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St Brigid’s Day, February 1st, is the first day of spring in the ancient Celtic calendar, and the Irish saint herself is the focus of a graphic novel that this week was declared winner of the 2025 First Graphic Novel Award.
Hannah McCann, a cartoonist from the North of Ireland now living in Leeds, was announced at a packed ceremony celebrating the Arts Council of England-supported graphic novel award at Waterstones Piccadilly in London.
St Brigid & Me is a comic about the author’s re-connection with St Brigid who was an important character in her childhood. The author connects the dots between traditional folklore and modern social justice with a nuanced and sensitive exploration of St Brigid’s connection with abortion and their own involvement in pro-choice rallies.
Publisher Emma Hayley of SelfMadeHero, who has awarded the winner a contract for publication, said: “Hannah McCann is a talented artist and storyteller whose work deserves a platform. As folklore, myth and tradition combine, the author’s personal story and fascination with St Brigid lends a universal appeal to the narrative.”
The award is open to unagented comic creators who are UK residents and have not had a longform graphic novel commercially published before. The age of the 240 entrants, comprising 220 entries, ranged from 18 to 95.
Alongside Hayley, the judges included graphic novelists Shazleen Khan, Oscar Zarate, and Karrie Fransman, and contemporary artist Janette Parris.
All authors received feedback from the judges and had their work reviewed by Waterstones book buyer Nessa Urquhart and James Spackman of The bks Agency, sponsors of an additional £500 cash prize for the winner.
The First Graphic Novel Award is a partnership with the Cartoon Museum, and SelfMadeHero.
In The Irish Times tomorrow, George Saunders tells John Self about his new novel, Vigil, and Dave Rudden tells me about his first adult novel, Sister Wake.
Reviews are Vic Duggan on Against Post-Liberalism by Paul Kelly, Post-Liberalism by Matt Sleat and Liberal Democracy Battling for Survival: A Plan for Action by Tim McCormick; Hugo Hamilton on Ausländer: One family’s story of escape and exile by Michael Moritz; John Walshe on Custody by Lara Feigel; Sean Duke on In Defence of Bread; Declan Burke on the best new crime fiction; Mei Chin on Workhorse by Caroline Palmer; Kristen Poli on Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy; Pat Carty on Departure(s) by Julian Barnes; NJ McGarrigle on Crucible by John Sayles; Michael Cronin on Cameo by Rob Doyle; Maija Makela on Possessions: A Memoir of Transformation in an Era of Precarity by Davina Quinlivan; Laura Sheahen on Inhabit the Poem: Last Essays by Helen Vendler; Adam Wyeth on The Brimming World: Selected Essays 1975-2014 by Ciaran Carson; and Sinead Gibney on Escape from Capitalism: Economics is Political, and Other Liberating Truths by Clara E. Mattei.
This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is The Wardrobe Department by Elaine Garvey, just €5.99, a €6 saving.
2026 marks a truly special milestone, the 20th annual Ennis Book Club Festival, which will take place from March 6th to 8th.
Highlights include Anne Enright in conversation with Niamh Campbell; Michael Harding, Edel Coffey and Anna Carey in conversation with Declan Hughes; Hugo Hamilton in conversation with Éilís Ní Dhuibhne; Ten Books You Should Read with Bryan Dobson & Cecelia Ahern, moderated by broadcaster and journalist, Ciana Campbell; and Elaine Garvey, Shane Tivenan and Claire Gleeson in conversation with Eoin Devereux.
Artistic director Martina Durac said: “It is a huge pleasure to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the festival in 2026. When a passionate group of book lovers first started dreaming of a way to bring book clubs together with writers, they lit a hopeful spark. Since then, we’ve welcomed writers and readers from all over the world to Ennis. We are proud of all that the first volunteers achieved, and each year seek to build on it and offer engaging, insightful and hopefully, surprising ways of bringing the written word to our flourishing audiences.”
The full programme of events can be visited here.
The longlist for the world’s largest and most prestigious literary prize for young writers – the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize – has been announced.
Three of the longlisted authors have previously been nominated. Award-winning British-Irish writer Seán Hewitt, nominated in 2025 for his poetry collection Rapture’s Road, is longlisted this year for his debut novel Open, Heaven, which follows the life of two 16-year-old boys transforming each other’s lives in a remote village in the North of England. Saba Sams, whose short story collection Send Nudes was shortlisted in 2023, is in the running with her novel Gunk, her debut novel exploring love and desire, chaos and control – and family in all its forms. Derek Owusu, who was nominated in 2023 for his novel Losing the Plot, is in contention again for Borderline Fiction, a contemporary tale about a young man’s search for an authentic way to love and be loved.
Worth £20,000, this global accolade recognises exceptional literary talent aged 39 or under, celebrating the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories and drama. The prize is named after the Swansea-born writer Dylan Thomas and celebrates his 39 years of creativity and productivity. The prize invokes his memory to support the writers of today, nurture the talents of tomorrow, and celebrate international literary excellence.
The longlist is:
- Harriet Armstrong, To Rest Our Minds and Bodies (Les Fugitives) – novel
- Isabelle Baafi, Chaotic Good (Faber) – poetry
- Colwill Brown, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh (Chatto & Windus, Vintage) – novel
- Sasha Debevec-McKenney, Joy Is My Middle Name (Fitzcarraldo Editions) – poetry
- Suzannah V. Evans, Under the Blue (Bloomsbury Poetry) – poetry
- Seán Hewitt, Open, Heaven (Jonathan Cape, Vintage) – novel
- Kanza Javed, What Remains After a Fire (W.W. Norton & Company) – short stories
- Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo, The Tiny Things Are Heavier (Manilla Press, Bonnier Books) – novel
- Derek Owusu, Borderline Fiction (Canongate) – novel
- Issa Quincy, Absence (Granta) – novel
- Saba Sams, Gunk (Bloomsbury Circus) – novel
- Vanessa Santos, Make a Home of Me (Dead Ink Books) – short stories
Seven out of the 12 nominees are recognised for their debut work, making this one of the freshest longlists in years, celebrating new voices on the English-language literary panorama.
The shortlist will be unveiled on March 19th,, with the winner revealed on International Dylan Thomas Day (May 14th) at an evening ceremony in Swansea.
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Returning for its sixth edition, Classics Now festival presents exciting artists reimagining the literature, arts and ideas of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Editor-at-Large of the New York Review of Books, Daniel Mendelsohn, will be discussing his life in Classics and new translation of Homer’s Odyssey with novelist Belinda McKeon on Sunday February 1st. “We are thrilled to have Daniel Mendelsohn with us in Dublin, as he was the very first festival guest, online from New York during lockdown in 2020,” says festival director, Helen Meany.
Other guests include author and broadcaster Natalie Haynes on Medea, the inspiration for her latest novel, No Friend To This House, at the Whyte Recital Hall, Royal Irish Academy of Music. Pat Barker will be online, reflecting on her acclaimed trilogy of Trojan War novels with Paula Shields; public philosopher Angie Hobbs talks about her new book, Why Plato Matters Now, with Irish Times columnist, Joe Humphreys. On Friday January 30th, playwright Colin Murphy, current Rooney Writer Fellow at the Long Room Hub, presents The Negotiation, a gripping adaptation of an episode from the Greek historian Thucydides, followed by a panel discussing justifications for invasion and coercian, and the laws governing war. Chaired by Prof Brigid Laffan, at the Kevin Barry Room, National Concert Hall. See classicsnow.ie for the full programme.
