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2020 International DUBLIN Literary Award Longlist Announced
Eight novels from Ireland are among 156 books nominated by libraries around the world for the 2020 International DUBLIN Literary Award. With the winner receiving €100,000, the Award is the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English.
The shortlist for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2019, features a diverse mix of exceptional writing from new and established writers across sixteen categories, including Novel of the Year, Children’s, Cookery, Crime Fiction, Popular Fiction, Nonfiction, Sports, Short Story, Poetry, Teen and Young Adult and Irish Language. Shortlisted writers include Kevin Barry, Edna O’Brien, Joseph O’Connor, Cecelia Ahern, Emma Dabiri, Fintan O’Toole, Samantha Power, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, Jamie Heaslip, Andrea Corr, Vicky Phelan, Diarmaid Ferriter, Sinéad Gleeson, Mary Costello, Rosita Boland, Joe Duffy and Freya McClements.The An Post Irish Book Awards 2019 Shortlist is as follows (with links to our catalogue):Eason Novel of the YearNight Boat to Tangier – Kevin Barry (Canongate Books)Girl – Edna O’Brien (Faber & Faber)Shadowplay – Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)This is Happiness – Niall Williams (Bloomsbury Publishing)The Narrow Land – Christine Dwyer Hickey (Atlantic Books)The River Capture – Mary Costello (Canongate Books)National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the YearOnce, Twice, Three Times an Aisling – Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen (Gill Books)Filter This – Sophie White (Hachette Ireland)Postscript – Cecelia Ahern (HarperFiction)When All is Said – Anne Griffin (Hodder & Stoughton)Schmidt Happens – Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (Penguin Ireland)Seven Letters – Sinéad Moriarty (Penguin Ireland)Bookselling Ireland Non-Fiction Book of the YearElsewhere – Rosita Boland (Doubleday Ireland)Heroic Failure – Fintan O’Toole (Head of Zeus)Republic of Shame – Caelainn Hogan (Penguin Ireland)Constellations – Sinéad Gleeson (Picador)The Border: The Legacy of a Century of Anglo-Irish Politics – Diarmaid Ferriter (Profile Books)The Education of an Idealist – Samantha Power (William Collins)Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the YearMy Crazy World – Christy Dignam with Damian Corless (Simon & Schuster)Overcoming – Vicky Phelan with Naomi Linehan (Hachette Ireland)Barefoot Pilgrimage – Andrea Corr (HarperNonFiction)The Personals – Brian O’Connell (HarperNonFiction)Live While You Can – Fr Tony Coote (Hachette Books Ireland)The Making of a Detective – Pat Marry (Penguin Ireland)Sunday Independent Newcomer of the YearLeonard & Hungry Paul – Ronan Hession (Bluemoose Books)Last Ones Left Alive – Sarah Davis-Goff (Tinder Press)When All is Said – Anne Griffin (Hodder & Stoughton)Show Them a Good Time – Nicole Flattery (The Stinging Fly Press)Minor Monuments – Ian Maleney (Tramp Press)Don’t Touch My Hair – Emma Dabiri (Allen Lane)TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the YearThe Great Irish Science Book – Luke O’Neill, illustrated by Linda Fährlin (Gill Books)Children of the Troubles – Joe Duffy and Freya McClements (Hachette Books Ireland)Dare to Dream – Irish People Who Took on the World (and Won!) – Sarah Webb, illustrated by Graham Corcoran (The O’Brien Press)Beautiful Affair – Mike Hanrahan (HarperNonFiction)Ireland Through Birds: Journeys in Search of a Wild Nation – Conor W. O’Brien (Merrion Press)A History of Ireland in 100 Words – Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and Gregory Toner, illustrated by Joe McLaren (Royal Irish Academy)Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the YearRewind – Catherine Ryan Howard (Corvus)Cruel Acts – Jane Casey (HarperFiction)The Chain – Adrian McKinty (Orion)Twisted – Steve Cavanagh (Orion)The Wych Elm – Tana French (Viking)The Hiding Game – Louise Phillips (Hachette Ireland)Avoca Cookbook of the YearCornucopia: The Green Cookbook – Tony Keogh, Aoife Carrigy, the Chefs of Cornucopia, Deirdre and Dairine McCafferty (Gill Books)Clever