O’Farrell, Kennedy and Keyes shortlisted for An Post Irish Book Awards

Authors including Maggie O’Farrell, Louise Kennedy and Marian Keyes have made the cut for this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards, which celebrates Irish writers across 18 categories.

O’Farrell and Kennedy have both been nominated for the Eason Novel of the Year category, for The Marriage Portrait (Tinder Press) and Trespasses (Bloomsbury Circus) respectively, while Keyes’ novel Again, Rachel (Michael Joseph) is listed for the National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year.

Other authors shortlisted include Kit de Waal for Without Warning and only Sometimes (Tinder Press) in the Dubrays’ Biography of the Year category, The Female Factor by Dr Hazel Wallace (Yellow Kite) for Bookstations Lifestyle Book of the Year, and The Lost Girl King by Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) for Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year.

Hide and Seek by Andrea Mara (Transworld) is shortlisted for the crime category, while None of This is Serious by Catherine Prasifka (Canongate Books) has been nominated in the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year category. 

Other notable nominations include Sally Rooney as Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year, and Tertulia in Westport, Mayo, as An Post’s Bookshop of the Year. 

The public are now being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year on the An Post Irish Book Awards website. All voters will be entered into a prize draw to win one of five €100 National Book Token vouchers. Voters may cast their votes from 9am on 21st October until voting closes on 10th November.

The winners will be announced at a live in-person ceremony, which will take place on 23rd November in the Convention Centre in Dublin. The award ceremony will be hosted by RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan.

Meanwhile, a one-hour special, hosted by Oliver Callan, will be broadcast on RTÉ One television on 7th December exploring the six books and authors competing for the accolade of An Post Irish Book Awards Book of the Year.

Brendan Corbett, chairperson of the awards, said: “This year’s shortlist, once again, displays the talent of Irish writers and exemplifies the diversity of Ireland’s literary culture. Each category is steeped with exceptional writing and truly deserving writers and authors, as well as publishers and booksellers.

“The An Post Irish Book Awards is one of the major highlights of the literary calendar and I am delighted to see the continually growing interest in the initiative. I am looking forward to announcing the winners and celebrating on the 23rd November at our first in-person ceremony since 2019.”

The shortlists in full:

Eason Novel of the Year
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (Bloomsbury Circus)
The Colony by Audrey Magee (Faber & Faber)
Seven Steeples by Sara Baume (Tramp Press)
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press)
The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan (Doubleday)
The Raptures by Jan Carson (Doubleday)

Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year
Remember My Name by Sam Blake (Corvus)
Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard (Corvus)
Breaking Point by Edel Coffey (Sphere)
The Accomplice by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
The Interview by Gill Perdue (Sandycove)
Hide and Seek by Andrea Mara (Transworld)

Eason Sports Book of the Year in Association with Ireland AM
The Game by Tadhg Coakley (Merrion Press)
A History of the GAA in 100 Objects by Siobhán Doyle (Merrion Press)
Point to Point :The Heart of Irish Horse Racing, by Richard Pugh and photographs by Pat ‘Cash’ Healy (The O’Brien Press)
Life Begins in Leitrim by Zak Moradi, with Niall Kelly (Gill Books)
The Rodfather by Roddy Collins, with Paul Howard (Sandycove)
Kellie by Kellie Harrington, with Roddy Doyle (Sandycove)

Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year
None of This is Serious by Catherine Prasifka (Canongate Books)
There’s Been a Little Incident by Alice Ryan (Head of Zeus)
Speechless by Fiacre Ryan (Merrion Press)
Breaking Point by Edel Coffey (Sphere)
My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden (Fourth Estate)
The Amusements by Aingeala Flannery (Sandycove)

Odgers Berndtson Non-fiction Book of the Year
Listen to the Land Speak by Manchán Magan (Gill Books)
Lessons from the Bench by Judge Gillian Hussey, with Rachel Pierce (Gill Books)
My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden (Fourth Estate)
Gaffs by Rory Hearne (HarperCollins Ireland)
Fierce Appetites by Elizabeth Boyle (Sandycove)
Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber by Sean O’Driscoll (Sandycove)

Dubray Biography of the Year
The Last Good Funeral of the Year by Ed O’Loughlin (Riverrun)
Without Warning and only Sometimes by Kit de Waal (Tinder Press)
Time and Tide by Charlie Bird, with Ray Burke (HarperCollins Ireland)
I Don’t Want to Talk About Home by Suad Aldarra (Doubleday)
Surrender by Bono (Hutchinson Heinemann)
All Down Darkness Wide by Seán Hewitt (Jonathan Cape)

Avoca Cookbook of the Year
Bake by Graham Herterich (Nine Bean Rows Books)
Lili’s Family Favourites by Lili Forberg (The O’Brien Press)
The Daly Dish: Bold Food Made Good by Gina Daly and Karol Daly (Gill Books)
The GIY Diaries: A Year of Growing and Cooking by Michael Kelly (Gill Books)
Sweet Therapy: The Joy of Baking by Una Leonard (Hachette Books Ireland)
Lush by Daniel Lambert (HarperCollins Ireland)

