Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney is a celebrated Irish author best known for her novel collections Conversations With Friends and Normal People. Having become a critically-acclaimed sensation through her trademark honest and authentic style of writing, Rooney has crafted universally admired stories that accurately reflect experiences of modern millennial-aged lifestyles. Here, this piece will provide readers with an insight into the life and works of Sally Rooney.
Sally Rooney was born in 1991 and grew up in County Mayo, Ireland. As a child, Rooney read a lot of literature – including such influential authors as George Orwell, Toni Morrison and Ovid. As a student, she excelled academically and achieved high grades in school. In 2010, Rooney moved to Dublin and studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin, where she was awarded a first-class honors degree in 2013.
It was while studying at Trinity College that Rooney began to focus on her creative pursuits, writing stories in her spare time. In 2017, with encouragement from friends, she decided to officially pursue a career as an author and began to craft her first novel – Conversations with Friends. The book bowed to unexpected success and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2018. Its popularity lead to an avid interest in Rooney, who became known for her heartfelt and contemporary writing style exploring topics such as love, class, gender and friendship.
After its success, Rooney continued to write and released her second novel Normal People in 2018. The book quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, selling over two million copies and becoming the first adult novel to win the Carnegie Award. From producing a longlist of awards, Normal People has also been adapted into a popular television series, where it gained praise from critics and audiences alike.
Throughout her writing career, Rooney has remained true to her style of employing an unsentimental yet humorous writing strategy. She has openly discussed her personal struggles with maintaining relationships, as well as talking about the empowering effect of being open about taboo topics such as sex, money, and class. Along with this, she beams with passion when discussing the need for social change, particularly highlighting her admiration of the successes of the Irish LGBTQ+ community in the fight for equality.
Today, Rooney remains an inspirational figure, not only to the youth of Ireland but to readers on a global scale. She continues to demonstrate her dedication to the craft of writing and her fearless approach to storytelling. With another novel in the pipeline, Rooney is undoubtedly one of modern literature’s brightest stars – and her footprint in the literary world is certainly not going anywhere.
