Canongate to publish short story collection from debut Irish author Rose Keating

Canongate has acquired Oddbody, a collection of literary horror stories from Irish debut author Rose Keating.

Editor-at-Large Leah Woodburn acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Ed Wilson at Johnson & Alcock. The book is set to publish July 2025 in the UK, and Simon & Schuster will publish in the US.

The synopsis states: "With stories that feature a woman trapped in a co-dependent relationship with a ghost, a waitress who gives birth to an egg during her shift, and a doctor specialising in cleanses to ‘purify’ the mind, body and soul, Oddbody exposes – to the bone – the absurdities and horrors of the feminine experience. By prodding a finger at societal norms and gleefully turning familiar tropes on their head, Keating announces herself as an audacious new voice in Irish fiction."

Keating studied on the Creative Writing Prose Fiction MA at the University of East Anglia (UEA), where she was a recipient of the Malcolm Bradbury Scholarship and the Curtis Brown Prize. She is a winner of the Marian Keyes Young Writer Award, the Hot Press Write Here, Write Now Prize, and the Ted and Mary O’Regan Arts Bursary.

Keating commented: "I am so pleased to be sharing Oddbody with the world, and feel extremely grateful to my editors at Canongate and Simon & Schuster for all their help in this process."

Woodburn added: "Rose has a thrillingly inventive brain, and her stories are as provocative as they are playful and darkly funny."

Wilson added: "Captivating, terrifying, and utterly unique – Rose Keating is an extraordinary talent."