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McCormack, de Waal, Donoghue shortlisted for €15k Irish prize
Goldsmith Prize-winning novelist Mike McCormack joins others including Kit de Waal and Emma Donoghue on the €15,000 Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award shortlist.
The award honours a best novel by an Irish author published between 1st February 2016 and 1st February 2017 with the €15,000 prize money the largest available solely for Irish writers.
McCormack (pictured) has been shortlisted for his single-sentence novel Solar Bones (Tramp Press), which hit the headlines when it won the Goldsmiths Prize in November, along with former magistrate de Waal’s debut My Name Is Leon (Penguin Random House). Bestselling author of Room Emma Donoghue is also a finalist for her novel The Wonder (Picador). Two more debuts complete the list: Inch Levels by Neil Hegarty (Head of Zeus) and Nothing on Earth by Conor O’Callaghan (Transworld).
The prize is run is association with the Kerry Group and Listowel Writers’ Week, which takes place between 31st May and 4th June 2017.
This year’s shortlist was judged by authors A L Kennedy and Neel Mukherjee.
Frank Hayes, director of corporate affairs at the Kerry Group, said: “This prestigious award, now in its 22nd year, continues to attract works of exceptional quality from Ireland’s most accomplished and aspiring authors. The five outstanding novels shortlisted for this year’s award, continue to advance Ireland’s international reputation and proud literary tradition. I commend our two adjudicators, A.L. Kennedy and Neel Mukherjee, for compiling this year’s shortlist which showcases a rich and diverse selection of Irish writing.”
Listowel Writers' Week Festival chairperson Liz Dunn added: “Three of the five shortlisted novelists of 2017 submitted their first novels and this, perhaps, reflects a change in shift of such awards and I find it fascinating that they should be selected from a longlist of such prestigious and well-established authors.”
The winner will be announced on the opening day of the Listowel Writers’ Week on 31st May.
