Gethan Dick has won the 2026 Kate O’Brien Award for her powerful, original and deeply moving debut novel Water in the Desert Fire in the Night, published last year by Tramp Press.
She was presented with the €5,000 prize by sponsors Bill and Denise Whelan at the Belltable Theatre as part of the Limerick Literary Festival in honour of Kate O’Brien earlier this week.
This year’s award attracted a record 17 submissions. The other shortlisted writers were Elaine Garvey for The Wardrobe Department; Sharon Guard for Assembling Ailish; and Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin for Ordinary Saints.
Festival director Vivienne McKechnie said: “It is wonderful to see such accomplished writers and the event at this year’s festival was inspirational as we heard these writers speak eloquently and confidently about their books and the writing process. We, the judges, were taken on many different and interesting journeys. Congratulations to the shortlisted writers and huge congratulations to Gethan Dick, whose novel Water in the Desert Fire in the Night was a very worthy winner.”
In an interview with The Irish Times, Dick said her novel was about “an underachieving young woman, a retired midwife and a charismatic Dubliner who set out from London after the end of the world to cycle to a sanctuary in the southern Alps. And it’s about the fact that the thing about the end of the world is that it happens all the time.
“It’s about hope, hunger, gold, wolves, Streatham, Cuba, post-apocalyptic feminism, pregnancy and bicycles. It’s about the porousness of the female bodily experience, the challenges of being an empiricist with a sample size of one, what’s worth knowing and what’s worth living and the necessity of irrationality.”
The Irish Times books coverage
In The Irish Times tomorrow, Mary Costello tells Edel Coffey about her new novel, A Beautiful Loan, and how genocide in Gaza has stopped her writing. John Banville writes about the inspiration for Christine Falls, the first of his Quirke series and this year’s One Dublin One Book choice. And there is a Q&A with Henrietta McKervey, whose latest novel is The Woman in the Water.
Reviews are John Self on Beryl Bainbridge, whose novels, including the classic An Awfully Big Adventure, are being reissued; Joseph O’Connor on Anthony Cronin’s Dead as Doornails, another reissued classic; Martina Evans on the best new poetry collections; Michael Cronin on a reissued Joyce Cary trilogy; Ian Hughes on The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict and Warnings from History by Odd Arne Westad; Mei Chin on Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise; Brigid O’Dea on The Lock-Keeper’s Wife by John MacKenna; Neil Hegarty on Field Notes from an Extinction by Eoghan Walls; Julia Kelly on You with the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate; Ray Burke on A Thousand Miracles: From Surviving the Holocaust to Judging Genocide by Theodor Meron; and Sara Keating on children’s fiction.
Tributes paid to Trinity’s Sarah Smyth
Tributes have been paid to Sarah Smyth, founding director of the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, who died on February 27th after a long illness.
James Hadley, the current director, said: “We are deeply grateful to Sarah for her incredible vision and determination: without her drive and powers of persuasion, our centre simply wouldn’t exist. We send our sincere condolences to Sarah’s family and friends. May she rest in peace.”
Smyth read languages at Trinity College Dublin and from 1987-2021 she taught at Trinity’s Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies. In 2013, with the support of key colleagues, she set up the centre, working tirelessly to attract support and funding for the project, which moved to its permanent home at 36 Fenian Street, Dublin, in 2016. The centre has since become the reference point for translation scholars, practicing translators and linguists from all around the world. It has also become a significant cultural outreach centre for the university, having welcomed more than 10,000 people to events since its inception.
She was predeceased by her husband Stanford Kingston, her mother, the writer Jennifer Johnston, and father Ian Smyth. She is survived by her siblings Patrick, the former Irish Times journalist, Lucy, and Malachi. A thanksgiving ceremony will beheld tomorrow at 10am in the Victorian Chapel, Mount Jerome, Harold’s Cross, followed by cremation.
Annie Macmanus book deal
Canongate is to publish The Fox, a novel about romance fraud, desire and the need for human connection by Irish author Annie Macmanus in April 2027.
53-year-old Carmel is furious at her husband for dying. Grief-stricken and holding everything together for her adult sons, she’s never felt more alone. But as spring arrives in Dublin, so does Graham – a fellow widower she meets on a dating app. He makes her feel truly alive for the first time in years.
