What a week for Irish books. On Tuesday, the An Post Irish Book Awards released their 2020 shortlist. Each year this list seems to overflow with the talent and dedication of Irish writers. In a year where book tours were cancelled, launches are celebrated with a glass of wine in your living room, and debut readings happen into your laptop, releasing new work has definitely been a different experience for authors, publishers, booksellers and everyone involved in getting books to readers.
Dublin Book Festival is thrilled to feature so many authors shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards. Elaine Feeney’s debut novel As You Were (Harvill Secker – VINTAGE) is nominated for Eason Novel of the Year. At DBF, Feeney is featured on the Dublin City Libraries Readers Day Emerging Writers panel alongside Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Patrick Freyne, whose respective titles A Ghost in the Throat (Tramp Press) and Ok Let’s do your Stupid Idea (Sandycove) are nominated in two categories each.
Irish favourite Marian Keyes is once again nominated in the National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year category with her 2020 release Grown Ups (Michael Joseph). Keyes won this category in 2017 and 2009, and reviews of Grown Ups suggest she could be in for another win. Keyes joins us at DBF in conversation with Roisín Ingle as part of our Dublin City Libraries Readers Day.
Other nominees you can catch at our festival include psychologist Niamh Fitzpatrick, whose debut Tell Me the Truth About Loss (Gill Books) is a stunning account of grief, Professor Luke O’Neill whose book Never Mind the Boll***s, Here’s the Science (Gill Books) holds no punches, and Louise O’Neill whose feminist thriller After the Silence (Quercus) is nominated in the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year category.
DBF has events planned for the teeny tots and the not so teeny teens and wow-oh-wow are we delighted to see so many of our incredible children’s and YA authors nominated this year. Peter Donnelly’s The Dead Zoo (Gill Books) and Darragh Mc Cullough’s The Great Irish Farmbook (Gill Books), illustrated by Sally Caulwell, are both nominated for Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Junior). In the Dept 51@Eason Teen / Young Adult Book of the Year category, Deirdre Sullivan’s Savage Her Reply (Little Island Books) and Helen Corcoran’s Queen of Coins and Whispers (The O’Brien Press) are both nominated. Both of these incredible authors feature on the DBF Schools Programme.
Voting is now open for the APIBAs. To have your say, follow this link and cast your vote for each category.
Category winners will be announced at The Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 25th November. That Friday 27th November, you are all invited to an exclusive DBF online event with the winners. The event will be hosted by editor, lecturer and award-winning travel journalist Madeleine Keane, and will bring together winners of categories from across the APIBAs. Registration for this event is free and is now open.
The An Post Irish Book Awards 2020 Shortlisted Nominees at Dublin Book Festival
Eason Novel of the Year
- As You Were – Elaine Feeney (Harvill Secker – VINTAGE)
National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year
- Home Stretch – Graham Norton (Coronet, Hodder & Stoughton)
- Grown Ups – Marian Keyes (Michael Joseph)
Odgers Berndtson Ireland Non-Fiction Book of the Year in association with the Business Post
- A Ghost in the Throat – Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Tramp Press)
- Beyond the Tape – Marie Cassidy (Hachette Books Ireland)
- Tell Me the Truth About Loss – Niamh Fitzpatrick (Gill Books)
Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year
- Never Mind the Boll***s, Here’s the Science – Luke O’Neill (Gill Books)
Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year
- Exciting Times – Naoise Dolan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
- OK, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea – Patrick Freyne (Sandycove)
TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the Year
- A Ghost in the Throat – Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Tramp Press)
Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year
- The Nothing Man – Catherine Ryan Howard (Atlantic Books / Corvus)
- The Cutting Place – Jane Casey (HarperFiction, HarperCollins)
- Our Little Cruelties – Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
- After the Silence – Louise O’Neill (Quercus)
RTÉ Radio 1 Listeners’ Choice Award
- OK, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea – Patrick Freyne (Sandycove) – Championed by Ryan Tubridy
- Love – Roddy Doyle (Cape/Vintage) – Championed by Seán Rocks
Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Junior)
- The Dead Zoo – Peter Donnelly (Gill Books)
- The Great Irish Farm Book – Darragh McCullough, illustrated by Sally Caulwell (Gill Books)
Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)
- Miracle on Ebenezer St. – Catherine Doyle (Puffin)
- Girls Play Too: Inspiring Stories of Irish Sportswomen – Jacqui Hurley, illustrated by Sinead Colleran, Rachel Corcoran, Jennifer Farley, Jennifer Murphy and Lauren O’Neill (Merrion Press)
Dept 51@Eason Teen / Young Adult Book of the Year
- Savage Her Reply – Deirdre Sullivan, illustrated by Karen Vaughan (Little Island Books)
- Queen of Coin and Whispers – Helen Corcoran (The O’Brien Press)
Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the Year
- In the Museum of Misremembered Things – Linda McKenna (In the Museum of Misremembered Things published by Doire Press)
