Five internationally significant Irish authors have been announced as finalists for this year’s Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award. The €15,000 award is the largest monetary prize for fiction available solely to Irish authors.
The shortlist was announced by Aoife O’Brien of Kerry Group, who was joined by the Award adjudicators, Observer associate editor and former editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, Robert McCrum and prominent Irish poet and playwright, Rita Ann Higgins at the launch of the 42nd Listowel Writers’ Week in Dublin’s Mansion House.
The five authors on the list are:
Speaking about the shortlist, Robert McCrum said “After an intensive selection process, shared throughout this spring with my distinguished associate Rita Ann Higgins, I am delighted to announce these five fine writers for the shortlist of a most important Irish literary prize. It has been such an honour to make a contribution to this part of the Listowel Writers’ Week, and I look forward to working with Rita Ann in picking the winner. It’s going to be a close race, down to the wire.”
Established in 1995 and sponsored by Kerry Group, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year is an annual award for Irish authors of fiction. Previous winners of the award include
Christine Dwyer Hickey, Neil Jordan,
John Banville, Joseph O’Neill, Roddy Doyle, Sebastian Barry and John McGahern.
Speaking about the announcement, Frank Hayes, of Kerry Group, said, “Now in its 18th year, the Kerry Group Irish Novel Award continues to be a much sought after accolade in the Irish literary calendar, with the 2013 award attracting excellent entries from both established and up-and-coming Irish writers. I extend my congratulations to our two adjudicators, Rita Ann Higgins and Robert McCrum, for selecting this year’s shortlist which showcases the strength and richness of Irish fiction writing.”
The Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award will be announced by Frank Hayes at the opening event of the 2013 Listowel Writers’ Week on Wednesday, 29 May, 2013.
Short list for 2013 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award:
Lucy Caldwell – shortlisted for All The Beggars Riding
Born in Belfast in 1981, Lucy Caldwell read English at Queens’ College, Cambridge and is a graduate of Goldsmith’s MA in Creative and Life Writing. She is the author of two previous novels, Where They Were Missed (2006) and The Meeting Point (2011), which featured on BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime and was awarded the Dylan Thomas Prize and The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her stage plays (Leaves, Guardians, Notes to Future Self) and radio dramas (Girl From Mars, Avenues of Eternal Peace, Witch Week) have won awards including the George Devine Award and the Imison Award. In 2011 she was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for her body of work to date. All The Beggars Riding was recently announced as Belfast’s choice for One City One Book 2013.
Gavin Corbett, shortlisted for This is the Way
Gavin Corbett was born in the west of Ireland and grew up in Dublin, where he studied History at Trinity College. This is the Way, his second novel, will be published by Fourth Estate in the UK (Spring 2013) and by Faber in the US (Winter 2013). He lives in New York.
Claire Kilroy, shortlisted for The Devil I Know
Claire Kilroy’s debut novel All Summer was described in The Times as “Compelling … a thriller, a confession and a love story framed by a meditation on the arts.” Claire was awarded the 2004 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her second novel, Tenderwire was shortlisted for the 2007 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award. It was followed, in 2009, by the highly acclaimed novel, All Names Have Been Changed. Educated at Trinity College, she lives in Dublin.
Kathleen MacMahon, shortlisted for This is How it EndsKathleen MacMahon is a writer and journalist. Her first novel, This Is How It Ends, was published to critical acclaim in May 2012 and spent 5 weeks at the top of the bestseller list in Ireland. The book is being translated into more than twenty languages. A former journalist with Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, Kathleen is the grand-daughter of the short story writer Mary Lavin. She lives in Dublin with her husband and twin daughters. Kathleen was winner of the Irish Tatler Woman of the Year 2012 for Literature.
Thomas O’Malley, shortlisted for The Magnificent Desolation
Thomas O’Malley is the author of the novel In the Province of Saints, selected as one of the best books of 2005 by Booklist and the New York Public Library. He earned his MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and teaches at Dartmouth College. Raised in Ireland and England, O’Malley currently lives in the Boston area.
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