prolific and commercially successful author of comic novels about contemporary Belfast including Divorcing Jack. Laird also cited the enduring influence of Irish poet Seamus Heaney on his life and work, tracing his love of literature back to reading some of Heaney's early work, which he claimed "seems to be written out of the same place that you live." Recognition and prizes To a Fault and Utterly Monkey were both long-listed for the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize. To a Fault won the Jerwood Aldeburgh Prize, the Ireland Chair for Poetry Award and the Rupert and Eithne Strong Award. It was also shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize for First Collection; it was shortlisted for the Poetry Now Award in 2006; and it was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Laird won the Eric Gregory Award in 2004 and was also the recipient of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2005. Utterly Monkey won the Betty Trask Prize for best first novel in 2005. It was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth best first novel award, the Irish novel of the year award, and the Kerry Group Listowel Fiction prize. On Purpose won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 2007. He participated in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six Books, with a piece he wrote based upon a book of the King James Bible. Bibliography Novels Poetry Collections Contributor to A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue between East and West, Gingko Library, 2019. List of poems See also List of Northern Irish writers References External links "It's nothing to do with me". Guardian profile/interview of Nick Laird. Mr and Mrs Smith Interview by the Daily Telegraph. Nick Laird Biography, courtesy of British Council Arts. Lad Lit Interview on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show. John Redmond Reviews To a Fault Utterly Monkey, by Nick Laird PopMatters book review. "Cuttings," by Nick Laird Nick Laird: "The Bearhug" Michiko Kakutani reviews Utterly Monkey, by Nick Laird 1975 births Living people 21st-century British poets 21st-century British male writers Allen & Overy people Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Male novelists from Northern Ireland Male poets from Northern Ireland People from Cookstown People educated at Cookstown High School The New Yorker people