Revealed: Manchán Magan among authors shortlisted for Irish Book Awards
Manchán Magan, photographed in July 2024. He has been shotlisted posthumously for an Irish Book Award. Picture: Marc O'Sullivan
The late Manchán Magan is among the authors shortlisted for prizes in this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards.
Magan died earlier this month, aged 55, after suffering a setback in his journey with prostate cancer. The writer, broadcaster, and documentary maker has been posthumously shortlisted for Best Irish-Published Book of the Year for his book, , which was illustrated by Megan Luddy.
Also included in the same category are Hector Ó hEochagáin for , by Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride, Michael Harding’s illustrated by Enagh Farrell, edited by Sarah Binchy, and by John Kelly.
Eight books are in the running for novel of the year: , by Hugo Hamilton; , by John Patrick McHugh; , by Elaine Feeney; , by Roisín O’Donnell; , by Wendy Erksine; , by Garrett Carr; , by Joseph O’Connor; and , by John Banville.
Now in its 20th year, the Irish Book Awards has shortlisted both new and established writers across 19 categories. Other authors shortlisted include Caroline West, whose book is in the running for History Book of the Year. Sarah Corbett Lynch was shortlisted for Biography of the Year for her book , which focuses on the death of her father, Jason Corbett, while Matt Cooper’s book centres on the history of Dunnes Stores and is shortlisted for Non-Fiction Book of the Year.
Lifestyle Book of the Year sees titles from Donal Skehan and Miriam Hussey among those shortlisted, and Digital Sports Editor Adrian Russell is shortlisted for Sports Book of the Year for his work on with Marc O Sé. Six writers are nominated for Author of the Year: Colm Tóibín, Donal Ryan, Elaine Feeney, John Boyne, Roisín O’Donnell, and Sarah Maria Griffin.
Cork writers are well represented, with Catherine Ryan Howard’s and Louise Hegarty's shortlisted for Crime Fiction Book of the Year, Chloe Walsh is nominated for Popular Fiction Book of the Year for the latest in her series, , and Caroline O’Donoghue’s is in the running for Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Dublin on Thursday, November 27.
The winners of the Best Short Story and Best Poetry categories will receive a special Irish Book Awards Scholarship at the Irish Writers Centre to help develop their writing careers.
Members of the public are invited to vote for the best books of the year at anpostirishbookawards.ie/vote until voting closes at 6pm on Sunday, November 16. The overall winner will be revealed during a one-hour television special, hosted by Oliver Callan, that will be broadcast on RTÉ One on December 11.
Conversation with the Sea – Hugo Hamilton (Hachette Books Ireland)
Fun and Games – John Patrick McHugh (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins)
Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way – Elaine Feeney (Harvill, Penguin)
Nesting – Roisín O’Donnell (Scribner Books from Simon & Schuster)
The Benefactors – Wendy Erksine (Sceptre)
The Boy from the Sea – Garrett Carr (Picador, Pan MacMillan)
The Ghosts of Rome – Joseph O’Connor (Harvill, Penguin)
Venetian Vespers – John Banville (Faber)
An Irish Word a Day – Hector Ó hEochagáin (Gill Books)
For and against a united Ireland – Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride (Published by Royal Irish Academy and commissioned by the ARINS project)
