‘Favourite saying? Early bird gets the worm, but second mouse gets the cheese’ – author Una Mannion
The bestselling American author, whose second novel Tell Me What I Am has just been published, wishes she had believed earlier on in her life that she could actually write
“Sligo is the biggest love of my life,” says the American novelist Una Mannion. Born in Philadelphia to Irish parents, she regularly visited the county as a child and moved there in 1992. After various jobs including waitressing and working for then Labour TD Declan Bree, she did a postgraduate degree in early modern literature at UCC.
While teaching in IT Sligo (now ATU Sligo), Mannion gained the self-belief she needed to pursue her own creative ambitions. She did an MA in Writing at NUIG, then set up her own writing group back home as well as a literary journal called The Cormorant with Louise Kennedy and Eoin McNamee. She picked up several prizes along the way, including a Hennessy New Irish Writing Award and a Cúirt International Short Fiction Award.
