Amanda O'Callaghan is an Irish-Australian writer. A former advertising executive, she has published and won awards in Australia, Ireland and the UK. She holds English degrees from King's College London and a PhD from the University of Queensland. She was awarded a Queensland Writers Fellowship in 2016. Her debut collection, This Taste for Silence, was published by University of Queensland Press (UQP). It was shortlisted for the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize, and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2020 (UK). She lives in Brisbane.  

Photo credit: Patrick Hamilton www.patrickhamilton.com.au

Awards & Fellowships 

Varuna/Irish Writers Centre Lamplight Online Fellowship (Ireland, 2025); Write By The Sea Flash Fiction Prize (Ireland, 2024);  Cambridge Flash Fiction Prize (Highly Commended, UK, 2020); Bridport Prize (Third Prize, Flash Fiction, 2019); E J Brady Short Story ('Mallacoota') Award (First Prize, Australia, 2019); Flash500 Annual Short Story Competition (First Prize, UK, 2018); Bath Flash Fiction Award (First Prize, UK, 2017); Queensland Writers Fellowship (2016); Flash500 (First Prize, UK, 2016); Ink Tears (Highly Commended, UK, 2016); Carmel Bird Short Story Award (First Prize, Australia, 2015); Allingham Flash Fiction (First Prize, Ireland, 2015); Angelo B. Natoli Short Story Award (Highly Commended, Australia, 2015); Ink Tears Flash Fiction (Highly Commended, UK, 2014); Aeon Award (First Prize, Ireland, 2013)

 Short-listed: Stockholm First Five Pages Prize 2025; National Flash Fiction Day Microfiction Contest 2024 (UK); The Phare Flash Dash Prize 2024 (IRL); National Flash Fiction Day Microlit Competition 2022 (x2); Molotov Cocktail Element Flash Contest 2022 (US); NFFD Micro Fiction Competition 2021 (UK); Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction (2019); Bath Flash Fiction Award 2018 (UK); TSS Flash Fiction 400 2018 (UK); NFFD Micro Competition 2018 (UK); Doolin Flash Fiction Contest 2018 (IRL); Bristol Short Story Prize 2017 (UK); Fish Short Story Prize 2016 (IRL); Allingham Flash Fiction 2015 9IRL); Flash 500 2015 (UK); Flash 500 2013 (UK); Global Short Story Competition 2012; Flash 500 2012 (UK).