Batch – Susan Jane White (Gill Books)One Pot Feeds All – Darina Allen (Kyle Books)Clodagh’s Suppers – Clodagh McKenna (Kyle Books)From the Oven to the Table – Diana Henry (Mitchell Beazley)Donal’s Super Food in Minutes – Donal Skehan (Yellow Kite)Bord Gáis Energy Sports Book of the YearAbout That Goal – The Official Autobiography of Seamus Darby – Seamus Darby with PJ Cunningham (Ballpoint Press) - on order, please reserve in person in branch.Recovering – Richie Sadlier with Dion Fanning (Gill Books)All In – Jamie Heaslip with Matt Cooper (Gill Books)Something in the Water: How Skibbereen Rowing Club Conquered the World – Kieran McCarthy (Mercier Press)Camouflage – My Story – Eoin Larkin with Pat Nolan (Reach Sport)The Dublin Marathon – Celebrating 40 Years – Sean McGoldrick (The O’Brien Press)RTÉ Radio One Listeners’ Choice AwardNight Boat to Tangier – Kevin Barry (Canongate Books) – Championed by Joe DuffyGirl – Edna O’Brien (Faber & Faber) – Championed by Sean O’RourkeShadowplay – Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker) – Championed by Ryan TubridyOvercoming – Vicky Phelan with Naomi Linehan (Hachette Books) – Championed by Ray D’ArcyOnce, Twice, Three Times an Aisling – Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen (Gill Books) – Championed by Miriam O’CallaghanSpecsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Junior)The President’s Surprise – Peter Donnelly (Gill Books)Boot: Small Robot, Big Adventure – Shane Hegarty, illustrated by Ben Mantle (Hachette Children’s Group)Don’t Worry Little Crab – Chris Haughton (Walker Books)Tiny and Teeny – Chris Judge (Walker Books) - can be reserved through other local authorities123 Ireland! – Aoife Dooley (Little Island Books)Take Five – Niall Breslin, illustrated by Sheena Dempsey (Gill Books)Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)Family Fun Unplugged – Peter Cosgrove (Penguin Ireland)The Lost Tide Warriors – Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury Publishing)A Strange Kind of Brave – Sarah Moore Fitzgerald (Hachette Children’s Group)Gordon’s Game – Gordon D’Arcy and Paul Howard (Penguin Ireland)Shooting for the Stars – My Journey to Become Ireland’s First Astronaut – Norah Patten, illustrated by Jennifer Farley (The O’Brien Press)Lily at Lissadell – Judi Curtin (The O’Brien Press)Dept 51 @ Eason Teen / Young Adult Book of the YearToffee – Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury Publishing)All the Invisible Things – Orlagh Collins (Bloomsbury Publishing)Perfectly Preventable Deaths – Deirdre Sullivan (Bonnier Books UK)Other Words for Smoke – Sarah Maria Griffin (Titan Books)The M Word – Brian Conaghan (Bloomsbury Publishing) -can be reserved through other local authoritiesAll the Bad Apples – Moïra Fowley-Doyle (Puffin)Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the YearSalt Rain – Audrey Molloy (Mslexia, September 2019)The Kerchief – Christine Broe (Poetry Ireland and Trócaire Poetry Competition 2019)Pine Box in the Flea Market – Dean Browne (The Stinging Fly, Summer 2019)Dear Sean – Paul McMahon (The North – Special Irish Issue)Writing.ie Short Story of the YearParrot – Nicole Flattery (The Stinging Fly, Issue 39, Volume 2, Winter 2018-19)A Real Woman – Orla McAlinden (Full of Grace, published by Red Stag)Mother May I – Amy Gaffney (HCE Review, Volume 3, Issue 1)Sparing the Heather – Louise Kennedy (Banshee, Issue 8)Balloon Animals – Laura-Blaise McDowell (Still Worlds Turning, published by No Alibis Press)The Lamb – Andrea Carter (Counterparts: A Synergy of Law and Literature, The Stinging Fly Press)The Love Leabhar Gaeilge Irish Language Book of the YearGáire in Éag – Seán Ó Muireagáin (Éabhlóid)Gráinne Gaiscíoch Gael – Siobhán Parkinson (Cois Life)Mar a Bhí ar dTús – Joe Steve Ó Neachtain (Cló Iar-Chonnacht)Tairngreacht – Proinsias Mac a’Bhaird (LeabhairComhar)Cití na gCártaí – Réaltán Ní Leannáin (Cois Life)An Tromdhámh – Feargal Ó Béarra (Leabhar Breac)Votes may be cast until 13th November, visit the Award website to register your vote. The winners will be announced at the gala ceremony in the Convention Centre Dublin, Spencer Dock, on Wednesday 20th November.
