Kate Kerrigan

Author and Playwright

Kate's real name is Morag Prunty and she worked for many years as a magazine journalist and editor of magazines such as Just Seventeen where she helped 'discover' Take That! In the early 2000's she turned to writing fiction and wrote four 'chick lit' titles before her first Kate Kerrigan book, Recipes for a Perfect Marriage was published in 2006. The dual timeline novel was an international success, shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year, translated into 25 languages and optioned for film. Her next novel The Miracle of Grace, was also turned into a screenplay, but it was her Ellis Island Trilogy, featuring feisty heroine Ellie Hogan, that made her a New York Times bestseller. The Lost Garden and The Dress - shortlisted at Irish Book Awards - followed to critical acclaim. In 2016 It Was Only Ever You won a RONA. Kate has a loyal following of readers in the U.K, Ireland, the U.S. and, increasingly, Australia. Kate is a ‘writers writer’ whose advocates include popular Irish writers Cecelia Ahern, Marian Keyes and Cathy Kelly.

Kate lives and works in Killala, County Mayo on the Wild Atlantic Way. She lives in a house overlooking the sea with her artist husband, Niall Kerrigan, and their two young sons, Leo and Tom. Kate writes every day in a small cottage in her mother’s back garden, in the nearby town of Ballina.

A writing evangelist, Kate teaches and mentors at National University College Galway (NUIG).