National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year
Forever Home by Graham Norton (Coronet)
What Eden Did Next by Sheila O’Flanagan (Headline Review)
Duffy and Son by Damien Owens (HarperCollins Ireland)
Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes (Michael Joseph)
Once Upon a Time in Donnybrook by Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (Sandycove)
Idol by Louise O’Neill (Transworld)

Bookstation Lifestyle Book of the Year
The Homemade Year by Lilly Higgins (Gill Books)
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding by Eoghan Daltun (Hachette Books Ireland)
Still Points: A Guide to Living the Mindful, Meditative Way by Brother Richard (Hachette Books Ireland)
The Female Factor by Dr Hazel Wallace (Yellow Kite)
What Every Woman Needs to Know About Her Gut by Barbara Ryan and Elaine McGowan (John Murray Press)
Climate Worrier by Colm O’Regan (HarperCollins Ireland)

TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the Year
The Book of the Skelligs by John Crowley and John Sheehan (Cork University Press)
Abandoned Ireland by Rebecca Brownlie (Merrion Press)
The Guardians – 100 Years of An Garda Síochána 1922-2022 by Garda Stephen Moore (The O’Brien Press)
The Irish Civil War in Colour by Michael B Barry and John O’Byrne (Gill Books)
The Great Lighthouses of Ireland by David Hare (Gill Books)
An Irish Folklore Treasury by John Creedon (Gill Books)

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Junior)
Cloud Babies by Eoin Colfer, illustrated by Chris Judge (Walker Books)
Well Done, Mommy Penguin by Chris Haughton (Walker Books)
Fox & Son Tailers by Paddy Donnelly (The O’Brien Press)
Our Big Day by Bob Johnston, illustrated by Michael Emberley (The O’Brien Press)
Meanwhile Back on Earth by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Sir Adam the Brave and the Moody Monsters by David King, illustrated by Rhiannon Archard (Sandycove)

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)
The Lost Girl King by Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
The Day I Got Trapped in My Brain by Amy Huberman, illustrated by Katie Kear (Scholastic)
Frankie’s World by Aoife Dooley (Scholastic)
The Truth About Riley by Sinéad Moriarty (Gill Books)
The Great Irish History Book by Myles Dungan, illustrated by Alan Dunne (Gill Books)
Girls Who Slay Monsters by Ellen Ryan, illustrated by Shone Shirley MacDonald (HarperCollins Ireland)

Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year
Truth Be Told by Sue Divin (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Rock, Paper, Killers by Alexia Mason (Simon and Schuster)
The Gifts That Bind Us by Caroline O’Donoghue (Walker Books)
The Asparagus Bunch by Jessica Scott-Whyte (Welbeck Flame)
Let’s Talk by Richie Sadlier (Gill Books)
Twin Crowns by Katherine Webber and Catherine Doyle (Farshore – Electric Monkey, Harper Collins)

Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year
“Unmaking His Chair” by Jim McElroy (From: We Are the Weather, published by Smith/ Doorstop)
“Wedding Dress” by Martina Dalton (From: New Irish Writing, Irish Independent)
“What Man Doesn’t” by Paul McMahon (From: The Poetry Society – VII, No. 4, Winter 2021)
“Amelia’s Model” by Michael Longley (From: The Slain Birds ,Jonathan Cape)

Writing.ie Short Story of the Year
Sleep Watchers by Roisín O’Donnell (From: The Stinging Fly Press)
Red Market by Sheila Armstong (From: How to Gut a Fish – Bloomsbury)
This Small Giddy Life by Nuala O’Connor (From: A Little Unsteadily into Light – New Island)
The Chekhovians by Rebecca Miller (From: Total – Canongate Books)
Mathematics by Wendy Erskine (From: Dance Move – The Stinging Fly Press)
Miles of Bad Road by Neil Tully (From: The Waxed Lemon Literary Journal)

Love Leabhar Gaeilge Irish Language Book of the Year
EL by Thaddeus Ó Buachalla (Coiscéim)
An Dara Roghna by Celia de Fréine (LeabhairCOMHAR)
Bádh B’fhéidir by Seán Ó Muireagáin (Éabhlóid)
Súil an Dáill by Darach Ó Scolaí (Leabhar Breac)
Bláth na dTulach by Stories form 28 Authors (Éabhlóid)

Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year
Catherine Ryan Howard
Sally Rooney
Sarah Webb
Roisín Meaney
Louise O’Neill
John Boyne

An Post Bookshop of the Year
Bridge Books in Dromore, Down
Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop in Galway
Tertulia in Westport, Mayo
Bridge Street Books in Wicklow
Philip’s Bookshop in Mallow, Cork
Books at One Letterfrack in Connemara, Galway