Novels by seven Irish writers, including Kevin Barry's Beatlebone, Anne Enright's The Green Road and the Irish Book of the Year at the Bord Gais Energy Book Awards, Asking For It by Louise O’Neill have been long-listed for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award, the world's richest literary prize.
Other Irish novels on the short-list include John Banville's The Blue Guitar, Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume, The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien and Miss Emily by Nuala O’Connor.
Can't quite believe I'm been long listed for the International Dublin Literary Award. Madness https://t.co/3ZlYYKg3bs pic.twitter.com/aB0eiiCWKV
— Louise O' Neill (@oneilllo) November 21, 2016
One hundred and forty-seven titles in total have been nominated by libraries worldwide for the €100,000 prize, formerly known as the IMPAC Award.
The largest number of nominations comes from America with forty-three titles in the running, along with twenty three from Britian, fourteen from Canada, five from New Zealand and four from Dutch authors. Thirty of the long-listed novels are from debut authors.
Delighted #MissEmilyNovel longlisted 4 International Dublin Literary Award. Congrats all longlisted, espesh my fellow Irish @oneilllo et al pic.twitter.com/vCoFzOczUo
— Nuala O'Connor (@NualaNiC) November 21, 2016
Organised by Dublin City Council, the 2017 Award was launched today by its patron, Dublin's Lord Mayor, Brendan Carr.
Longlist announced for @DublinLitAward today #dublitaward. 7 Irish Authors - 3 here @oneilllo @tramp press (Sara baume) @nualanic pic.twitter.com/tjLO7I1jao
— Dublin City Council (@DubCityCouncil) November 21, 2016
The book which received most nominations this year is Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins, winner of the 2015 Costa Prize which was chosen by nine libraries from around the world.
Other novels nominated for the 2017 Award include the winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize The Sellout by Paul Beatty, runaway best-seller The Girl on the Train by Patricia Hawkins, the winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, and A Strangeness in My Mind by Nobel Laureate and previous winner Orhan Pamuk.
Dublin City Librarian Margaret Hayes today praised the global interest in the Award.
“This great prize demonstrates Dublin’s international support for contemporary writers and gives tangible expression to Dublin as A City of Words, an active member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, a UNESCO City of Literature. It also brings readers together in an unparalleled international book club connected through their local public libraries”.
This year's prize went to author Akhil Sharma for his novel Family Life, which took him an astonishing thirteen years to complete.
The judging panel will announced the shortlist on April 11 2017 with the winner announced three months later in June.
