Yewande Omotoso shortlisted for International Dublin Literary Award

Nigerian writer Yewande Omotoso has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2018 Dublin Literary Award as announced Thursday by the prize administrators.

Omotoso, the only African on the shortlist for the €100,000 prize was shortlisted for her novel, The Woman Next Door, which explores post-apartheid relations between two cranky old women on two sides of a hedge and the race divide of South Africa.

Omotoso, born to a Nigerian father and a Barbadian mother has been living in South Africa for most of her life and will hope to follow in the footsteps of Angolan novelist Jose Eduardo Agualusa who won the prize last year for his amazing novel, A Generel Theory of Oblivion.

Omotoso will be up for the prize against two novels by Irish authors, The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride and Solar Bones by Mike McCormack; six novels in translation from France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Mexico and South Korea; and a novel from the USA.

“The titles on this year’s shortlist were nominated by public libraries in Canada, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the USA”, said Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Ardmhéara, Mícheál Mac Donncha , Patron of the Award. ‘This is the beauty of this award; it reaches out to readers and authors worldwide, while also celebrating excellence in contemporary Irish literature represented on the 2018 shortlist by Eimear McBride and Mike McCormack.”

The five-member international judging panel, chaired by Hon. Eugene R. Sullivan, will select one winner which will be announced by Lord Mayor, Ardmhéara, Mícheál Mac Donncha, Patron of the Award, on Wednesday 13th June.

Established in 1994, the Award now wholly funded by Dublin City Council, aims to promote excellence in world literature. The shortlisted titles are: Baba Dunja’s Last Love by Alina Bronsky (Ukrainian/German) Translated from the German by Tim Mohr. Published by Europa Editions.

The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera (Mexican) Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. Published by And Other Stories.

The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen (Norwegian) Translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw. Published by MacLehose Press.

Human Acts by Han Kang (South Korean) Translated from Korean by Deborah Smith. Published by Portobello Books and Random House, USA.

The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride (Irish) Published by Faber & Faber.

Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (Irish) Published by Tramp Press.

by Antonio Moresco (Italian) Translated from Italian by Richard Dixon. Published by Archipelago Books.

Ladivine by Marie Ndiaye (French) Translated from French by Jordan Stump. Published by MacLehose Press.

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso (South African/Nigerian/ Barbadian) Published by Chatto & Windus.