 Keegan's first collection of short stories "Antarctica" (1999) won a slew of awards, including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and was the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year..Her second collection of much awarded short stories, "Walk the Blue Fields", was published in 2007.Keegan's acclaimed 'long, short story' "Foster" won the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009  American writer Richard Ford, who selected "Foster" as winner, wrote of Keegan's “thrilling” instinct for the right words and her “patient attention to life's vast consequence and finality".. Foster appeared in the New Yorker and was declared the “Best of the Year” by the New Yorker.