Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

With its huge prize and global span, the Impac should be the most high-profile of literary awards – but it depends on where you live, writes SINÉAD GLEESON

THIS WEEK, the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction was announced (Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna). Every year, that prize spawns obligatory editorials about the inverse sexism of an all-female prize. Similarly, when the Man Booker shortlist is announced, there is hand-wringing about unjust omissions. Both prizes are well-known, yet both are trumped financially by the International Impac Dublin Literary Award. This year’s winner, announced on June 17th, will net a €100,000 prize, but the award doesn’t have the huge profile of the other contests.