Meanwhile, in London, twenty-something Lisa devotes her life to caring for the homeless at work, and for her troubled sister at home. But Lisa has a dangerous secret that sustains her. When the two women’s lives collide, it brings a twisted connection.
Macmanus is a broadcaster, DJ and author. She presented the flagship new music show on BBC Radio 1 for 17 years before leaving to concentrate on writing. Since then she has written two acclaimed novels, Mother Mother and The Mess We’re In, whose rights have been bought for adaptation by It’s All Made Up Productions, who produced Adolescence.
Macmanus said: ‘I have spent my adult life working in fields of connection. Whether it be writing, broadcasting on live radio or playing music to crowds in my role as a DJ, I have been a conduit, a messenger, a sharer of songs and feelings. For my third novel I knew I wanted to write about connection in relationships, specifically about our elemental need to be known and understood by the people in our lives.
“The Fox is a contemporary love story, a psychological portrayal of a relationship which could only exist in these times, but the ways in which it’s characters love; the stories they tell themselves, the lengths they will go to avoid their loneliness, are both universal and timeless. We all so desperately want somewhere to put our love.”
British Book Awards shortlists
Two Irish authors have been shortlisted for Book of the Year – Debut Fiction at the British Book Awards.
Roisín O’Donnell has been nominated for Nesting, her debut novel about a woman fleeing domestic abuse. It has already won Irish Novel of the Year and been longlisted for the Book Prize. Her first book was the story collection Wild Quiet (2016).
Garrett Carr, who lectures in creative writing at Queen’s University Belfast, is shortlisted for his first novel, The Boy from the Sea, about the impact of an abandoned baby on a Donegal fishing community. It was shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year. His first book was The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland’s Border (Faber & Faber, 2017).
Also shortlisted are Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis, The Artist by Lucy Steeds, The House of Wolf by Tony Robinson, and The Names by Florence Knapp.
The Author of the Year shortlist features A.F. Steadman, Charlie Mackesy, Elif Shafak, Freida McFadden, Mick Herron and Ruth Jones.
The Illustrator of the Year consists of Dav Pilkey; Emily Gravett, Huw Aaron, Ingela P Arrhenius, Mikey Please and Tom Percival.
The Book of the Year – Fiction shortlist is: Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory; Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Heart the Lover by Lily King; My Friends by Fredrik Backman; Strange Pictures by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion; and The Rose Field: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman.
The Book of the Year – Crime & Thriller shortlist is: A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith; Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall; The God of the Woods by Liz Moore; The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman; The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown; and The Tenant by Freida McFadden.
The Book of the Year – Non-Fiction shortlist is: A Mind of My Own by Kathy Burke; Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams; Entitled by Andrew Lownie; Last Rites by Ozzy Ozbourne; Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy; and Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, co-written by Amy Wallace.
The winners will be announced on May 11th.
Rush Festival of Writing
John Banville has been announced as the headline guest of the inaugural Rush Festival of Writing, a one-day event which will take place in the North County Dublin seaside town on April 25th. Banville will be in conversation with author Kevin Curran (YOUTH) discussing his remarkable career, including The Sea and The Book of Evidence, his series of hugely successful crime novels under his Benjamin Black pen name, as well as Christine Falls - which is this year’s One Dublin One Book choice.
Crime fiction fans will enjoy a double bill of Catherine Ryan Howard (56 Days) and Andrea Mara (All Her Fault). They will be discussing the craft of crime writing, their intriguing careers and the recent big-budget TV adaptations of their work with Sinéad Cuddihy of the popular online Tired Mammy Book Club.
Many events on the programme are free-to-attend, including an interview with cultural stalwart Eamon Carr sharing stories from his music, poetry and journalism career. Author/essayist Sinéad Gleeson (Hagstone, Constellations) and Anna Carey (Our Song, Love Scene) will share their creative journeys in a conversation targeting aspiring writers, discussing how to sustain a career in writing.
The younger members of the family will also be catered for in two children’s events at Rush Library: a storytime and doodle with former Laureate na nÓg Niamh Sharkey based on her Penguin TV book, and a ‘Design Your Own Superhero’ workshop with author, illustrator and comic book creator Alan Nolan.
