Cara Finegan

 Cara Finegan is a Northern Irish LGBTQ writer from Newry, right on the Irish border. She graduated with a B.Ed Hons degree in English and Drama in 1995 and has been a Primary School teacher ever since. She has authored stories and poems from a young age. However, she did put writing on hold for several years to follow her dreams of becoming a burlesque performer. She opened a dance studio with her cousin and formed Ireland’s first Burlesque dance troupe The Burlesque Belles. After a few detouring years in dance, she decided to spend more time on her writing. She has completed many creative writing courses and has had some of her short stories published in online magazines eg Cafe Lit, Aesthetica and Influenza. Her debut novel ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ was shortlisted in 2023 for the Novel London Prize. Her novel LIE DOWN WITH DOGS was shortlisted for the Page Turner Writing Award and won the Page Turner Mentorship Award. 
She is currently working on her sixth domestic noir novel ’Do Not Disturb’. She is a lover of female led psychological thrillers, so her stories tend to have dark undercurrents with strong female leads, usually LGBTQIA+. As a gay woman she finds queer relationships are rarely represented in thriller or crime fiction so they often times feature in her writing. Her female characters come out on top and rarely end up the real ‘victims’. She enjoys reading dystopian themed novels like those of Margaret Atwood and Louise Erdrich (She enjoys scaring the life clean out of herself). Jade Sharma has had a huge impact on her life and on her writing.  Her unapologetic way of writing and talking about things that are uncomfortable, real and impactful for women gave Cara the courage to do the same.