Jamie O’Connell is the author of the best-selling novel, Diving for Pearls (Doubleday UK). Diving for Pearls was runner-up for The Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize (The Society of Authors 2022) and short-listed for The Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year (The Irish Book Awards 2021). To date, his short fiction has been Highly Commended by the Costa Short Story Award and the An Post Irish Book Award Writing.ie Short Story of the Year; It has also been long-listed for BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines Short Story Competition and short-listed for the Maeve Binchy Travel Award and the Sky Arts Futures Fund.

Jamie's short fiction has been published in many journals, featured on TV3, RTE Radio and BBC Radio, and he has read at festivals and universities in Ireland, China, Singapore, India, Spain and the USA. He has received bursaries from The Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland, Dublin City Council and Cork City Council. Jamie has taught creative writing in University College Dublin and as part of the University of Iowa’s Irish Summer School. His short fiction was recently featured in Cork Stories, a collection of short stories by Cork writers, published by Doire Press (2024).