Donne biographer wins Glen Dimplex new writer award

British writer John Stubbs was last night named Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year 2007.

Stubbs won the €20,000 prize for his first book, Donne: The Reformed Soul, a biography of English poet John Donne.

At last night's ceremony at the Hugh Lane gallery in Dublin, Stubbs also won the biography/non-fiction category, which carried €5,000 in prize money. This is the second year of the award, which honours new writing from Britain and Ireland. It is organised in conjunction with the Irish Writers' Centre and offered a total of €45,000 in prize money.

The winner of the fiction category was Hisham Matar for his book In the Country of Men.

The children's book category was won by Sarah Mussi for The Door of No Return. The poetry prize went to Annie Freud for The Best Man that Ever Was.

The only Irish winner was Kildare-based Mícheál De Barra, who won the Irish-language award for An Bóthar go Santiago. His book explores the connection between the Irish people and the Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrim route in northern Spain.

Donne: The Reformed Souldeserved to win the overall award, said the chairman of the judging panel, David Goodhart, because it was "a revelation". "I had expected a dry literary biography," he added, "and found myself transported by a historical thriller set amidst the high politics of late 16th-, early 17th-century England, with struggles over religious and national loyalties which have many contemporary echoes."

While fiction winner Hisham Matar is now based in London, his novel - the tale of a Libyan boy whose father is a political dissident - echoes his own experience. Matar's father has been missing since he was kidnapped in Cairo in 1990 and allegedly brought to a Tripoli prison.

In the Country of Menwas shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2006.