Catherine Ryan Howard was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1982.
Her debut thriller, Distress Signals, is out now in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand (Corvus/Atlantic) and the USA (Blackstone). The Irish Times called Distress Signals “a highly confident and accomplished debut novel, impeccably sustained, with not a false note”. It has been optioned for television by Jet Stone Media and been shortlisted for Crime Novel of the Year at the 2016 Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards. Find out more about Distress Signals here.
In 2010, Catherine began self-publishing – two light-hearted travel memoirs, followed by the obligatory ‘how to’. Known for dispensing particularly pragmatic self-publishing advice, Catherine began to speak on the subject for the likes of Faber Academy, the Irish Writers’ Centre, Guardian Masterclasses and others. But her goal was always to write crime fiction and to get published.
Catherine is currently working on her second thriller and studying for a BA in English Literature at Trinity College Dublin.
Before all that, Catherine worked as an administrator for a travel company in the Netherlands, a campsite courier in France (very briefly) and a front desk agent in a Walt Disney World hotel in Orlando, Florida. Most recently she was a freelance social media marketer working for Penguin Random House Ireland. For her entire adolescence she was obsessed with the idea of becoming a BSL4 virologist and she still wants to be a NASA astronaut when she grows up.
The CONSTANT READER : ‘Getting Published’
City Library, Grand Parade – Sat 22 Apr 10.00 – 16.30 (Free but booking essential)
Cork World Book Fest 