Evie Woods | |
---|---|
Born | Evie Gaughan 1976 (age 48–49) Galway, Ireland |
Pen name | Evie Woods |
Occupation | Author |
Genres | Bibliophilia, magical realism, fantasy, historical fiction, and romance |
Years active | 2013–present |
Notable works | The Lost Bookshop |
Website | |
harpercollins |
Evie Gaughan (born 1976 in Ireland), who now writes under the pen-name Evie Woods, is a novelist best known for The Lost Bookshop.
Gaughan was born in 1976 and raised in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. [1] [2] [3] She attended Dominican College, Taylor's Hill in Galway. [2] Later she studied business at what is now the Atlantic Technological University, and went on to achieve a diploma in marketing in 1996, after a final year at the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France on a European Union Erasmus Programme. [1] [4]
During her twenties, Gaughan lived and worked in Canada. [1] [5] However, she suffered from panic attacks and developed social anxiety. As a result, she had to quit her job, returned to Galway and took up writing. [1] [5] She revealed that she is "95 per cent sure [she] wouldn't have become a writer if that hadn't happened." [1] A believer in the healing power of books, "bibliotherapy" as she calls it is one of the main themes and motivations behind writing The Lost Bookshop. [1] [3]
Before The Lost Bookshop was taken up by One More Chapter, Gaughan's novels had been self-published. [6] Describing the mainstream success of The Lost Bookshop as "dreamlike", [6] and acknowledging that word of mouth has played a huge role in this, [1] she has now signed a four-book agreement with One More Chapter for the three books originally self-published and one new book. [6] Her next book, The Story Collector was released in Ireland and the UK in July 2024 and was released in the US in August 2024. [6] The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris was released in March 2025.
Gaughan lists Claire Fuller, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Daphne du Maurier, Gail Honeyman, Elizabeth McKenzie, and Sally Rooney as her favourite authors. [2]