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In this Saturday’s Irish Times, Jan Carson discusses her new novel, The Raptures, with John Self, while Cian Tormey talks to Seámas O’Reilly about taking over the Superman comics franchise. Reviews are Karlin Lillington on Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention; Marian Keyes on The Raptures by Jan Carson; Houman Barekat on A Time Outside This Time Amitava Kumar; Declan Hughes on the best new crime fiction; Anne Fogarty on Ulysses Unbound: A Reader’s Companion to James Joyce’s Ulysses by Terence Killeen and Ulysses: A Reader’s Odyssey by Daniel Mulhall; Daniel Geary on The Black President: Hope and Fury in the Age of Obama by Claude A Clegg; Martina Evans On Living and Dying with Marcel Proust by Christopher Prendergast; Paschal Donohoe on In Defense of Public Debt by Barry Eichengreen; and Sarah Gilmartin on Tides by Sara Freeman.
The Sanatorium by Sara Pearse is this weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer. You can buy it for €4.99, a saving of €5, with the newspaper.
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The shortlist has been announced for this year’s Kate O’Brien Award for the best debut novel or short story collection by an Irish female writer. The winner of the €2,000 prize sponsored by Bill and Denise Whelan will be announced at the Limerick Literary Festival on February 27th.
The shortlist is: Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin; The End of the World is a Cul De Sac by Louise Kennedy; Mother Mother by Annie Macmanus; The Crooked Tree by Una Mannion; Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan; and Boys Don’t Cry by Fiona Scarlett.
The judges are Marie Hackett, Eileen O’Connor, Vivienne McKechnie, Donal Ryan, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald and Niall MacMonagle. Previous winners are Anyush by Martine Madden (2015); Sara Baume with Spill Simmer Falter Wither (2016); Tanya Farrelly with When Black Dogs Sing (2017); Lisa Harding’s Harvesting (2018); Sue Rainsford’s Follow Me to Ground (2019); Show Them a Good Time by Nicole Flattery (2020); and As You Were by Elaine Feeney (2021).
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British-Ghanaian short story writer and photographer Caleb Azumah Nelson has won the Costa First Novel Award for his “contemporary portrait of masculinity”, Open Water. Bestselling author Claire Fuller won in the Costa Novel Award Category for her fourth book, Unsettled Ground, “a masterpiece of storytelling and craft”. John Preston won the Costa Biography Award for Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell, an “epic, immersive, cinematic telling” of the life of the late media mogul and MP. Hannah Lowe won the Costa Poetry Award with her third collection, The Kids, “a page turner about the experience of teaching and being taught”. Manjeet Mann won in the Costa Children’s Book Award category for her second work of fiction, The Crossing, a refugee crisis-inspired verse novel that “will enrich all who read it”. Each winner received £5,000 and is now eligible for the Costa Book of the Year to be announced on February 1st.
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Listowel Writers’ Week has announced an increase to €20,000 for the winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2022. This award is for the best novel by an Irish author published between February 1st, 2021 and February 1st, 2022, which is also the closing date for submissions .
The adjudicators for this year’s award are Manveen Rana and Rachel Joyce.
Catherine Keogh of Kerry Group said: “Kerry Group is proud to encourage and reward brilliance in Ireland’s writers through this partnership with Listowel Writers’ Week Literary Award. Steeped in literary tradition, Ireland’s creative fires continue to burn bright and as a company celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2022, we are delighted to play our part in celebrating the immense talent that Ireland has to offer.”
Last year’s award went to Anakana Schofield for Bina. A shortlist of five novels will be announced in March and the winner will be presented with their prize at the opening ceremony of Listowel Writers’ Week Literary Festival on June 1st.
Festival chairperson Catherine Moylan said: “We are delighted to continue to support and promote Irish writers with this internationally acclaimed award. It has become one of the highlights of our festival every year and with Kerry Group celebrating its 50th birthday next year; it’s guaranteed to be a cause for extra celebration.”
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Little Island Books is to publish in April a middle-grade novel on Ireland’s asylum-seeker accommodation system by award-winning author Jane Mitchell. Run For Your Lifeis the first children’s book in English to shine a light on the experience of young people living in Direct Provision, Ireland’s asylum system which Amnesty International has called “an ongoing human rights scandal”.
Mitchell works in disability provision in Ireland. Her books have won awards in Ireland and the UK, including the Bisto Book of the Year, Children’s Books Ireland Merit Award, Reading Association of Ireland Merit Award, and Children’s Choice award. A Dangerous Crossing (Little Island), which told the story of Syrian refugees, has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide.
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The deadline for receipt of poems entered for this year’s Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition is March 18th. The prize was founded in 2012 in honour of the Limerick poet by the late Barney Sheehan and is now run by The Limerick Writers’ Centre. The prizewinner will be announced in April. The entry fee is €3.50 for one poem, €5.50 for three. First prize is €200, with €50 for the runner-up, as judged by poet Adam Wyeth. Entry is by email to limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com or by post to Limerick Writers’ Centre, c/o The Umbrella Project, 78 O’Connell St., Limerick.