BRIAN CONAGHAN

Agent: Julian Friedmann

Biography: Brian Conaghan's young adult and middle-grade novels have reached readers around the world, translated into multiple languages. His 2014 novel, When Mr Dog Bites (Bloomsbury, 2014), was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, while The Bombs That Brought Us Together (Bloomsbury, 2016) won the Costa Children’s Book Award. The Weight of a Thousand Feathers (Bloomsbury, 2018) received the An Post Irish Teen Book of the Year award and the Children’s Books Ireland Honour Award.

More recently, his middle-grade novels, Cardboard Cowboys and Swimming on the Moon (Bloomsbury, 2022/2023), have garnered multiple award nominations and shortlistings. His latest book, Treacle Town (Andersen, 2023), was awarded the Honour Award at the 2024 Irish Children’s Book Awards and has been nominated for the 2025 Carnegie Medal.

Brian’s writing centres on the lives and relationships of working-class teenagers and characters living on the fringes of society.

Before turning to writing full-time, Brian spent over two decades teaching English, Theatre Studies, and Classics in secondary schools across Scotland, Italy, and Ireland. He now resides in his hometown of Coatbridge, Scotland.