The Hugo Awards took place in Dublin on Sunday 18 August 2019. The Hugos are science fiction's most prestigous award, voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention, which is also responsible for the handing out of the awards themselves. It’s the first time in the history of the Hugo Awards that they’ve been hosted in Ireland. Dublin City Libraries were at the Convention Centre on North Wall Quay. The Best Novel Award is widely reported on, but it’s the Best Graphic Story category that interests me the most.If you'd like to borrow any of the graphic novels discussed below, simply click on the book cover or title to be taken to the reserves page, where you'll need your library card and PIN to request the book. You can find more detailed information about the books in the footnotes.Saladin Ahmed’s Abbott[ii] is a clever combination of social commentary and the supernatural. Set in Detroit in the ‘70s, the story pulls no punches with the blatant racism, sexism, and every other –ism of the time. In her life as a black, female reporter, and her brushes with otherworldly beings, our main character Elena Abbott straddles two worlds in which she doesn’t feel she belongs. This is a bold and imaginative story but I feel that it relies too heavily on expositional dialogue to suceed as a comic book.Black Panther surged in to the mainstream consciousness with the spectacular 2018 movie. In the meantime, the comics have been aiming for the highbrow market with Nnedi Okorafor and Ta-Nehisi Coates on writing duties. Okorafor gets the nod from the Hugos for Long Live the King.[iii]Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam[iv] is the only one of the nominees that I don’t know anything about. If you’ve read it, post up your own comments below, or on social media. I’d love to hear what you thought of it. Looking back over the first year of our book club recently[v], I noted how many of our selected titles came from Image Comics. Apparently we’re not alone in rating the Portland based publisher. Three of the six nominees are Image publications. On top of that, two of those were written by Canadian writer Brian K. Vaughan. With his work on Runaways for Marvel, Pride Of Baghdad for Vertigo, and Ex Machina for Wildstorm, Vaughan hardly needs an introduction for comic fans. I could do an entire blog about him alone (note to self: Do blog about Brian K. Vaughan) and the Worldcon membership has justly acknowledged him for Paper Girls[vi] as well as the latest volume of his seminal Saga[vii].Image’s non -Vaughan nominee won the Hugo Award. It’s the third year in a row that Monstress[viii] has taken home the big prize. To be honest, I haven’t read Volume 3. Marjorie M. Liu’s writing in Volume 1 didn’t appeal to me so I haven’t kept up with it. For me, the main selling point of this series is the sumptuous art of Sana Takeda. Her artwork alone makes this worthy of attention. At Worldcon, the queue at her autograph table was over an hour. That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon with more Worldcon related chatter.Marc, Library Assistant, Dublin City Libraries[ii] Abbott, written by Saladin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivelä, colours by Jason Wordie, letters by Jim Campbell (BOOM! Studios)Author Ahmed, Saladin, Kivela, Sami, Wordie, JasonTitle Abbott Ahmed, Saladin, Kivela, Sami, Wordie, JasonPublication Info. Boom! Studios 15 Nov 2018Standard No. 9781684152452 [iii] Black Panther: Long Live the King, written by Nnedi Okorafor and Aaron Covington, art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino and Tana Ford (Marvel)Author Okorafor, Nnedi, author.Title Long live the King / Nnedi Okorafor ; illustrated by Andre Araujo.Publication Info. New York, NY : Marvel Worldwide, Inc., 2018.Edition Graphic novelStandard No. 9781302905385 (pbk.)Standard No. 1302905384 (pbk.) [iv] On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden (First Second)Author Walden, TillieTitle On a sunbeam.Publication Info. London : Avery Hill Publishing, 2018.Edition Graphic novelsStandard No. 9781910395370 (hbk.) : £24.99Standard No. 1910395374 (hbk.) : £24.99 [v] http://www.dublincity.ie/story/central-library%E2%80%99s-comics-and-graphic-novels-book-club [vi] Paper Girls, Volume 4, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image Comics)Author Vaughan, Brian K.Title Paper girls. Volume 4 / Brian K. Vaughan, writer ; Cliff Chiang, artist ; Matt Wilson, colors ; Jared K. Fletcher, letters.Publication Info. Portland, OR : Image Comics, c2018.Edition Graphic novelStandard No. 9781534305106 (paperback)Standard No. 1534305106 (paperback) [vii] Saga, Volume 9, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)Author Vaughan, Brian K., author.Title Saga. Volume nine / Fiona Staples, artist ; Brian K. Vaughan, writer ; Fonografiks, lettering + design.Publication Info. Portland, Oregon : Image Comics, Incs., 2018.Edition Graphic novelsStandard No. 9781534308374 pbk.Standard No. 1534308377 pbk. [viii] Monstress, Volume 3: Haven, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)Author Liu, Marjorie M., author.Title Monstress. Volume 3 / Marjorie Liu ; illustrated by Sana Takeda.Publication Info. Berkeley : Image Comics, 2018.Edition Graphic novelStandard No. 9781534306912 (pbk.) : £14.99Standard No. 1534306919 (pbk.) : £14.99
