LJMU backdrop to author Aimée's big break

English lecturers have spoken of their pride at the sparkling start to writer Aimée Walsh’s career in novel writing.

Aimée, described as a “fantastic new addition to Irish writing” by Waterstones, makes a strong debut to the format with Exile, a “brilliant novel about friendship, consent and displacement”, according to the Irish Examiner.

The Belfast-based author studied at LJMU for her first degree and later, in 2020, completed a PhD in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Head of English and Creative Writing at LJMU, Dr Kathryn Walchester said there was always a buzz when an ex-student made their name.

"We’re very proud of and pleased with Aimée’s success, particularly with a novel that draws in part on her time in Liverpool. The English degree at LJMU has now produced a number of successful novelists, including the Booker-shortlisted Alison Moore and Ashleigh Nugent, who graduated in the same cohort as Aimée.”

Exile (John Murray Press), her first novel after a series of short story successes, is a coming-of-age tale of a young woman Fiadh, struggles to find herself. Fiadh's life is turned completely upside down on a night out in Belfast, and just as she was beginning to feel positive about her move to Liverpool, finds her life in freefall.

Aimée’s is a “vibrant new voice” says the Irish Examiner and the Irish Times calls the denouement “the most unexpected close to a book that will take its place among the best of contemporary Irish fiction”.

Speaking to LJMU, Aimée said: “Exile is just as much a love letter to my home city of Belfast as it is Liverpool, where I lived for seven years. I began writing Exile as my PhD ended, but the idea was given the space to breath, to form fully in my mind during those years of study at LJMU. Exile is, in many ways, a campus novel as 18-year-old Fiadh struggles away from home, trying to find who she is without home. 

“Liverpool is often joked about as the 33rd county of Ireland, but even with this huge connection to Ireland, Fiadh is adrift and homesick for her friends and family in Belfast. She spends the first few months busting to go home, but when she arrives home for Christmas, an assault forever ruptures her connection to Belfast.'

While at LJMU, Aimée was a popular postgraduate student rep and also won a Vice-Chancellor’s postgraduate scholarship.

The book of her PhD has also just been published by Liverpool University Press as Writing Resistance in Northern Ireland.

Read her interview in the Irish Times (subscription) https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2024/06/15/i-felt-the-social-divisions-much-more-acutely-in-england-than-i-do-in-northern-ireland/