Two Irish novels are among the 20 longlisted for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award, the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English and worth €100,000 to the winner. It is sponsored by Dublin City Council.
Intermezzo by the award-winning bestselling author Sally Rooney has been longlisted alongside Niamh Ní Mhaoleoin’s debut novel Ordinary Saints and award-winning writers, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alan Hollinghurst and Ocean Vuong.
Unique among literary prizes, nominations are submitted by librarians and readers from libraries around the world. Sixty-nine titles, including Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey, Camarade by Theo Dorgan and The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr, were nominated by 80 libraries from 36 countries.
The judges, authors Xiaolu Guo and Disha Bose; writer and former diplomat Daniel Mulhall; translator Clara Ministral; performance poet Dike Chukwumerije; and non-voting chairperson Prof Chris Morash of Trinity College Dublin, then chose the final 20.
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The 2026 longlist
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (American)
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
Endling by Maria Reva (Ukraine)
Gliff by Ali Smith (Britain)
Good Girl by Aria Aber (Afghanistan-Germany)
In Late Summer by Magdalena Blažević (Bosnia-Croatia), translated by Anđelka Raguž
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Ireland)
Live Fast by Brigitte Giraud (France), translated by Cory Stockwell
Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin (Ireland)
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst (Britain)
Perspectives by Laurent Binet (France), translated by Sam Taylor
The Antidote by Karen Russell (US)
The Brittle Age by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (Italy), translated by Ann Goldstein
The Creation of Half-Broken People by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (Zimbabwe)
The Echoes by Evie Wyld (Britain)
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (US)
The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei (Singapore)
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Britain-Turkey)
What I Know About You by Éric Chacour (Canada), translated by Pablo Strauss
Dream Count by Adichie had the most nominations – three. It was chosen by Almeida Garrett Municipal Library, Porto, Portugal and Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt.
A third of the winning books over the last 30 years were books in translation and this year there are six translated titles on the list including The Empusium by Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk and her translator Antonia Lloyd Jones. If the book has been translated the author receives €75,000 and the translator receives €25,000.
The shortlist will be revealed on April 7th and the winner will be announced by the prize’s patron, Lord Mayor of Dublin Councillor Ray McAdam, on May 21st as part of International Literature Festival Dublin, which is also funded by Dublin City Council.
[ Dublin Literary Award 2025 shortlist revealedOpens in new window ]
“Readers will be delighted to get stuck into the 20 novels featured on the longlist,” McAdam said. “From themes of war to coming of age, family dramas and dark humour, the list is one for readers to explore the excellence of world storytelling.”
Mairéad Owens, Dublin City librarian, said: “At the heart of this award are libraries and their readers dotted across the world unified through a culturally rich reading experience. I wish the featured writers on this strong list the best of luck this year and encourage readers to seek out the books in their local libraries or bookstores.”
The Adversary by Michael Crummey won last year’s prize. Irish translator Frank Wynne won in 2022 for The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter. Anna Burns won in 2020 for Milkman.
