two children. She explains that moving to Canada in 1990 helped alleviate the crushing weight of being the only gay in the village, although she clarifies she was not actually living in a village at the time.

Career Milestones and Recognition

Donoghue’s career spans several disciplines, including work as a novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and literary historian. She achieved significant international success with her 2010 novel, Room, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize.

Donoghue adapted Room into a film, a project that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Other recognized works include her 1995 novel Hood, which won the Stonewall Book Award, and her 2000 novel Slammerkin, which received the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction.

In 2011, she was a recipient of the Alex Awards. Most recently, in 2025, Donoghue was honored with the Alice B Readers Award, an annual prize given to living writers whose published works are distinguished by consistent quality in writing about lesbians.