Last week, an incredible shortlist for the Dublin Literary Award was announced. Anna Burns, Olga Tokarczuk and Tayari Jones, previous winners of the Booker Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Women’s Prize, are among eight of the women to be nominated. With three novels in translation, the award includes writers from Canada, France, India, Iran, Poland, the UK and the USA. The Dublin Literary Award favours novels “of high literary merit” and the nominations are submitted by libraries in major cities across the world, deeming the award unique in its coverage of international fiction.
Patron of the Award, Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu, commented: “Looking at this fantastic list of books makes me so excited about our Literary Award this year. It’s more important than ever that Dublin City Council does its best to support the Arts in such challenging times and the International Dublin Literary Award is a huge statement of encouragement for writers.”
The shortlist is as follows:
- The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
- Milkman, Anna Burns
- History of Violence: A Novel, Edouard Louis
- The Friend, Sigrid Nunez
- There There, Tommy Orange
- Disoriental, Negar Djavadi
- Washington Black, Esi Edygyan
- All the Lives We Never Lived, Anuradha Roy
- An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
- Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk
The prize is worth a staggering £100,000, chosen by the six member international judging panel. The winner will be announced by the Lord Mayor of the City of Dublin on the 22nd October, it now being in its 25th year.
Words by Sylvia O’Hara
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