book awards

Andrew Miller, who won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1999 with his first novel, Ingenious Pain, was yesterday announced as the overall winner of the Costa Award for his sixth novel, 'Pure'. 'Pure' is set in late 18th-century Paris and follows the story of a young engineer, Jean-Baptiste Baratte, charged with demolishing Paris's oldest cemetery and removing the corpses.

Right: Winning title, Pure, by Andrew Miller (click to view larger image)

Apparently it was a "bitterly fought two-way tussle" between 'Pure' and 'Now All Roads Lead to France', by Matthew Hollis, and generated a fierce debate between the judges!

Andrew Miller, who won the International Impac Dublin Literary Award in 1999, was yesterday announced as the winner of the Costa (fiction) Award for his sixth novel, 'Pure', beating off the challenge of Booker prize winner 'The Sense of an Ending' by Julian Barnes in the process. 'Pure' is a novel set in late 18th-century Paris. Also among the winners is a former chorus girl (Moira Young) and a nurse (Christie Watson). Matthew Hollis’s book about Edward Thomas, the First World War poet, won in the Biography section, while Carol Ann Duffy, who was appointed Poet Laureate in 2009, won in the Poetry section. Read more »

       Ireland's 'glitterati' came out in force last night at the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards Ceremony in the Concert Hall of the RDS. In a night when Seamus Heaney received the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by fellow poet Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, it would be easier to say who wasn't there, than who was - even former US President Bill Clinton appeared in a pre-recorded tribute to 'one of the world's favourite poets'.

The Irish Book Award winners are voted on by the public and the various categories were hotly contested. All winning and shortlisted books are available to borrow from Dublin City Public Libraries. Winners on the night were; Read more »

I am on record as being not very caught up with the entire book awards industry.  However this week I couldn't but be caught up with Anna Carey's experience of the Irish Book Award.  The Real Rebecca is a book I've watched happen over twitter with a woman I don't think I've ever met but I care about. 

It's funny, I have no idea why I followed Anna (or Urchinette as she is known on Twitter), possibly because she's a fellow Irish Knitter, possibly because a friend recommended her, but I do.  I watched over the last year or so as she wrote the book, launched it in the Gutter Bookshop (and watched the Gutter Bookshop on Twitter talk about their preparations for the launch) and watched both of them worry about people not turning up (thankfully people did).  I waited with bated breath for it to turn up in the libraries and snapped up an early copy to read it and enjoyed the story of a girl trying to prove who she is in the face of a mother who wrote about a character not completely unlike her. Read more »

Congrats to Irish novelist Kevin Barry on being shortlisted for the 2011 Costa First Novel Award for his novel City of Bohane. Three other authors are shortlisted in this category of the annual Costa Book Award.

Judges: "Startlingly original – a tour de force of language and imagination."

"City of Bohane' is a visionary novel that blends influences from film and the graphic novel, from Trojan beats and calypso rhythms, from Celtic myth and legend, from fado and the sagas, and from all the great inheritance of Irish literature" (catalogue summary).

Kevin Barry was born in Limerick in 1969 and now divides his time between Sligo and Dublin. He won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2007 for his short story collection There are Little Kingdoms. 

Kevin was one of a number of authors involved in a series of talks and readings presented by Dublin City Public Libraries and Ireland Literature Exchange in the Central Library in May 2011.You can listen on our blog to Kevin reading from City of Bohane, and taking questions afterwards.

The International IMPAC Dublin Award Long-list came out this Monday, read on to find out what I think about the Longlist and some of my picks.

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't read many deep and serious fiction books.  I am the despair of my mother and professorial sister.  I don't normally peruse award long-lists, not any of the calibre of the IMPAC Dublin Award.  Let's be honest here, the Romance Writers of America Awards or some of the Fantasy or SF awards aren't treated as seriously as many of the more literary awards.  And the IMPAC Dublin Award is pretty serious.  Read more »