Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2015

I am naturally delighted that The Closet of Savage Mementos has been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2015. All thanks to my editor Eoin Purcell for publishing the book (Eoin is now working in London with Amazon) and to all the New Island team. I'm in lovely company; special congrats to fellow Islander, David Butler.

The shortlist:

City of Dis by David Butler

Blue is the Night by Eoin McNamee

The Closet of Savage Mementos by Nuala Ní Chonchúir

The Visitors by Patrick O’Keeffe

The Diary of Mary Travers by Eibhear Walshe

The adjudicators Eileen Battersby and Gerald Dawe will select the winner, who will be presented with a cheque for €15,000 at the Opening Night of Listowel Writers’ Week on Wednesday 27th May 2015.

More here.

Gregory O'Donoghue Prize poems published

Juno refusing to look at Warhol - Tate, Liverpool - 2012

The winning and shortlisted poems for the Gregory O'Donoghue Prize have been published now in Southword. Read winner Maya Popa's 'Hummingbird' to see the type of poem that wins an international prize such as this.

Judge Patrick Cotter has written a judge's summation on his blog about the thirteen poems. He has this to say about my shortlisted poem 'Juno Refuses to Look at Warhol': Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s ‘Juno Refuses to Look at Warhol’ builds up to the poetic insight often revealed through the fresh perspective of a child’s eye. Derek Mahon composed a two liner based on his infant daughter’s observation of sunlight reflected on a ceiling. Here Ní Chonchúir spins a charming narrative.

THRESHOLDS SHORTLIST

The Thresholds Feature Writing shortlist is out. And my essay is on it. Yay! Congrats also to my writing buds Tom Vowler, Carys Bray and Dan Powell. Winner and runner up announced this Friday.

SHORTLIST

Anna Arbiter: No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July

Carys Bray: We Recommend Adam Marek

Stephen Devereux: The Fall of the British Empire – Saki’s ‘The Lumber Room’

Nuala Ní Chonchúir: A Trio of Irish Short Stories

Dan Powell: Stig Dagerman’s The Games of Night

Tom Vowler: Touch by Graham Mort

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.

MITCHELSTOWN S/STORY SHORTLIST

Myself and Vincent McDonnell have concluded our adjudication of the entries received for The Mitchelstown Short Story Prize and the short list of 10 stories has been passed on to the final judge, John MacKenna. The organisers expect to publish the name of the winner, and the 5 runners up, on or before 31st March 2009.

The winner will receive the Cork County Council Library Services Prize of €2,500 and a laptop, sponsored by The Mouse Pad, Mitchelstown.

It's fun for me to see the names on the shortlist for the first time and here they are, congrats to them all:

SHORTLIST

Adam Chaney, Utah, U.S.A.

Chani Anderson, Galbally, Co. Tipperary

Kathleen Murray, Cabra, Dublin 7

Olivia Rana, Malone Road, Belfast

Irene Rose-Ledger, Glasthule, Co. Dublin

Róisín McDermott, Celbridge, Co. Kildare

Margaret Irish, Kilkenny City

Mary Lennon, Coolock, Dublin 13

Micheál O’Siocháin, Charleville, Co. Cork

Tanya Farrelly, Clondalkin, Dublin 22

Competition site here

MAN BOOKER SHORTLIST 2008

The Man Booker Prize 2008 shortlisted novels are:

Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (Atlantic)

Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)

Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies (John Murray)

Linda Grant, The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)

Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate)

Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton)

So much for my hopes for Joseph O'Neill...well, at least we have Sebastian Barry in there to carry the torch!

Aravind Adiga is only 34! Wow. Linda Grant is the only woman on the shortlist. Now I wonder do juries ever get split along gender lines?!

SEÁN Ó FAOLÁIN SHORTLIST

In no particular order here are the shortlisted writers for the 2008 Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize:


Genine Lentine, San Francisco, USA

Anna May Mangan, Wembley, UK

Terese Svoboda, New York, USA

Elizabeth Costello, Dublin, Ireland

Cathy Sweeney, Bray, Ireland

Natalie Diaz, Surprise, AZ USA

Benjamin Arda Doty, Minneapolis, USA

Colm Keegan, Dublin, Ireland

Michelle Tandoc-Pichereau, Cotes C'Armor, France

Julia Van Middlesworth, New Jersey, USA

One of these people is the overall winner of the €1,500 prize, one claimed second prize of €500, and eight are runners up with €100 each. Each writer will also be published in December's Southword.

The winner will be announced at the Frank O'Connor Short Story Festival on Saturday the 20th of September at 12.30pm.

Thanks to all who entered - I had a ball reading the stories,I learned a few things along the way and, in the end, I could only choose ten of the 705 stories I read.

To those who didn't make the final ten, your story may well have been in my 'YES!' pile and another judge or editor may find it is her favourite on the day. Send it out again and good luck.

LONGER SHORTLIST FOR SEÁN Ó FAOLÁIN

News just in from the administrators of the Seán Ó Faoláin Prize at the Munster Literature Centre. As entries almost doubled this year - to 707 - they have generously decided to allow me, as judge, to pick four further runners up!

This means that there will be 1st prize, 2nd prize, and EIGHT prizes of €100, plus publication in the literary journal Southword.

Not only does this take the sting out of choosing a shortlist for me (a task I currently have in hand) but it is further evidence of what a fair-minded and supportive competition this is for new and emerging writers.

Once again the Munster Literature Centre shows how it should be done.