Author and creative writing Professor Dr. Kathleen Shine Cain has been presented with an international Literary Achievement award this week in Northern Ireland before a gathered audience of writers from countries around the world.
The awards panel in Belfast recognized Professor Shine Cain for her tireless efforts over the years in building international literary links between the US and Ireland through her writings and her teaching skills, including a year-long position at St. Mary’s University College in Belfast.
Professor Shine Cain was a faculty member at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, for almost eighteen years before retiring in 2018. She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in American Literature at Marquette University, and did post-doctoral work in Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies at the University of Kansas.
“Kathleen has been a close friend of Northern Ireland for decades,” said fellow author Sean Hillen, co-founder of Ireland Writing Retreat, an organization that has hosted week-long international writing retreats in several different countries including France, Romania, and Ireland over the last eleven years.
“She taught in third-level education in Belfast for a full year and has also been a visiting tutor to many writers from many countries in Ireland and France. Her literary achievements during her long career are also impressive, not just for their sheer diversity but their high level of excellence,” Hillen said.
