Author Wins Lit Prize From School Where She's a Cleaner

An emerging Irish author has been awarded a major literary prize by the university where she works as a cleaner. Per CBC, Caitriona Lally has won the 2018 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for her debut novel, "Eggshells." Lally won the honor from Trinity College Dublin, where she once studied English and where she has since taken work as a member of the custodial staff. The mother-of-one told the Irish Times she was having an arduous day as a working mom, and had all but decided to give up writing her sophomore novel, when she got the news. The 39-year-old not only won a cash prize, but her book will also be published by a major press in Ireland and Britain. (CBC has an interview with Caitrona, who said she wasn't even sure what the Rooney Prize was when she learned she'd won.)