Sara Baume, Jane Casey and AN Other secure major book deals

Book deals for Irish writers

Sara Baume has secured a two-book deal with the British publisher William Heinemann. The imprint of Penguin Random House will reissue Baume’s debut Spill Simmer Falter Wither, which was launched by the independent Irish publisher Tramp Press in February. Spill is due for immediate release as an export trade paperback by Heinemann, with Windmill, another imprint, set to publish the novel in paperback and ebook format later this year. The deal includes a second novel by Baume. Sarah Davis-Goff, a co-founder of Tramp Press, said they were delighted for the author: “All we want to do is get brilliant literature into the hands of as many people as possible. This innovative deal with Heinemann ensures that Sara’s novel will be enjoyed for a long time to come.”

The Irish crime writer Jane Casey has signed a six-figure deal with Harper Collins. The UK publishing giant signed three of Casey’s books, all previously published by Ebury. Julia Wisdom from Harper Collins said that Casey has been on their radar for a while: “She hits that perfect note, cleverly constructed, intricate and suspenseful plots, alongside characters you like. Her Maeve Kerrigan novels have already attracted wonderful reviews and many fans, and we see an opportunity to take her out to a whole new readership in the UK and in our international territories.”

A major book deal for another Irish writer is expected to be be announced tomorrow, our source stumbling out of a bar at the London Book Fair has revealed. Watch this space.

Patterson’s pledge to indie bookshops

The international bestselling author James Patterson has announced that he will donate a further £250,000 to independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland. This takes his total donation, since first pledging last June, to £500,000. A further 68 independent bookshops will receive in the region of £120,000. Seven of these shops are in Ireland. Over £130,000 has already been allocated to 73 independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland following the first round of applications last September. The seven Irish bookshops that have been chosen to receive the remaining grant allocation include: Bookworm Bookshop, Thurles; Carrigaline Bookshop, Carrigaline; Crannog Bookshop, Cavan; Liber Bookshop, Sligo; Philips Bookshop, Mallow; Raven Books, Blackrock; and the Village Bookshop, Terenure.

Nielsen’s green shoots

Irish consumers are spending more on books than a year ago, according to new figures from data mining company Nielsen. The Irish Consumer Market has seen sales to March 21st of €18 million (up 5.6 per cent on 2014) and 1.7million units (up 0.4 per cent). Fiction is up 6.6 per cent with sales of €4.8million (by volume, down -0.2 per cent to 496,200). Non-fiction grew by 2.5 per cent with sales of €8.8million (down 2.2 per cent in volume to 622,100). Children’s literature has continued to grow, with value up 11.4 per cent to €4.3million and volume up 3.9 per cent to 582,900.

Impac Dublin Literary Award shortlist

Colum McCann flies the flag for Ireland on the 10-strong shortlist for the 2015 International Impac Dublin Literary Award. McCann, who won the award in 2011 for his novel Let the Great World Spin, is nominated this year for TransAtlantic. Other well-known titles up for this year’s award include the Australian writer Richard Flanagan’s Booker winning The Narrow Road to the Deep, and the English author Jim Crace, whose novel Harvest was shortlisted for the Booker and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2013. The list, narrowed down from a longlist of 142, consists of novels from Australia, Ireland, England, Nigeria, Brazil, Morocco, the United States and Russia via the French language, written by six men and four women. The winner of the £100,000 prize, the biggest literary award for a single novel in the world, will be announced on June 17th by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Christy Burke.

The shortlisted titles: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian); Horses of God by Mahi Binebine (Moroccan), translated from French by Lulu Norman; Harvest by Jim Crace (British); The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Australian); Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Australian); K by Bernardo Kucinski (Brazilian), translated from Portuguese by Sue Branford; Brief Loves That Live Forever by Andreï Makine (French, Russian-born), translated from French by Geoffrey Strachan; TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (Irish); Someone by Alice McDermott (American); Sparta by Roxana Robinson (American).

Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year

Five authors are in the running for this year’s €15,000 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award. The prize for a published novel by an Irish author will go to one of the following: City of Dis by David Butler; Blue is the Night by Eoin McNamee; The Closet of Savage Mementos by Nuala Ní Chonchúir; Visitors by Patrick O’Keeffe; The Diary of Mary Travers by Eibhear Walshe. The adjudicators, this paper’s literary correspondent Eileen Battersby and the poet Gerald Dawe, will select the winner, who will be presented with the award at the opening night of Listowel Writers’ Week on May 27th.

In other good news for Irish writers this week, the Tipperary author Donal Ryan was one of 12 writers awarded the 2015 European Union Prize for Literature for his novel The Spinning Heart. The €5,000 prize, presented at the opening of the London Book Fair, is awarded to emerging contemporary writers in Europe. Ryan has a new collection of short stories, A Slanting of the Sun, due for publication this September.

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

A mix of established literary talent and new writers share the nominations for the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Haruki Murakami and Erwin Mortier are nominated beside first-time translations from Colombia and Equatorial Guinea for the 25th anniversary line-up. The six nominated novels are: The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (Portobello Books); In the Beginning Was the Sea by Tomás González, translated from the Spanish by Irishman Frank Wynne (Pushkin Press); F by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway (Quercus); By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel, translated from the Spanish by Jethro Soutar (And Other Stories); While the Gods Were Sleeping by Erwin Mortier, translated from the Dutch by Paul Vincent (Pushkin Press); and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami; translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel (Harvill Secker). The £10,000 prize is divided equally between author and translator, with the winning title announced on May 27th.

Baileys Women’s Prize

Anne Tyler, Ali Smith and debut novelist Laline Paull are among the six contenders for the 2015 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. The winner, announced on June 3rd, receives a cheque for £30,000 and “the Bessie”, a bronze statue made by the artist Grizel Niven. Paull’s debut The Bees, Anne Tyler’s final novel A Spool of Blue Thread and Ali Smith’s Booker shortlisted How to be Both are joined by Kamila Shamsie’s A God in Every Stone, Rachel Cusk’s eighth novel Outline and Sarah Waters’s pastiche on the domestic novel, The Paying Guests.

Contact sarah.gilmartin@gmail.com with your literary news