Monica McInerney is a best-selling Australian-born, Dublin-based writer. In 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019 McInerney was voted into the top ten of Booktopia's 'Australia's Favourite Novelist' poll. Her 13th novel, 'The Godmothers', was released in 2020. Her first children's book 'Marcie Gill and the Caravan Park Cat' was published in 2021. Her books have been published worldwide and in more than a dozen languages.
Life
McInerney grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley wine region of South Australia, where her father was the railway stationmaster and her mother worked in the local library. Since then Monica has lived in several Australian cities, and in Ireland and London.
A book publicist for ten years, McInerney has also worked on events such as the Dublin International Writers' Festival. She has previously worked as an event manager and organiser of tourism festivals, a freelance writer/editor, a record company press officer, a barmaid, grape picker and hotel cleaner; and in arts marketing, public relations and television production roles.
For more than 30 years, McInerney and her Irish husband have been moving back and forth between Australia and Ireland. They currently live in Dublin.
In November 2022, a sculpture of McInerney was unveiled opposite her childhood home in Clare. The work, by South Australian sculptor Paul Leditschke, depicts McInerney as a 10-year-old girl reading a book on the rooftop of her family home. It was erected by the Riesling Trail Committee which manages a 35km walking and cycling track that runs through the Clare Valley.
Fiction writing
In her first novel, A Taste for It (2001), McInerney tracks the travels of an Australian chef, Maura Carmody, as she bungles her way around Ireland. The book established themes of romance, dislocation and adventure that McInerney would expand upon for years to come.
Between 2002 and 2005 McInerney produced four novels – Upside Down Inside Out (2002), Spin the Bottle (2003), Alphabet Sisters (2004) and Family Baggage (2005) – which also traversed themes of romance, travel and family dynamics, to increasingly positive reviews. In a 2004 review of Alphabet Sisters, The Age newspaper's Christopher Bantick wrote that McInerney's departure from romantic comedy allowed for a sharpened "exploration of contemporary women and their relationships." Of Family Baggage, Marie Claire magazine wrote: "With every book, Monica McInerney becomes more skilled at juggling plot complexities and giving depth to her characters…"
In 2006, McInerney was the main ambassador for the Australian Government's 'Books Alive' national reading campaign, for which she wrote a limited edition novella called Odd One Out. McInerney's sixth novel, Those Faraday Girls (2007), won General Fiction Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards. In a review of the book, Sydney's Sun Herald newspaper described McInerney as: "Australia’s answer to Maeve Binchy, a modern-day Jane Austen." More success followed that of Those Faraday Girls, with several of McInerney's subsequent novels being shortlisted for major writing awards in Australia and Ireland.
McInerney's 2008 collection of short stories, All Together Now, was shortlisted for General Fiction Book of the Year in the 2009 Australian Book Industry Awards. Hobart's Mercury newspaper described the collection as: "stories that will edify and bring a tear to the eye as well. Yes, this can be from laughter at McInerney’s sense of fun and playfulness, but also in the tender observations she makes of the frailty of love and life."
For her next novel, 2010's At Home with the Templetons, McInerney expanded on the exploration of family dynamics, broadening the scope of the interactions to those amongst two families. In an interview with Fancy Goods she explained: "What I wanted to do with this novel was bring two very different families – the seven unruly Templetons and the smaller unit of Nina Donovan and her son Tom – into each other’s orbit, with good and bad consequences. I also wanted to touch on issues such as jealousy in its many and damaging forms, the lasting impact of grief, the different aspects of motherhood and marriage, sibling rivalry and sibling loyalty, contrasting parenting styles, family secrets and lies, all against a background as rich in comedy and drama as possible." Her 2011 release, Lola's Secret – "A funny, sad and moving novel about memories and moments and the very meaning of life" – was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards, General Fiction Book of the Year in 2012 and is now available as a Pink Popular Penguin, raising funds to place breast-care nurses in rural Australia.