If they are not distributing short lists, they are handing out awards – hot on the heels of yesterday’s Impac and Orange finalists came the Hennessy Literary Awards 2011.

The major winner on the night was Siobhán Mannion, who took home awards for First Fiction and New Irish Writer 2011 for her novel, Lightning Bugs – congratulations to her and champagne all round then. There was none more delighted last night, judging by Twitter any way, than Mannion’s colleague Sean Rocks – Mannion produces arts show Arena on RTE, which of course Rocks presents.

Eileen Casey won in the Emerging Fiction category for her book Macaw, and Aifric McGlinchey won in the Emerging Poetry section for Do Not Lie to a Love and Under the Heart, a Horseshoe Shape. Sebastian Barry was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Each category winner received €1,500, while Mannion took home an additional €2,500 for the New Writer of the Year top billing. The judges in this competition were journalist Ciaran Carty, poet Paul Durcan and literary agent AP Watt. My reading list just got a little longer.