Eyes on the prize
“Iguess there are never enough books” wrote John Steinbeck once. You could say the same of book awards. From the Man Booker to the Pulitzer to the local literary gong, any award that champions literature and reading has something going for it. An Post Irish Book Awards are such a beast and with 16 categories, from Best Irish Published Book to Children’s Book of the Year ( Junior and Senior), almost everyone is in with a shout. Book awards, especially ones where the public vote for the winners, create an extra connection between reader and writer. Once upon a time, J D Salinger wrote: “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” Salinger’s cry from The Catcher in the Rye still rings true. You might not get to call up the nominees in this year’s Irish Book Awards, but you can most certainly vote for them. The line-up of nominees is, as ever, eclectic; from RTÉ’s Des Cahill dancing with the sports stars in Play It Again, Des (Ireland AM Popular NonFiction Book of the Year) to Matt Cooper trying to bring Michael O’Leary down to earth (Onside Non-Fiction Book of the Year). Can Anna Burns follow up her Man Booker win for Milkman (Eason Book Club Novel of the Year) in a strong category which includes Donal Ryan and David Park? And who can pip Liz Nugent’s cracking Skin Deep for Crime Fiction Book of the Year (which misses a trick by overlooking Paraic O’Donnell’s very impressive The House on Vesper Sands)? So, play your part by heading to irishbookawards.ie and casting your vote. The polls close on Friday, November 23 and the winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Clayton Hotel on Burlington Road in Dublin on November 27.
Donal O’Donoghue previews An Post Irish Book Awards 2018