See rushfestivalofwriting.com for more details and ticketing information.
Listowel Writers Week workshops
This year’s Listowel Writers Week workshops run across three mornings during the festival, beginning at 9.30am on Thursday, May 28th and continuing through Friday and Saturday.
Novelist Catherine Dunne will lead the Creative Writing workshop, exploring the work behind storytelling and the patient shaping of character and narrative. Poet Enda Wyley will host Poetry: A Celebration, an invitation to explore the rhythm, language and possibilities of poetry. Writer and farmer John Connell will lead Life Writing, drawing on the raw material of memory and experience to shape powerful personal narratives. Poet and academic Victoria Kennefick invites writers to step beyond the familiar in Writing ‘Brave’ Poems Outside Your Comfort Zone.
Tickets can be booked at writersweek.ie
Belfast Book Festival
The 16th annual Belfast Book Festival takes place at The Crescent Arts Centre from June 4th to 11th.
Ahead of the main festival, The Crescent has announced Bookmarks: a new spring preview series of literary events. Highlights include TS Eliot Prize-winner Sinéad Morrissey launching her memoir Among Communists on March 20th; Jan Carson presenting her new novel Few and Far Between on April 7th; and Louise Nealon sharing her new publication, Everything That Is Beautiful, on April 8th.
Festival patron Lucy Caldwell will launch the Belfast Book Festival 2026 programme on Monday, April 20th and discuss her new short story collection Devotions with literary journalist Alex Clark.
Broadcaster and author Clare Balding discuss their new book, Pastures New on May 11th and Mícheál McCann will launch Lives of Saints, his second collection of poems, on May 14th.
Sophie Hayles, CEO of Crescent Arts Centre, said: “Bookmarks is an exciting new way for us to build momentum ahead of this year’s Belfast Book Festival and offers a taste of events that will define the main festival in June. We’re thrilled to welcome such an exceptional line-up of writers to Crescent Arts Centre and to continue offering events on a pay-what-you-decide basis, ensuring these literary experiences are open to all. We can’t wait to reveal the full festival programme in April.”
Two Irish titles up for Crimecon Awards
The Killing of the Reavey Brothers: British Murder and Cover-up in Northern Ireland by journalist Ken Murray and Eugene Reavey, has been shortlisted for the UK Crimecon Awards 2026.
It tells the horrific story of how two brothers, Brian and John Martin were shot dead by members of the UVF Glenanne Gang at Whitecross, Co Armagh on January 4th, 1976. A third brother, Anthony, who was also shot, died three weeks later.
Murray said: “I’m somewhat shocked to make the shortlist. The book has received rave reviews from newspapers and critics in the north of Ireland but the competition in the UK is pretty outstanding so to get this far, is fantastic.”
Eugene Reavey said: ‘We are delighted to be nominated. We have been getting fantastic feedback about the book and it would now appear that the literary community in Britain have also been shocked by its contents so let’s see what happens in June. Hopefully the growing profile of this book will help us to get long-awaited answers.’
Also nominated is Kincora: Britain’s Shame – Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys’ Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover-Up (Merrion Press) by former BBC NI journalist Chris Moore. Mercier Press in Cork is also nominated for Publisher of the Year. The UK Crimecon Awards take place in London on June 4th.
Among the 66-person judging panel are former Sky News crime correspondent, Martin Brunt, former BBC Panorama reporter John Sweeney, former RTE Crimecall Presenter David Harvey and Ian Rumsey of ITV.
Granard Booktown Festival
Granard Booktown Festival in Co Longford returns next month, from April 16th to 19th.
Headline names include comedian and writer Jarlath Regan in conversation with Aoife Barry; Sebastian Barry in conversation with Bryan Dobson; and former state pathologist turned crime writer Marie Cassidy in conversation with journalist Paul Williams.
This year for the first time features writing workshops with Stephen Sexton on poetry; Aoife Barry on nonfiction; and Claire Keegan on creative writing.
The festival will also host a screening of That they may face the rising sun directed by Pat Collins, who will discuss the film and John McGahern with Belinda McKeon.
The festival will also remember two former guests, Manchan Magan and Conor Gearty.