Idaho wins the 2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award
American author Emily Ruskovich has won the 2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award for her novel Idaho. Set in the Idaho Pandandle it tells the sory of the impact of an shocking act of violence on a family. The winning novel was chosen from a total of 141 titles, nominated by libraries in 115 cities across 41 countries. Idaho was nominated by the public library in Brugge, Belgium.The Award is organised and sponsored by Dublin City Council and at €100,000 is the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English. Emily Ruskovich is the fourth American author to win the prize in its 24-year history.Uniquely, the Award receives its nominations from public libraries in cities around the globe and recognises both writers and translators. The winner was announced at a ceremony in Dublin's Mansion House today.Emily Ruskovich grew up in the Idaho Panhandle, on Hoodoo Mountain. Her fiction has appeared in Zoetrope, One Story and the Virginia Quarterly Review. A winner of a 2015 O. Henry Award and a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she now teaches creative writing at the University of Colorado, Denver. Idaho is her first novel. Speaking at the winner announcement, Lord Mayor & Patron of the remarked; ‘The International DUBLIN Literary Award is a great Dublin success and a great international success - and our thanks go to all who are involved in making the Award work – writers, translators, publishers, librarians, and the administrative staff of the City Council.’The 2019 judging panel, which includes Irish author Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, commented:‘At the heart of Emily Ruskovich’s haunting debut novel is the inexplicable. A young couple, Jenny and Wade, move from the prairies to the utter loneliness and unexpected isolation of the Northern Idaho mountains where they carelessly bought a piece of wooded land on a steep mountainside. As yet, they know nothing about the winter that will entrap them: masses of snow, no plow, no neighbours, the next settlement eight miles away. This is not an idyll. Years go by. They build a house with their own hands; two children are born – May and June. Then, all of a sudden, in a brutal flash, with no warning, their happiness and their love are destroyed forever.Ruskovich’s masterful achievement is to narrate with consummate skill the complex series of events covering a time-span of more than fifty years. Empathy and love stand next to cruelty and crime. Individual guilt, trauma and pain are looming as large as eventual forgiveness and the ability to live in half-knowledge. Ultimately, Idaho evolves into a masterpiece on the redeeming and regenerative potential of music, poetry, literature and art.’ The other judges were Ge Yan, Evie Wyld, Martin Middeke and Hans-Christian Oeser. The non-voting chair was Judge Eugene Sullivan.Copies of the winner, the shortlist and the full list of novels nominated for the 2019 award available to borrow from Dublin Public libraries at https://dcpla.ie/Idaho
2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award announced
10 Irish novels are among 141 titles nominated by libraries worldwide for the €100,000 International DUBLIN Literary Award, the world’s most valuable annual literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English. Nominations include 39 novels in translation with works by authors from 41 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, the US & Canada, South America and Australia & New Zealand.Organised by Dublin City Council, the 2019 Award was launched today, 19th November, by Lord Mayor, Nial Ring, Patron of the Award, who commended the Award for its promotion of excellence in world literature as well as for the opportunity to promote Irish writing internationally. ‘Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature and cultural tourism is a vital part of the City’s economy’ he said: ‘this prestigious Award enhances the City’s worldwide reputation as a literary destination’.Mike McCormack, on winning the 2018 prize in June commented: ‘It speaks something generous, eloquent and enquiring that Dublin City Council, for so many years have put their resources, their weight, all their expertise behind this prize, it has huge international standing, it has a unique reach and a unique generosity and long may it live, it’s one of the shining jewels in this country’s crown’. The Irish titles nominated for 2019 are: Mrs Osmond by John BanvilleA Line Made by Walking by Sara BaumeThe Heart’s Invisible Furies by John BoyneActs of Allegiance by Peter CunninghamSmile by Roddy DoyleThe Blood Miracles by Lisa McInerneyMidwinter Break by Bernard MacLavertyIthaca by Alan McMonagleThe Dead House by Billy O’CallaghanConversations With Friends by Sally Rooney The International DUBLIN Literary Award is managed by Dublin City Council’s library service. Brendan Teeling, Acting Dublin City Librarian, announced that the 141 books eligible for the 2019 award were nominated by libraries in 115 cities and 41 countries worldwide; noting that 39 are titles in translation, spanning 16 languages and 48 are first novels.Speaking of the global interest in the Award, the City Librarian remarked ‘This great prize affirms Dublin’s commitment