This Saturday’s reviews in The Irish Times are Brendan O’Leary on The Law and Practice of the Ireland-Northern Ireland Protocol; Niamh Donnelly on Lenny by Laura McVeigh; Martina Evans on the best new poetry; Seán Duke on Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers by Paul Morland; Alex Clark on The Truth Will Out by Rosemary Hannigan; Ed O’Loughlin on Very Bad People by Patrick Alley; Vic Duggan on Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama and Cathonomics: how Catholic tradition can create a more just economy by Anthony Arnett; Mia Levitin on In the Margins by Elena Ferrante; Sarah Gilmartin on Immediate Family by Ashley Nelson Levy.
This Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer is 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard. You can buy this excellent lockdown thriller for only €4.99, a €6 saving, with your paper.
Michelle Gallen’s novel, Big Girl, Small Town; Gail McConnell’s poetry collection, The Sun Is Open; David Goodall’s memoir, edited by Frank Sheridan, The Making of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985; and Niall Ó Dochartaigh’s history, Deniable Contact: Back-Channel Negotiation in Northern Ireland have been shortlisted for the 27th Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize.
The winner of the award, worth £7,500, will be announced in early May in Dublin. The prize was instituted in memory of the British ambassador to Ireland who was murdered by the IRA in 1976. The judges chose works that embodied the objectives of the prize, which are to promote and encourage peace and reconciliation in Ireland, a greater understanding between the peoples of Britain and Ireland, or closer co-operation between the partners of the European Community. These are the ideals which inspired Christopher Ewart-Biggs and to which his widow Jane subsequently dedicated herself.
Prof Roy Foster said: “At this time, the importance of coming to terms with a violent past, and exploring routes to mutual understanding through negotiation and compromise, is more urgently needed than ever.
“The shortlist for the 2022 prize reflects this. It includes a tough and salty novel charting everyday life and survival in a society traumatised by violent death and disappearance; a fascinating memoir by an unsung hero of the negotiations which led to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, a vital landmark in the peace process; a powerful and formally audacious book of poetry exploring the psychological fall-out after a paramilitary murder; and an in-depth analysis of the channels of communication set up between the British government and the republican movement. All these books are written with sharp insight and considerable literary distinction, and shine new light into dark corners of the Northern Irish experience.”
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Guard Your Heart by Irish writer Sue Divin is the only debut shortlisted for this year’s Yoto Carnegie Medal. Divin is a Derry-based writer originally from Armagh. She has a Masters in Peace and Conflict studies and has worked in Community Relations/Peace building for over 15 years. Guard Your Heart was shortlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award and joint winner of the Irish Novel Fair.
The othe titles on the Yoto Carnegie Medal shortlist are: October, October by Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding; When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle; Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock; The Crossing by Manjeet Mann; Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick, illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada; Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle; Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam (HarperCollins Children’s Books.
The 2022 Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist is Drawn Across Borders illustrated and written by George Butler; The Midnight Fair illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio, written by Gideon Sterer; Too Much Stuff, illustrated and written by Emily Gravett; Long Way Down illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff, written by Jason Reynolds; Milo Imagines the World illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Pena; Shu Lin’s Grandpa illustrated by Yu Rong, written by Matt Goodfellow; I Talk Like a River illustrated by Sydney Smith, written by Jordan Scott; The Wanderer illustrated and written by Peter Van den Ende.
The winners will be announced on June 16th at a lunchtime ceremony at The British Library.
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The Island of Ireland winner for the 2022 Independent Bookshop of the Year Award, part of the British Book Awards, is O’Mahony’s, one of Ireland’s oldest family-run independent bookshops. Managing director Frank O’Mahony, whose grandfather J P O’Mahony started the business 120 years ago, now looks after five stores, with its flagship bookshop based in Limerick.
The nine regional and country winners are now in contention for the overall Independent Bookshop of the Year Award, announced at the British Book Awards winner ceremony to be held at Grosvenor House in London on May 23rd.
Trinity College Dublin's School of English hosts a discussion between Dr Kevin Power and Hilary Fannin, with readings and performances of Hilary's work, on Monday, March 28th, in the Neill Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Institute. The event is free and open to the public but registration is required here; On Tuesday, April 19th, as part of the One Dublin One Book programme, Power talks to writer Nuala O'Connor about her experiences researching and writing her historical novels. This online via Zoom event is free but registration is required here.
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In the wake of last week’s International Booker Prize longlist announcement, the chair of the 2022 judges, Frank Wynne, has called for publishers around the world to reward translators more generously for the part they play in creating books. In particular, he urges publishers to offer translators royalties on book sales.
Frank is the first translator to chair the International Booker jury and his call to action builds on the campaigns waged by other translators and writers, including the recent debate led by 2018 International Booker winner Jennifer Croft, whose translation of Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob is on this year’s International Booker Prize longlist. On International Translation Day last year, the Society of Authors in the UK launched a campaign for full book cover credits for translators. The accompanying open letter has so far garnered over 2,500 signatures including those of Neil Gaiman and Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo.
Wynne said: “Although few works in translation will ever earn royalties, it is only fair that translators benefit from bestsellers and prize-winners that they have helped to create. While most independent publishers offer fair royalties, many of the larger publishers do not, or do so only to a small number of translators.”
The Jhalak Prize 2022 Book of the Year and Children’s & Young Adult longlists have been announced. Director Sunny Singh said: “Our longlists this year demonstrate the extraordinary variety and quality of work being produced by writers of colour in Britain and ranging from pioneering fiction and luminous poetry to insightful nonfiction. Each of these books defy conventions, expand writing repertoires into new genres, and break new ground in form, technique and style. These are books to savour, to love and remember long after the last page!”
The two £1,000 awards celebrate writing by British/British resident BAME writers. The 2021 Prize was won by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi for her astonishing novel The First Woman. The Jhalak Children’s and Young Adult Prize was won by Patrice Lawrence for Eight Pieces of Silva.
The shortlist for both awards will be announced on April 19th. The winners will be announced on May 26th in partnership with the British Library.
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Legend Press is to publish Winter People by Gráinne Murphy on October 6th. Set in the days immediately before elderly Sis Cotter’s home is repossessed, the novel follows three very different characters – each isolated and grappling with change – whose lives cross by the wintry sea on the west coast of Ireland.
Murphy said: “Winter People began on my favourite beach in winter 2019 and grew throughout the long, strange spring of 2020. It’s a story about anchors and resilience, about talking and listening, about forgiveness and the peace of a low grey sky. Sis Cotter is a character who has held a corner of my head and my heart for going on six years now, and I’m beyond delighted that Legend Press will publish Sis, Lydia and Peter’s story later this year.”
The author grew up and resides in rural west Cork, working as a self-employed language editor specialising in human rights and environmental issues. Some of her earlier novels were shortlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award 2019, the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair 2019, the Luke Bitmead Bursary 2016 and the Virginia Prize for Fiction 2014. In short fiction, her story Further West placed third in the Zoetrope All-Story Contest 2018, and was longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible short story award in 2021.
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On April 6th, the 30th edition of ROPES will be launched at Cúirt International Festival of Literature in An Taibhdhearc, Galway.
Produced at NUIG by the MA publishing students, the journal’s mission is to act as a platform for established and emerging writers and artists. This year, the team will host a diverse range of work including poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, and visual art.
ROPES is produced in aid of COPE Galway, to which all sales profits will be donated. Come to the launch to meet the team, hear contributors speak about their work and reflect on the impact of ROPES in the literary community over the past 30 years.
