A Galway writer has been shortlisted for a prestigious award in the world of fantasy literature – with the winner to be announced at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton next November.

University of Galway graduate Maura McHugh has been nominated in the Best Short Fiction category for her story ‘Raptor’, which was published in the anthology Heartwood.

The anthology – edited by Dan Coxon and published by PS Publishing in the UK – was also nominated in the Best Anthology category.

The World Fantasy Awards are one of most prestigious honours in the field of fantasy literature. Established in 1975, they are presented annually at the World Fantasy Convention to recognise outstanding achievements in fantasy fiction and art published during the previous calendar year.

Maura, who came to Galway as a child when her parents Pádraig and Margaret moved home to establish a pub in Tuam, is also a sister of Anne McHugh, who lost her life in the Twin Tower attacks on September 11 2001.

Maura now lives in Kilcolgan and writes across a variety of media – including prose, theatre, film/TV, video games, non-fiction and comic books.

“I’m honoured to be one of the five nominees from an international field of literature selected by the jury for the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. This nomination was a total surprise,” she said this week.

The anthology was a tribute to the multiple award-winning fantasy author, Robert Holdstock – and in particular his Mythago Wood series.

“Rob was also a friend of mine, so I put a lot of thought and love into the story, and I worked hard to create a tribute to his legacy and his imagination. So this nomination means a great deal to me,” explained Maura.

“Rob and I shared a love of exploring the deep woods and experiencing the mysterious time-slips that can occur in their primal hearts. I believe that in the mythic, imaginal forest, Rob is raising a horn of beer in celebration today,” she added.

Her short story ‘Bone Mother’ was adapted into a stop-motion animated short film by the Canadian Film Board, she writes comics for American and European publishers and is the lead writer on the point-and-click video game, Jennifer Wilde.

Her collection, The Boughs Withered (When I Told Them My Dreams), was previously nominated for a British Fantasy Award, as was her book about David Lynch’s iconic film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

Maura graduated from what was then-NUIG with a B.A. in English and History, followed by a M.A. in Irish Gothic.

After living and working in New York and Dublin, she returned to Galway and combined her love of cinema and writing by studying for a Diploma in Film Studies followed by a M.A. in Screenwriting at the Huston School of Film & Digital Media.

Shortly afterwards she was accepted into the prestigious Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, USA – a seven-week residential intensive, aimed at fostering professional writing careers in science fiction and fantasy. She was the recipient of Clarion West’s Gordon R. Dickson Scholarship that year.

She also appears regularly on RTÉ Radio 1’s arts/culture show Arena discussing pop culture.

Pictured: Shortlisted…Maura McHugh.