to international writers and translators, to literature and creativity. Through this award Dublin, a UNESCO City of Literature, brings the worldwide community of readers together to read the works of contemporary writers from all corners of the world’.Other novels nominated for the 2019 Award include 2017 Costa Novel Award winner Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor, a previous winner of the award in 2012 for Even the Dogs; 2017 Costa First Novel Award winner Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman; In the Distance by Hernan Díaz, finalist of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser, winner of the 2018 Miles Franklin Award.Among the 39 translated books are novels originally published in Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Korean, Māori, Serbian and Slovene. Translated authors include Fredrik Backman, Jean Echenoz, Peter Stamm, Maria Duenas, Zoran Zivkovic and Han Yujoo.The book that received most nominations this year is Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, chosen by 9 libraries in Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Spain and the USA.The 2019 Judging Panel comprises Éilís Ní Dhuibhne , bi-lingual Irish novelist and story writer; Martin Middeke, Professor of English at the University of Augsburg, Germany; Hans Christian Oeser, translator, editor and travel writer; Evie Wyld, novelist and bookseller, and Ge Yan, author and Ph.D candidate in Comparative Literature. The non-voting Chairperson is Eugene R. Sullivan.All of the novels nominated for the Award are available for readers to borrow from Dublin’s public libraries. The full list of 141 titles is available on www.dublinliteraryaward.ie. The shortlist will be published on 4th April 2019and the Lord Mayor will announce the winner on 12th June 2019. The International DUBLIN Literary Award is a Dublin City Council initiative.
Dublin Literary Award 2017 Winners Reading and Q&A
On the evening of Thursday, 22 June, literary award winners José Eduardo Agualusa and Daniel Hahn gave a reading, followed by a Q&A session, introduced and moderated by Sinéad Crowley, in Dublin City Library &; Archive, Pearse Street.
Dublin Literary Award Winner Akhil Sharma Reading and Q&A
On the evening of Friday, 10 June, literary award winner Akhil Sharma gave a reading, followed by a Q&A session, introduced and moderated by Niall MacMonagle in Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street.
On Thursday, 9 June 2016, in the Mansion House in Dublin, Family Life by Akhil Sharma was announced as the winner of the 21st International DUBLIN Literary Award. Akhil Sharma was born in Delhi, India, and moved with his family to the United States when he was eight. He is also the author of An Obedient Father, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in New York City and is an assistant professor of English at Rutgers University, Newark.Commenting on his win, Akhil Sharma said: “To be acknowledged by people I respect is a strange thing. I can’t say I fooled them. I feel abashed by this honor.” Watch Akhil deliver his acceptance speech:The judges commented: "Suffering and the struggle to ameliorate suffering are not unknown in fiction but Family Life pulls off the extraordinary feat of showing them in their correct alignment. Closing the book, having known this mix of light and dark, you are left with the sense that while reading you were actually at the core of human experience and what it is to be alive. This is the highest form of achievement in literature. Few manage it. This novel does. Triumphantly. Luminously. Movingly. All hail Family Life by Akhil Sharma."Family Life is available to borrow from Dublin City Public Libraries.The International Dublin Literary Award is sponsored by Dublin City Council and managed by Dublin City Public Libraries.
Congrats to Lisa McInerney on Baileys Women's Prize Win
Many congratulations to Galway author Lisa McInerney on winning the 2016 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction with 'The Glorious Heresies'. With it she collects a cheque for £30,000.The Glorious Heresies is Lisa McInerney's first novel, though you may have come across her writing as Sweary Lady in her witty blog The Arse End of Ireland which she wrote from 2006. McInerney's debut is set in post-boom Cork and her protagonists inhabit the darker edge of society; Ryan, a 15 year old drug dealer and his alcoholic father, Georgie, a prostitute; and Maureen, whose son is a gangster, has just accidentally murdered someone. McInerney's energetic comic style and her interesting characters lift the book from its setting and make for a colourful, fresh read.The Glorious Heresies was shortlisted for the 2015 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards in the Newcomer of the Year category. More recently, it has been shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize (for a first novel written in English and published in the UK, winner announcement 22 June 2016). It was also longlisted for the 2016 Dylan Thomas Prize for young writers.Launched in 1996, The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is awarded to a female author who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English.The 2015 winner was 'How to be Both' by Ali Smith.Read about the 2016 Award shortlist | longlist.