Other events include Miriam O Callaghan on her memoir; journalist Gavan Reilly on the secret life of Leinster house; Aisling Rawle (author of The Compound), and Dean Van Nguyen, biographer of rapper Tupac Shakur.
granardbooktownfestival.ie
Buy the Book as Gaeilge
In recognition of Seachtain na Gaeilge buythebook.ie has launched an Irish-language version of its website, giving readers the option to browse and purchase books in Irish.
The initiative reflects the company’s commitment to promoting the Irish language while continuing to support Irish authors to sell their books directly.
Owner Rachel Drury said: “When we started our business, our primary goal was to showcase Irish authors on an Irish-owned platform and to bring a sense of community among authors. By giving readers a choice to shop in Irish, we further enhance our Irish-owned ethos.”
She also noted a renewed interest in the Irish language and said this initiative aims to make the language more accessible in everyday online experiences.
“There has been positive momentum in the Irish language recently, and we are proud to support that by making it easier for readers to use Irish when shopping online.”
Readers can access the Irish-language version of the site by visiting buythebook.ie/ga/
Claire Lynch wins Nero Gold Prize
The prestigious 2025 Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year, has been awarded to the debut novelist Claire Lynch for her book, A Family Matter (Chatto & Windus), which tells the story of a family torn apart by secrets, as the lie behind a mother’s long-term absence from her child’s life begins to unravel.
The £30,000 prize and trophy were presented to Lynch by chair of judges Nick Hornby, at a ceremony in central London.
Hornby said: “The judges all loved A Family Matter. We admired its wry humour, its deft storytelling, and its love for all its characters, even those who behave in ways we find hard to understand, and who make choices which we would regard as morally questionable. It is both readable and intelligent, and it offers hope and consolation. We believe that this novel will be read and thought about for years to come, and we very much hope that the prize will help Claire Lynch further establish herself in a literary career which will produce more novels as satisfying as this one.”
Writers in the Regions
The Irish Writers Centre has announced the first dates in a series of masterclasses taking place as part of its Writers in the Regions initiative, a nationwide programme that brings expert writers into regional communities, expanding the Irish Writers Centre’s outreach and supporting writers from all backgrounds and levels of experience.
The sessions are: Conor Kostick at the Yeats Society, Sligo (March 14th); David Butler at the Galway City Museum (April 11th); Mary Morrissy at The Source, Tipperary (May 16th); Mary O’Donnell at The Dock, Leitrim (May 23rd); Alan McMonagle at the Dean Crow Theatre, Athlone (Juine 20th); and Ronan Hession at Derry City Library (September 12th).
These one-off, in-person, lecture-style masterclasses will explore the craft of writing, developing plot and style and perspectives from which to tell a story. They will also cover the business of writing and publishing. Each masterclass will last for two hours, with a Q&A at the end.
Mags McLoughlin, CEO, Irish Writers Centre said: “Our Writers in the Regions series is an important one for us in terms of developing our commitment to making high-quality creative development available to writers across the country.” irishwriterscentre.ie
Northern Literary Lands
The ‘unparalleled concentration of literary greatness’ crammed into Ireland’s 11 border counties is at the heart of the Northern Literary Lands, a new project for which the Border becomes a binder in the name of literature.
Created by Arts Over Borders, Ireland’s leading producer of cross-border festivals, the Lands stretch from the north-west Wild Atlantic Way of Derry, Donegal and Sligo, into the Hidden Heartlands of Tyrone, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Cavan and Armagh and on to Ireland’s Ancient East of Monaghan, Louth and County Down, connecting towns such as Derry, Newry, Dundalk, Sligo and Armagh.
This new literary fifth province will be a banner opportunity for literary exhibitions and festivals, museums, books, travel and tourism projects to celebrate an area forever linked with world-acclaimed writers, including three Nobel Laureates – W.B. Yeats (influenced by his Co. Sligo childhood), Samuel Beckett (schooldays in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh) and Seamus Heaney (born and raised in Derry).
