Irish Book Awards shortlist announced

Colum McCann, Roddy Doyle, Frank McGuinness and first-time novelist Donal Ryan among writers on list


Novelist Donal Ryan is among the writers shortlisted for this year's Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards.

The writer is listed not for his Booker-longlisted novel The Spinning Heart, but for The Thing About December - written before but published after it.

Also on the list published yesterday are Roddy Doyle, Frank McGuinness and Colum McCann.

Memoirs on the shortlist include books by comedian and actor Jennifer Saunders, commentator Eamon Dunphy, former Kilkenny hurling star DJ Carey and Irish rugby player Johnny Sexton.

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Fiction by Patricia Scanlan, Claudia Carroll, Cathy Kelly and RTÉ journalist Rachael English is also nominated.

The Writing.ie Short Story of the Year is a new category in this year’s Irish Book Awards - the eighth year of the event. The awards were open to any title published between November 1st last year and October 31st 2013.

The list is as follows:

Eason Novel of the Year

Arimathea by Frank McGuinness (Brandon Books/O’Brien Press)

The Guts by Roddy Doyle (Jonathan Cape)

The Things We Know Now by Catherine Dunne (Pan Macmillan)

Transatlantic by Colum McCann (Bloomsbury Publishing)

The Thing About December by Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland/Lilliput)

This Is The Way by Gavin Corbett (Fourth Estate)

International Education Services Ltd Popular Fiction Book of the Year:

Downturn Abbey by Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (Penguin Ireland)

Mad About You by Sinead Moriarty (Penguin Ireland)

With All My Love by Patricia Scanlan (Simon and Schuster)

The Honey Queen by Cathy Kelly (HarperCollins)

Me and You by Claudia Carroll (Avon Books, Harper Collins)

A Gift to Remember by Melissa Hill (Simon and Schuster)

Non-Fiction Book of the Year

The Rocky Road by Eamon Dunphy (Penguin Ireland)

Fatal Path by Ronan Fanning (Faber and Faber)

Growing Up So High by Sean O’Connor (Hachette Ireland)

Staring At Lakes: A Memoir Of Love, Melancholy and Magical Thinking by Michael Harding (Hachette Ireland)

The Famine Plot by Tim Pat Coogan (Palgrave Macmillan)

Price Of Power: Inside Ireland’s Crisis Coalition by Pat Leahy (Penguin Ireland)

Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year

The Twelfth Department by William Ryan (Pan Macmillan/Mantle)

The Convictions Of John Delahunt by Andrew Hughes (Doubleday Ireland)

The Doll’s House by Louise Phillips (Hachette Ireland)

Inquest by Paul Carson (Century)

The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey (Ebury Press)

Irregulars by Kevin McCarthy (New Island Books)

The Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year

Ghost Moth by Michele Forbes (Orion)

Going Back by Rachael English (Orion)

The Gamal by Ciaran Collins (Bloomsbury)

The Herbalist by Niamh Boyce (Penguin Ireland)

Young Skins by Colin Barrett (The Stinging Fly Press)

Red Sky In The Morning by Paul Lynch (Quercus)

The Avonmore Cookbook of the Year

Kevin Dundon's Modern Irish Food by Kevin Dundon (Mitchell Beazley)

Chapter One by Ross Lewis (Gill and Macmillan)

30 Years at Ballymaloe by Darina Allen (Kyle Books)

Rachel’s Everyday Kitchen by Rachel Allen (Harper NonFiction)

The Weekend Chef by Catherine Fulvio (Gill and Macmillan)

The Nation’s Favourite Food by Neven Maguire (Gill and Macmillan)

The Sports Book of the Year

The Autobiography by Seán Óg Ó hAilpín (Penguin Ireland)

Becoming a Lion by Johnny Sexton (Penguin Ireland)

Tick, Tock, Ten by Gerry Duffy (Ballpoint Press)

Hunger by Sean Kelly (Peloton Publishing)

Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh (Simon and Schuster)

DJ by DJ Carey (Blackwater Press)

Best Irish Published Book of the Year

Harry Clarke: The Life And Work by Nicola Gordon Bowe (The History Press Ireland)

Secrets Of The Irish Landscape by Matthew Jebb (Cork University Press)

Vanishing Ireland: Friendship and Community by James Fennell and Turtle Bunbury (Hachette Ireland)

A History of Ireland in 100 Objects by Fintan O’Toole (Royal Irish Academy)

ICA Book of Home and Family by ICA (Gill and Macmillan)

A Portrait of Dublin in Maps by Muiris De Buitlear (Gill and Macmillan)

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)

Stay Where You Are And Then Leave by John Boyne (Doubleday Childrens)

Eva and the Hidden Diary by Judi Curtin (The O’Brien Press)

Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men by Derek Landy (Harper Collins)

The Keeper by Darragh Martin (Little Island)

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Junior)

When You Were Born by Benji Bennett (AdamsPrinting Press)

How Cuchulainn Got his Name (In A Nutshell Series) by Ann Carroll (Poolbeg Press)

Brave Beast by Chris Judge (Andersen Press)

A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy (Walker Books)

RTÉ Radio 1’s The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award

The Son by Philipp Meyer (Simon and Schuster)

Bonkers, My Life in Laughs by Jennifer Saunders (Viking)

The Rocky Road by Eamon Dunphy (Penguin Ireland)

Staring at Lakes by Michael Harding (Hachette Ireland)

Instructions For A Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Little Brown)

Writing.ie Short Story of the Year:

A Different Country by Danielle McLaughlin (The Stinging Fly, Issue 26 Volume Two)

How I Beat the Devil by Paul Murray (Town and Country: New Irish Short Stories, Faber and Faber)

The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind by Billy O’Callaghan (The Things We Lose, the Things We Leave Behind & Other Short Stories, New Island Books)

Soft Rain by Trisha McKinney (RTE Guide/Penguin Short Story Competition)

Bait by Colin Barrett (Young Skins, Stinging Fly Press)

The Day Things Changed by Niamh O’Connor (If I was a Child Again, Poolbeg Press)

The Bord Gáis Energy Bookshop of the Year

Ulster region: Crannóg Bookshop, Cavan town

Munster region: Whyte Books, Schull, Co Cork

Leinster Region: Bridge Street Books, Wicklow Town

Connacht Region: The Clifden Bookshop, Clifden, Co Galway

Greater Dublin Region: Village Books, Malahide, Co Dublin