The inaugural Irish Book Awards shortlist has been announced with well-known authors John Banville, John McGahern and Kate Thompson featuring in the categories of fiction, non-fiction and children's books respectively.
A total of 18 nominees were shortlisted in the three categories, the winners of which will be announced on 1 March at an awards ceremony in the Royal Yacht Club, Dún Laoghaire.
The Irish Book Awards 2006 were open to all Irish authors who had a book published in 2005.
The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year offers €10,000 to the winner and sees John Banville's Booker Prize winning novel, 'The Sea' competing against fellow Booker longlisted book 'This is the Country' by William Wall.
'Memoir' by John McGahern is shortlisted in the Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year alongside Fintan O'Toole, David McWilliams and Fergal Keane.
Kate Thompson's Whitbread category winning book, 'The New Policeman', features in the competition for the Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year.
Derek Hughes, Chief Executive of Hughes & Hughes, said that the event reflects the company's dedication to Irish writers and literature.
The total prize fund for the Irish Book Awards is €22,500 and the prizes will be awarded by panel of judges.
Last year's winner of the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year award was Ronan Bennett's 'Havoc, in its Last Year'.
The shortlists for the three categories are as follows:
The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year
'The Sea' by John Banville (Picador)
'Utterly Monkey' by Nick Laird (Fourth Estate)
'Notes from a Coma' by Mike McCormack (Cape)
'This is the Country' by William Wall (Sceptre)
'The Winner of Sorrow' by Brian Lynch (New Island)
'Nothing Simple' by Lia Mills (Penguin Ireland)
The Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year
'Memoir' by John McGahern (Faber & Faber)
'White Savage' by Fintan O'Toole (Faber & Faber)
'In the Dark Room' by Brian Dillon (Penguin Ireland)
'The Pope's Children' by David McWilliams (Gill & Macmillan)
'James Connolly' by Donal Nevin (Gill & Macmillan)
'All of these People' by Fergal Keane (Harper Collins)
The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year
'Second Fiddle' by Siobhan Parkinson (Puffin)
'The New Policeman' by Kate Thompson (Random House)
'Dancing Tiger' by Malachy Doyle (Simon & Schuster)
'Bill and Fred' by John Quinn (O'Brien)
'Snakes Elbows' by Deirdre Madden (Orchard Books)
'Up the Wooden Hill' by Sam McBratney (Harper Collins)