Nine Literary Ways - the Novel Way, Nobel Way, Poetic Way, Wilde Romantic Way and so on – are suggested routes for travellers with a love for specific writers and genres, designed to be completed in a day with stops along the way. They will be complemented by a new guidebook by Arts Over Borders artistic director, Seán Doran, who said: “This is a new way of celebrating the literary richness as gold in the earth at the liminal intersection of the northern and southern parts of the island. Each Literary Way criss-crosses the border, revealing a staggering concentration of literary giants. Experientially, for the culturally curious, it is an espresso literary hit, if you like.”
Among the first events are this month’s Samuel Beckett Biennale, with Open Rehearsals on Waiting for Godot in Ulster-Scots in Derry, and FrielDays - A Homecoming 2025-2029, a five-year theatrical celebration of Friel, which will stage nine productions from June to December this year across Donegal, Derry and Tyrone, and grow each year, so that 29 of Friel’s plays will run throughout 2029, his centenary year.
Hilary White book deal
Brendan Barrington, editorial director of Sandycove, has acquired City of Hawks by Hilary Adam White in a deal with Marianne Gunn O’Connor after a five-publisher auction. The book will be published in 2027.
Barrington said: “Hilary White brings nature writing to a new place in this remarkable book, illuminating the wildness of urban spaces with extraordinary attention and vividness. I am enormously proud to have the chance to publish it.”
White said: “I began 2025 with no greater ambition than to get this manuscript over the line after half a decade of writing and rewriting, second-guesses and breakthroughs. By the end of the year, thanks to my incredible agent Marianne Gunn O’Connor, this crazy dream about a city, its people and its raptors was fielding a level of interest I never imagined. I’m overjoyed City of Hawks has found a perch on the Penguin family tree. It links it to some of my favourite books and affords the opportunity to work with Brendan Barrington, one of the most consequential editors in nonfiction."
Since childhood, White has been an urban falconer in Dublin. When his father was approaching the end of his life, Hilary, already busy with his own young son and wanting to spend more time with his father, concluded that he had to return his beloved sparrowhawk, Sarah Green, to the wild. Without a hawk to look after, Hilary found himself drawn to the many places in Dublin where raptors nest and hunt.
Conor Griffin book deal
Sandycove has acquired The Shackles by Conor Griffin in a deal with Marianne Gunn O’Connor, to be published in 2027.
Deputy publisher Patricia Deevy said: “The Shackles is an astonishing novel about the corrosive toll of guilt on a group of friends. Conor’s brilliantly drawn characters are recognisable and authentic, his sense of place is impeccable, and the sustained sense of tension is off the charts. Like all the best crime fiction, The Shackles is equal parts gripping and thought-provoking, and I believe readers will be blown away by it.”
Griffin said: “I’m looking forward to readers engaging with the lives of the novel’s four complex characters.”
Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers’ Prize
Aisha Okorie’s debut novel To Whom I Am Becoming has won the Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers’ Prize 2025.
Okorie will receive mentoring sessions from judge and author Ashley Hickson-Lovence, and Emily Bullock, OU Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing; a fully-catered 5-day Little Goat Barn writing retreat in Wales hosted by the Ruppin Agency with return travel included; a one-to-one with Jonathan Ruppin, director of the Ruppin Agency and former literary agent; a year-long membership to The Society of Authors; £200 cash prize, a place at a Writers & Artists writing event and a bundle of creative writing books, including the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook.
Okorie is an East London-raised writer and international development advisoer whose work was ignited by the loss of her brother and the legal aftermath.
To Whom I Am Becoming follows Selah Akintola, one year into motherhood and feeling increasingly estranged from her own body and from the woman she once hoped she might become. When an email lands in her inbox informing her that Nathan Okafor, the man convicted of killing her best friend four years ago, is applying for early release, Selah begins writing letters to herself to face the past and survive the present. The story explores Black British motherhood, friendship, love, loss and the cost of telling the truth in systems built on silence.
Liz Nugent returns to Pavilion
Liz Nugent returns to The Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire on Wednesday, March 18th to celebrate the launch of her sixth novel, The Truth About Ruby Cooper. The evening will feature Nugent in conversation with popular broadcaster Muireann O’Connell. Together, they will delve into the dark and addictive world of Nugent’s latest psychological thriller, which follows the decades-long fallout of a catastrophic incident in a close-knit Boston community.
