Public vote to decide winners of book prize

THE choice of short-listed titles for this year’s Irish Book Awards features an extraordinary mix of authors and the outcome should be extraordinary too, because, for the first time, the public can vote for their favourite books.

Successful Irish writers like Seamus Heaney, Sebastian Barry, Maeve Binchy and Cecilia Ahern are clashing with famous names from the world of entertainment and sport such as Rachel Allen, Kathryn Thomas, Ross O’Carroll Kelly and Ronan O’Gara.

And this year, Irish fiction queens Cathy Kelly, Maeve Binchy, Cecilia Ahern, Patricia Scanlan and Marian Keys go head-to-head for the title of Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the year — a competition that is bound to attract a lot of attention.

It is the fourth year of the awards, dedicated to honouring Irish writers across the entire publishing spectrum, and is the only industry-wide event of its kind. It is open to all Irish authors who had a book published during the last 12 months.

Irish Book Awards chairman Fergal Stanley said books were bucking the economic downturn.

“Even in these difficult times, nothing represents value for money better than a book and we’re more than pleased to say that a recession doesn’t stop Irish authors writing great books,” he said.

There are 10 categories in this year’s competition and a new category — the Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year will celebrate the wealth of Irish crime writing to emerge in recent times.

The overall winners in nine of the 10 categories will be chosen by a public vote, in conjunction with the Irish Literary Academy. The winner of the Lifetime Achievement in Irish Literature, however, will be decided solely by the academy.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony that will take place in The Round Room at the Mansion House in Dublin on Wednesday, May 6.

This year’s shortlist emerged from a ballot of more than 300 Irish booksellers and local libraries.

With the full support of the Irish Booksellers’ Association, a ballot paper of submitted titles was created and sent to all bookshops last October.

People can vote for their favourite books from this weekend on the Irish Book Awards website, www.irishbookawards.ie, or via RTÉ Radio 1’s The Tubridy Show website and TV3’s Ireland AM website.

Every voter will also be in with a chance of winning up to e750 worth of National Book Tokens.