Galway based author Mike McCormack was today announced as the winner of the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award. The award, which is worth €100,000 is the largest prize for a single novel published in English. 

McCormack is a hugely respected figure in Irish literary circles but until the publication of Solar Bones had never received the type of international recognition many thought was his due, and indeed Solar Bones was rejected by a number of publishers before finding a home with Dublin independent publishers Tramp Press.

Mike McCormack
Mike McCormack was announced as the winner of the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award

It went on to win a number of prizes including the Goldsmiths Prize, the Irish Novel of the Year award and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

In his acceptance speech at the Mansion House this afternoon, Mike McCormack thanked the women who helped him bring the novel into being, and he also spoke about the importance of libraries, in particularly the library he visited as a child in Louisburgh, Co Mayo.