Jaki McCarrick is a writer of plays, poetry and fiction, and the winner of the Papatango Prize for New Writing for her play Leopoldville. Her play Belfast Girls was developed at the National Theatre Studio, London and has been staged numerous times internationally. Her short story collection The Scattering was shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Prize and includes the Wasafiri Prize-winning story, ‘The Visit’.

Jaki McCarrick was Writer in Residence at the Centre Cultural Irlandais in Paris (2013), and at the University of Leuven, Belgium (2022). Sweeney as a Girl (2025) is her debut collection of poems. She has been described as a “gripping storyteller” by Newsweek, and her play Belfast Girls was described as “One of the most … considered portraits of the harm Ireland has done to women … that I have ever seen” in Irish Central. She is currently writing a new play.

Author Photo © Bobbie Hanvey