The longlist for the 2006 cchas been announced, with five Irish authors in the running for the world's richest short story award.
The prize is worth €35,000. It was established during Cork's year as European capital of culture in 2005 to honour Cork's renowned short story writer, Frank O'Connor.
The Irish authors that have been longlisted are Nuala Ní ChonChúir, Philip Ó Ceallaigh, Booker nominee Bernard MacLaverty, Emma Donoghue and William Wall.
The international 29-strong longlist also includes established writers like Rose Tremain, Alan Bennett, Helen Simpson and Haruki Murakami.
The winner of 2005's inaugural award was Chinese writer Yiyun Li for her debut collection 'A Thousand Years of Good Prayers'.
The 2006 jury is chaired by Cork-based writer Tom McCarthy, Programme Director of Cork 2005.
A shortlist will be announced in July and the award will be presented during the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival in September.
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Longlist
'In Strange Gardens & Other Stories' by Peter Stamm (Swiss German) translated by Michael Hoffmann.
'The Darkness of Wallis Simpson' by Rose Tremain (UK).
'To The World of Men Welcome' by Nuala Ní ChonChúir (Irish).
'The Good Works of Ayela Linde' by Charlotte Forbes (US)
'The Unfinished Novel & Other Stories' by Valerie Martin (UK)
'I Could Ride All Day in My Cool Blue Train' by Peter Hobbs (UK)
'A Life Elsewhere' by Segun Afolabi (Nigerian)
'Notes from A Turkish Whorehouse' by Philip Ó Ceallaigh (Irish)
'Gallatin Canyon' by Thomas McGuane (US)
'Constitutional' by Helen Simpson (UK)
'Joyce's Pupil' by Drago Jancar (Slovenia), translated by Various
'Matters of Life & Death' by Bernard MacLaverty (Irish)
'Is This the Way You Said' by Adam Thorpe (UK)
'The Magician's Beautiful Assistant and Other Stories' by Rachel Wyatt (Canada)
'The First Hurt' by Rachel Sherman (US)
'Drowning in Gruel' by George Singleton (US)
'Year of Fire' by David H Lynn (US)
'Touchy Subjects' by Emma Donoghue (Ireland)
'Twilight of the Superheroes' by Deborah Eisenberg (US)
'Untold Stories' by Alan Bennett (UK)
'No Paradiso' by William Wall (Ireland)
'Kafka in Bronteland and other Stories' by Tamar Yellin (UK)
'Invisible Islands' by Angus Peter Campbell (UK)
'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman' by Haruki Murakami (Japan), translated by Gabriel & Rubin
'The Young Apollo and Other Stories' by Louis Auchincloss (US)
'The Royal Ghosts' by Samrat Upadhyay (US)
'Between Here and the Yellow Sea' by Nic Pizzolatto (US)
'The Unsettling' by Peter Rock (US)
'Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead' by Alan DeNiro (US)
