Bukhman Philanthropies is to fund the next 10 years of the International Booker Prize, which celebrated 10 years in its current form this year, becoming the world’s most influential award for translated fiction.
The prize will be renamed the Bukhman International Booker Prize and the prize fund for the winning title will double in value from £50,000 to £100,000, to be split equally between the author and translator/s. Each shortlisted title will continue to be awarded a prize of £5,000: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator/s.
The judges for the Bukhman International Booker Prize 2027 are: Booker Prize-shortlisted author Katie Kitamura as Chair; Booker Prize-longlisted writer, translator and Professor of French and Comparative Literature Patrick McGuinness; filmmaker and author Caleb Azumah Nelson; International Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Olga Ravn; and actor and producer Tessa Thompson.
Since its inception in 2016, the International Booker Prize has honoured 11 winners in 11 different languages and driven a significant increase in sales of translated fiction. Five authors recognised by the International Prize have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature: Annie Ernaux, Jon Fosse, Han Kang, Olga Tokarczuk and László Krasznahorkai.
Tomorrow’s books pages
In The Irish Times tomorrow, Darragh Geraghty recommends the best new audiobooks for summer and there is a Q&A with bestselling author Faith Hogan.
Reviews are Kevin Power on A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of the Movies by David Thomson; John Boyne on Opening Night by Sara Baume; Julia Kelly on Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain; Claire Hennessy on the best new YA fiction; Huda Awan on Château Rouge by Amit Chaudhuri; Lucy Sweeney Byrne on Natural Disaster by Lisa Owens; Ian Thomson on The German-Russian Century by Stefan Creuzberger; Chris Doyle on The Celtic World, A History by John Waddell; Ronan McGreevy on The Beautiful Death of Ozzy Osbourne: How Metal Teaches Us to Live by Keith Kahn-Harris; Ben Barnes on A Better Locksmith by Jane Coyle; Andrew Lynch on The 21st-Century Brain by Hannah Critchlow; Neil Hegarty on The Red Mouth by Sheila Armstrong; Helen Cullen on Queenie Is Working on it by Candace Carty-Williams; and Greg Londe on Drunken Driving by Martina Evans.
Summer fiction series
The Irish Times’s summer fiction series kicks off on Saturday, July 25th with a new short story by Leonard and Hungry Paul author Rónán Hession, followed on Wednesday, July 29th with an original work by Elaine Garvey, whose debut novel The Wardrobe Department was shortlisted for three major awards.
The series continues on Saturday, August 1st, with a short story by Alice Ryan, award-winning author of debut novel There’s Been A Little Incident. It continues over the next four Wednesdays in August with short stories by Neil Tully, author of acclaimed debut, The Visit; Abbie Spallen, winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (2007) and Windham-Campbell Literature Prize (2016); Caragh Maxwell, author of Sugartown; and the winner of the 2026 Moth Short Story Prize, judged this year by Wendy Erskine and worth €3,000.
To whet your appetite, here is a link to Abbie Spallen’s short story, Control Zone, first published in The Irish Times in 2023, and another to Ríónán Hession’s short story, The Translator’s Funeral, first published in The Irish Times in 2020.
Irish Writers Online
Two decades ago, writes Patrick Chapman, from his house on Arran Street East, poet and novelist Philip Casey saw the future. An early adopter of the internet, he set up several websites. One of these, Irish Writers Online, was a working database of writers with an Irish connection. After Philip’s death in 2018 the site was no longer updated. Last year, Philip’s cousin and friend, Éamonn, and I discussed reviving it as a tribute to his memory and his generosity. Philip never sought compensation for his work on the site; it was a gift. And it still is. Irish Writers Online is back as a free resource.
Interested writers – whether new to the site or already on it – are invited to send a current listing. For an example of the format, check out the entry for Philip Casey, the site’s begetter and now its well-remembered patron saint. Visit Irish Writers Online for guidelines and contact details.
Next Generation Poets
The Poetry Book Society announces the return of Next Generation Poets in 2027, the definitive, once-in-a-decade list of the 20 best UK and Irish poets.
