Long lists and short stories
KEVIN BARRY knows that he has to write every day in order to feel at one with the world. “Writing fiction is a very necessary thing for me. When you’ve been at it for a while, it becomes less the thing you do and more the thing you are,” he says from his home in Sligo, an old RIC barracks that he bought and renovated.
Limerick-born Barry will no doubt look back on this year with immense satisfaction. The success of his debut 2011 novel City Of Bohane continued into 2012, complete with a great review in The New York Times. Soon after, he won €36,000 as the recipient of the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. Barry won the prize for his quirky and heart-warming story, Beer Trip to Llandudno, one of 13 pieces in Dark Lies the Island, published earlier this year. He is also on the long list for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award. The award, worth €100,000 to the winner, is one of the world’s most valuable literary prizes. The shortlist will be announced in April.
