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Emma Donoghue
Writing & Creativity
Emma Donoghue is an Irish-Canadian novelist, screenwriter, playwright and literary historian, best known for her 2010 novel Room and its film adaptation.
Biography
Emma Donoghue (born October 1969) is an Irish-Canadian novelist, screenwriter, playwright and literary historian. Her novels include Hood (1995), which won the Stonewall Book Award, and Slammerkin (2000), which won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction. Her 2010 novel Room became an international bestseller and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She received an Alex Award in 2011 and in 2025 won the Alice B Readers Award.
Donoghue adapted Room into a film and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for that adaptation. Her work has been recognized across major literary prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Orange Prize longlist, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize shortlist and the Governor General's Awards shortlist.
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Books by Emma Donoghue
Room
Room (2010) is told from the perspective of a five-year-old boy, Jack, who is being held captive in a small room with his mother; Donoghue conceived the story after hearing about five-year-old Felix in the Fritzl case. The novel was longlisted for the 2011 Orange Prize, won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize regional prize (Caribbean and Canada), and was shortlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize, the 2010 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the 2010 Governor General's Awards.