Founded in 1994 to champion the 20 best debut UK and Irish poets of the decade, this will be the fourth iteration of the list, which helped kickstart the careers of poets including Simon Armitage, Kae Tempest, Carol Ann Duffy, Don Paterson, Patience Agbabi, John Burnside, Lavinia Greenlaw, Emily Berry, Ian Duhig and many more.
Chaired by British poet laureate Simon Armitage, the judging panel brings together poets, writers, artists, critics and cultural figures of outstanding reputation: Malika Booker, Jade Cuttle, Imtiaz Dharker, Ted Hodgkinson, Hanan Issa, Sinéad Morrissey and Daljit Nagra.
For more information on submissions, visit the website.
The Bookseller’s Rising Stars
The Bookseller trade magazine’s Rising Stars of 2025 include University of Galway graduate Ciara Finan, an agent at Curtis Brown; and Sarah Kenny, a director of Kennys Bookshop & Art Gallery, Galway;
Death of Joanna Mackle
Joanna Mackle, the Belfast-born former publishing director at Faber, has died.
Mackle spent 20 years at the publisher, where she was first publicity director and then publishing director.
Faber said that she was “brilliant at what she did and undertook everything with vision, style and flair”. She was “central to the publishing successes of the late 1980s and 1990s” and “instrumental in nurturing the careers of successive generations of writers”.
Robert McCrum told the Bookseller: “Joanna, who was famous for her hats, became an icon at an extraordinary moment in the world of books. At Faber she also achieved something that’s rare, if not unique. Among a remarkable circle of our finest authors – writers such as PD James, Kazuo Ishiguro, William Golding, Paul Auster, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes – the part she played in bringing their work to the marketplace became the essence of what made the Faber list the one that mattered. I was lucky enough to share with her some wonderful times in those days, but none of it would have happened, or been as much fun, without Joanna.”
After leaving Faber she joined the British Museum, where she served as deputy director and played a key role in its public and cultural programme.
New Derek Landy series
HarperCollins Children’s is to publish a new Derek Landy series, marking the 20th anniversary of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, starting in April 2028.
Skulduggery Pleasant, Landy’s debut novel, was first published in 2007 and became a series comprising 24 books. Landy said: “When I started with HarperCollins, 20 years ago, the Skulduggery Pleasant series was going to be a modest nine books long – 24 books later, I’ve seen firsthand what a positive, nurturing environment can do for stories, for characters and for creativity, and I’m delighted to embark on an all-new adventure. Typically, at this point I’d say something self-aggrandising, but I think I’ll leave that to my editor.”
Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions
The 2026 Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions are now open. The deadline is September 27th. Winners will read their entries and receive prizes during the Allingham Festival in November.
In addition to prizes of €300, the first-place winners of the Allingham Competitions will also be recognised as winners of the 2026 Francis Harvey Poetry Award and the Keane Family Fiction Award.
Publisher and poet Kate Newmann will judge the 2026 Poetry Competitions. Fiction entries will be judged by Patrick Holloway, author and writer-in-residence at Maynooth University.
Previous winners have included Una Mannion, author of A Crooked Tree and Tell Me What I Am, and E.M. Reapy, author of Skin and Red Dirt.
Entry forms and competition rules are detailed on the Allingham Festival website.
The 2026 Allingham Festival will take place in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal from November 4th to 8th. Headline guests will include Elaine Feeney, Michael Harding, Róisin Ingle and Paul Howard. The 2026 Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Awards Ceremony will take place on Saturday, November 7th.
Flood Tide launch
Eithne O’Neill, the Paris-based daughter of Séamus Ó Néill, who wrote Máíre Nic Artáin, and Tonn Tuile, among other works, has translated his 1947 novel, Tonn Tuile, into English as Flood Tide. It will be launched on July 8th, in Hodges Figgis.
Michael Harding and Niall Breslin
Writer and storyteller Michael Harding has been announced as special guest to Niall Breslin and The Polaris Quartet at Cathedral of Christ The King, Mullingar, Co Westmeath on October 1st.
An honorary Mullingar man and one of Ireland’s finest literary voices, Harding’s presence will be a deeply personal moment for Breslin, whose own work has been shaped and inspired by Harding’s writing over many years. Tickets are available via singularartists.ie and ticketmaster.ie.