Midwinter: A Journey Through a Season – Michael Harding, illustrated by Enagh Farrell (Hachette Books Ireland)
Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun) – Manchán Mangan, illustrated by Megan Luddy (Gill Books)
Sunday Miscellany: A Selection 2023-2025 – Edited by Sarah Binchy (New Island Books)
The GAA Covered – John Kelly (Gill Books)
Burn Them Out!: A history of Fascism and the Far Right in Ireland – Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc (Apollo, Head of Zeus)
Charlie vs Garret: The rivalry that shaped modern Ireland – Eoin O’Malley (Eriu)
Great Irish Wives – Nicola Pierce (The O’Brien Press)
Ireland: Mapping the Island – Joseph Brady and Paul Ferguson (Birlinn)
The Dublin Pub: A Social and Cultural History – Donal Fallon (New Island Books)
Wrong Women – Caroline West (Eriu)
A Time for Truth: My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing – Sarah Corbett Lynch (Hachette Books Ireland)
Miriam: Life, Work, Everything – Miriam O’Callaghan (Sandycove, Penguin)
She Died Young: A Life in Fragments – Brenda Fricker (Apollo, Head of Zeus)
Speaking My Mind – Leo Varadkar (Sandycove, Penguin)
Still – A Memoir – Julia Kelly (New Island Books)
The Brass Player: Surviving the Miami Showband Massacre – Stephen Travers with Yvonne Watterson (New Island Books)
Catastrophe: Nakba II – Fintan Drury (Merrion Press)
Deadly Silence: A Sister’s Battle to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of Clodagh and Her Sons by Alan Hawe – Jacqueline Connolly with Kathryn Rogers (Hachette Books Ireland)
Dynasty: Scandals, Triumph, Turmoil and Succession at the heart of Dunnes Stores – Matt Cooper (Eriu)
The Bailout Babies – Adam Maguire (Gill Books)
The Lie of the Land: A Game Plan for Ireland in Climate Crisis – John Gibbons (Sandycove, Penguin)
The Secret Life of Leinster House – Gavan Reilly (Gill Books)
Donal’s Real Time Recipes – Donal Skehan (Yellow Kite)
Good Together: Delicious Recipes for the Moments that Matter – Una Leonard (Hachette Books Ireland)
Make & Freeze - Lou Robbie (Michael Joseph, Penguin)
Sophie’s Swaps – Sophie Morris (Gill Books)
The Walking Effect – Karl Henry (Gill Books)
Light Up – Miriam Hussey (Gill Books)
Cloud Nine: My Life in Rugby – Conor Murray with Tommy Conlon (Reach Sport)
Heart on My Sleeve – Andrew Porter (Eriu)
Ó Sé – Marc O Sé with Adrian Russell (Gill Books)
The Changing Game: The Past, Present and Future of Football – Martin O’Neill, with Joey D’Urso (Headline, Hachette Books Ireland)
The Only Way I Know: The Autobiography – Andy Farrell (Sandycove, Penguin)
The Race – David Gillick with Cathal Dennehy (Gill Books)
A Time for Truth: My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing – Sarah Corbett Lynch (Hachette Books Ireland)
Intensive Care: True Stories of Healing, Heartache and Hope from Inside Irish Children’s Medicine – Dr Suzanne Crowe (Hachette Books Ireland)
Nesting – Roisín O’Donnell (Scribner Books from Simon & Schuster)
Old Parish: Notes on Hurling – Ciarán Murphy (Sandycove, Penguin)
The Gaeilge Guide: Spark Your Connection to the Irish Language and Legacy – Mollie Guidera (Hachette Books Ireland)
The Ghosts of Rome – Joseph O’Connor (Harvill, Penguin)
Colm Tóibín
Donal Ryan
Elaine Feeney
John Boyne
Roisín O’Donnell
Sarah Maria Griffin
Every One Still Here – Liadan Ní Chuinn (The Stinging Fly)
Show Me Where It Hurts – Claire Gleeson (Sceptre)
Frogs for Watchdogs – Seán Farrell (New Island Books)
Oddbody – Rose Keating (Canongate)
Sugartown – Caragh Maxwell (Oneworld)
The Compound – Aisling Rawle (The Borough Press, HarperCollins)
