Colin Barrett (author)

Colin Barrett (born April 26, 1982) is an Irish Canadian writer. He launched his writing career with the 2009 publication of "Let's Go Kill Ourselves" in The Stinging Fly, upon which he fostered a relationship with the magazine's co-founder, Declan Meade. In 2013, The Stinging Fly Press published Young Skins, a cycle of seven stories set in the fictional town of Glanbeigh, County Mayo. Barrett followed the critical success of his first short story collection with a second, Homesickness, in 2022; its eight stories, like their predecessors, were met with critical acclaim.

Barrett received multiple awards for Young Skins. These included the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2014. Two of his short stories, "Bait" and "The Clancy Kid," were adapted for the stage and debuted at the New Theatre, Dublin in 2017. A film adaptation of Calm with Horses, the novella included in Barrett's Young Skins, was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.

Barrett's first novel, Wild Houses, was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.