Award-Winning Irish novelist Liz Nugent will participate with authors in “Celtic NOIR!”: Irish Authors Mystery & Crime Writers, March 14 and 15 as part of the St. Augustine Celtic Music & Heritage Festival. Nugent had several careers before turning her hand to writing. She was, among other things, a buyer for a construction company, a welfare office civil servant, a theatrical stage manager and a story associate on a tv soap opera.
In early 2014 her first novel, Unravelling Oliver, was published. It went straight to the top of the bestseller list and also won the Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Television rights for Unravelling Oliver have been optioned by Appian Way, Leonardo Di Caprio’s production company in Los Angeles.
Her second novel, Lying in Wait, was published in July 2016 and also went straight to number one. It won the RTE Radio 1 Listener’s Choice prize at the Irish Book Awards and was shortlisted for Crime Novel of the Year. On its United Kingdom release in January 2017, Lying in Wait went straight into the UK bestseller list and was chosen for the hugely popular Richard & Judy Bookclub Spring 2017 list and won the Reader’s Choice award for that season.
In 2015, Nugent was the inaugural winner of the Jack Harte Bursary courtesy of the Irish Writer’s Centre and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. In 2016, she was the Writer in Residence at the Princess Grace Library in Monaco, and in October 2017, Liz won the Irish Woman of the Year Award for Literature.
her third novel, Skin Deep, was published in Ireland in April 2018, hit the number one spot and spent five months in the top ten bestsellers list. Her fourth novel, Little Cruelties, will be published by Simon & Schuster in the U.S. in August 2020.
She has written stories for children, radio plays, tv dramas and has good intentions to write a stage play very soon. Her books have been translated into 16 languages.
Find the CELT in YOU in America’s Oldest Celtic City
The event begins on Friday, March 13 with a pre-festival Whiskey Tasting, and continues Saturday and Sunday with live performances on two stages. It also features “Celtic NOIR!”: Mystery & Crime Writers, The St. Augustine Highland games, Celtic artisans and food, and kids’ games.
The St. Patrick Parade begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 14 at the site of the world’s original St. Patrick’s Day parade, begun in 1601 in St. Augustine.
For tickets and further information: CelticStAugustine.com
Festival tickets may also be purchased at Ann O’Malley’s Irish Pub located at 23 Orange St., St. Augustine.