The Wardrobe Department – Elaine Garvey (Canongate)
Thirst Trap – Gráinne O’Hare (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
Burn After Reading – Catherine Ryan Howard (Bantam, Transworld)
Fair Play – Louise Hegarty (Picador, Pan MacMillan)
It Should Have Been You – Andrea Mara (Bantam, Transworld)
The Killing Sense – Sam Blake (Corvus, Atlantic Books)
The Secret Room – Jane Casey (Hemlock, HarperCollins)
The Stolen Child – Carmel Harrington (Headline Review)
The Stranger Inside – Amanda Cassidy (Canelo Crime)
Two Kinds of Stranger – Steve Cavanagh (Headline)
Before Dorothy – Hazel Gaynor (Harper Fiction, HarperCollins)
City Girls Forever – Patricia Scanlan (Simon & Schuster)
Moving On – Roisin Meaney (Hachette Books Ireland)
Our Song – Anna Carey (Hachette Books Ireland)
Paper Heart – Cecelia Ahern (Harper Fiction, HarperCollins)
Releasing 10 – Chloe Walsh (Piatkus, Little, Brown Book Group)
Such a Good Couple – Sophie White (Hachette Books Ireland)
The In-Laws – Sinéad Moriarty (Sandycove, Penguin)
An Fia sa Choill – Sadhbh Devlin illustrated by Anastasia Melynkova (Futa Fata)
Badger Books – Paddy Donnelly (The O’Brien Press)
Don’t Trust Fish! – Neil Sharpson, illustrated by Dan Santat (Anderson Press)
Ellora McGee, Trainee Banshee – Sinéad O’Hart, illustrated by Úna Woods (Gill Books)
Letters to a Monster – Patricia Forde, illustrated by Sarah Warburton (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
Once I Was a Tree – Eoin McLaughlin, illustrated by Guilherme Karsten (Nosy Crow)
Penguin TV – Niamh Sharkey and Owen Churcher (Gill Books)
Run Home, Little Fox – Tom McCaughren and Erika McGann, illustrated by Shannon Bergin (The O’Brien Press)
Animalopedia – Kathi and John Burke (Gill Books)
Tales of Darkisle Book One: Conn of the Dead – Dave Rudden, illustrated by Ali Al Amine (Gill Books)
Granny National – Rachael Blackmore, with Rachel Pierce and illustrated by Tom Snape (Sandycove, Penguin)
Milly McCarthy and the Haunted House HullaBOOloo! – Leona Forde illustrated by Karen Harte (Gill Books)
Nina Peanut Epic World Tour Era – Sarah Bowie (Scholastic)
The Doomsday Club – Kevin Moran (The O’Brien Press)
Any Way You Slice It - Méabh McDonnell (The O’Brien Press)
Matched Up – Jenny Ireland (Penguin)
My Name is Jodie Jones – Emma Shevah (David Fickling Books)
Solo – Gráinne O’Brien (Little Island Books)
Shipshock – Caroline O’Donoghue (Walker Books)
The Rebel and the Rose – Catherine Doyle (Simon & Schuster)
An Bhlaosc sa mBois – Michéal Ó Conghaile (Cló Iar-Chonnacht)
Bódléar – Darach Ó Scolaí (Leabhar Breac)
Fiche – Colm Ó Ceallacháin (Leabhar Breac)
Scéalta Nollag – Alan Titley, maisithe ag Firas Aldakkak (LeabhairCOMHAR)
Carnations – Lorraine Courtney
Glass Splinters – Kieran Marsh
Breathing Lessons – Sylvia Caldwell
That Little Tent of Blue – Mary Shovelin
All the Birch Trees Were Waving – Pádhraic Quinn
A Constriction – Eamon McGuinness
‘There’s never a crowd at the poetry section’ – Vincent Barton
‘The Tragedy of It’ – Kevin O’Farrell
‘The Crows’ and ‘The Leaf’ - Paul McMahon
‘Minimum Wage’, ‘South-Eastern Wind’ and ‘Midnight Oil’ – Joanne McCarthy
‘Rowan’s furniture. Dublin 1965’ and ‘Carousel’ – Nollaig Rowan
‘I Remember Stealing’ and ‘The Visitor’ – Bronagh Mallon
Antonia’s Bookstore, Trim, Co. Meath
Chapters Bookstore, Dublin 1
Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Co. Galway
The Company of Books, Ranelagh, Dublin 6
Liber Bookshop, Sligo Town
The Maynooth Bookshop, Co. Kildare
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