FRANK O'CONNOR SHORTLIST 2012

Kevin Barry is the only Irish nominee on the shortlist for the 2012 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the world’s biggest prize for a collection of stories. What a year he's having!

Congrats to all of the six-strong list which is nicely international with collections from Americans Nathan Englander and Lucia Perillo, Israeli Etgar Keret, New Zealander Fiona Kidman and British writer Sarah Hall. Nathan Englander is effectively on the list twice as he translated Keret’s book; he and Keret will split the prize money if the book wins. Perhaps they'll do a nice two-hander at the festival if that happens. That would be cool. Etgar K gave a good reading and interview the last time he was shortlisted for the award.

The winner of the award of €25,000, organised by the Munster Literature Centre and funded by Cork City Council, will be announced on July 5th and the prize will be presented at the Cork International Short Story Festival in September. The judges are poet James Harpur, Irish novelist Mary Leland and festival organiser Ann Luttrell.