Julian Gough

Who is Julian Gough?

Julian Gough is an Irish novelist.

His first novel, Juno & Juliet, was published in 2001 by Flamingo, almost a decade after Gough sung and wrote lyrics for the Irish 1980s cult group Toasted Heretic. His second novel, Jude: Level 1, was published in 2007 at Old Street Publishing, shortly after he won the 2007 National Short Story Award for the book's first chapter, titled "The Orphan and the Mob". In 2010, Salmon Poetry released Gough's first poetry collection, Free Sex Chocolate, which juxtaposes Gough's more recent forays into poetry with his earlier lyrics written for Toasted Heretic.

Gough also writes columns and opinion pieces for various newspapers and magazines, including Guardian, Prospect Magazine and A Public Space.

In 2007, he rebelled against the decision to award the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize to writer Will Self. Gough, who was nominated alongside Self, stole the prize, a pig, to keep for himself. In early 2010, Gough wrote an article on the state of Irish literature, "slamming fellow Irish novelists", on his personal website. Gough's novel Jude in London came third in the 2011 Guardian Not The Booker prize after the author threatened to share pictures of him "wearing only the [Not The Booker trophy] mug" shall he win the competition.