Books

Book prize news and Eason book offer

Rathbones Folio; Dylan Thomas; Francophonie; Republic of Consciousness prize lists

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Martin Doyle
Thu Mar 25 2021 - 15:15

If you buy this Saturday’s Irish Times in any Eason branch, you can also buy a copy of Naoise Dolan’s Exciting Times for just €4.99, a saving of €5.

Saturday’s books coverage includes, in the Magazine, Emma Dabiri discussing her new book What White People Can Do Next with Hazel Chu, introduced by Una Mullally. In Ticket, Kathleen MacMahon writes about her grandmother Mary Lavin’s literary gatherings at her Dublin mews; Reviews are Declan Kiberd on Places of Mind by Timothy Brennan; Sarah Gilmartin on A Lonely Man by Chris Power; Declan Burke on the best new crime fiction; Declan O’Driscoll on The Things We’ve Seen by Augustín Fernández Mallo, translated by Thomas Bunstead; Dan O’Brien on The Ambassadors by Robert Cooper; Orla Tinsley on Miles to Go Before I Sleep by Claire Gilbert; Naoise Dolan on Madeleine Ryan’s A Room Called Earth; Tony Clayton-Lea on the best new music books.

The shortlist for one of the world’s largest literary prizes for young writers, the £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, has been announced. Comprising of five novels and one short story collection, including four debuts and four women, the shortlist is: Alligator and Other Stories by Dima Alzayat (Picador); Kingdomtide by Rye Curtis (HarperCollins, 4th Estate); The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi (Faber); Pew by Catherine Lacey (Granta); Luster by Raven Leilani (Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux); and My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (HarperCollins, 4th Estate).

The shortlist was selected by a judging panel chaired by Namita Gokhale alongside Syima Aslam, Stephen Sexton, Joshua Ferris and Francesca Rhydderch. This year’s winner will be revealed at a virtual ceremony on May 13th, the eve of International Dylan Thomas Day.

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A breathtakingly inventive, unflinchingly honest examination of domestic abuse in a female relationship was tonight named winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021.

Carmen Maria Machado takes the £30,000 award for her memoir In the Dream House (Serpent’s Tail/Graywolf Press). Tracing her relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado breaks down the idea of what the memoir form can do and be – and approaches a subject for which literary treatment has been extremely rare.

In a unanimous decision, the judges Roger Robinson, Sinéad Gleeson and Jon McGregor deemed In the Dream House the best book on what was a strong and widely discussed 2021 shortlist, also containing novels, auto-fiction, poetry, and poetry with photography.

Gleeson said: “Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House is an exceptional, important book. It takes everything a reader expects from a memoir, and upends and deconstructs it, playing with the possibilities of the form. Machado explores queerness, domestic violence and bodies in a multi-genre masterpiece, told in taut, stunning prose.”

Machado was shortlisted alongside Sara Baume (handiwork), Amina Cain (Indelicacy), Elaine Feeney (As You Were), Caleb Femi (Poor), Rachel Long (My Darling from the Lions), Doireann Ní Ghríof a (A Ghost in the Throat), and Monique Roffey (The Mermaid of Black Conch).

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, published by Tramp Press, has been shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021, in partnership with Bookshop.org.

The other four books on the shortlist are: Lote by Shola von Reinhold (Jacaranda Books); Men and Apparitions by Lynne Tillman (Peninsula Press); The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree Press); A Musical Offering by Luis Sagasti, tr. Fionn Petch (Charco Press).

The prize seeks to reflect some of the best work being produced and published by small presses in the UK and Ireland, and some of the best writing anywhere in the world.

Each book receives £2,000, split between the publisher and the author. This brings the amount of money distributed between small publishers and authors in 2021 by the Republic of Consciousness to £20,000 in 2021.

The judging panel consists of Eley Williams, Guy Gunaratne and John Mitchinson, who read over 80 submissions. The winner will be announced in May.

The Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors’ Literary Award 2021 will be awarded to Claire Keegan and in partnership with Literature Ireland to Jacqueline Odin for the French translation of Keegan’s novel Ce genre de petites choses (Small Things Like These). The winning author receives a €1,500 prize and her translator a €1,000 prize, as part of the Francophonie Festival in Ireland.

The award will be presented by Ekaterini Simopoulou, Greek ambassador to Ireland. Prof Clíona Ní Riordáin of the Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle, will moderate a discussion with Keegan. They will be joined by Sabine Wespieser, her French publisher, and by Odin. The award ceremony will take place on March 26th at 6pm on Zoom.

Keegan’s new novel was first published in French , marking her first publication in ten years after her acclaimed novella Foster. The original English work, Small Things Like These, will be published by Faber & Faber in October. Publisher Alex Bowler says: “An exquisite wintery parable, Claire Keegan’s long-awaited return tells the story of a simple act of courage and tenderness, in the face of conformity, fear and judgement. To read it is to be deeply touched by hope and by the sheer storytelling brilliance of one of Ireland’s great writers.”

Speaking of the Ambassadors of the Francophonie-Literature Ireland partnership, Sinéad Mac Aodha, director of Literature Ireland, said “Literature Ireland builds relationships between Ireland’s literature and the world, primarily through translation. The Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors’ award highlights the role of French translation in transmitting the values of the Francophonie and of cultural and linguistic exchanges in particular, so this is a very natural and important partnership for us. I should like to congratulate Claire Keegan and her French translator of long-standing, Jacqueline Odin, on winning this prestigious award for “Ce genre de petites choses” which has been so expertly published by Sabine Wespieser Éditeurs in Paris. We understand this to be the first of many translations of Claire’s new book and look forward to seeing the book read and enjoyed right across the world, from China to Argentina.”

The Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors’ Literary Award highlights the role of French translation in transmitting the values of La Francophonie. The prize is awarded annually to an Irish writer recently published in French and to their French translator. The prize is awarded by the 26 embassies in Ireland representing the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF), in partnership with Literature Ireland, the national organization in Ireland for the international promotion of Irish literature, and the Alliance Française de Dublin.

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Women writers dominate the shortlist in key categories for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, one of the world’s leading prizes dedicated to Arab literature and culture. Seven out of 9 shortlistees for children’s literature, literature and young author awards are women – including Egyptian author Iman Mersal, recognised world-wide for her experimental style, and Lebanese poet Alawiya Sobh, both of whom have been published in English translation. Saudi writer Dr Asma Muqbil Awad Alahmadi is shortlisted for her study of women in Saudi fiction and the remarkable growth of women writers in Saudi Arabia. The winners will be announced in April. A spokesperson welcomed “the new wave of up and coming women writers across the region, tackling important themes with great creativity”.

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Influx Press is to publish Polluted Sex, the debut short story collection from Lauren Foley, next January. It is described as “fearless in its depiction of women’s bodies and sexuality and an unflinching and intensely sexually charged window into Irish girls and womanhood”.

Foley said: “Polluted Sex has long been a labour of love for me. Being included on a list as radical and impressive as Influx’s is a huge compliment. That Gary and Sanya saw my ‘unmarketable’ manuscript, loved it, and jumped at the chance to publish it sets Influx apart in the industry. I am delighted to make my debut on their list.”

The author is Irish/Australian and bisexual. Her stories have been published internationally, including in Overland, the Irish Times, Lighthouse, No Alibis and gorse. She has systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and is disabled. The majority of her writing is dictated, the Bookseller reported.

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Paper Lanterns, a literary journal launched last year which focuses on teen and YA literature, launches its fourth issue today. Art and features submissions are open year-round and submissions for poetry, flash fiction and short stories for issue 5 open today. Details can be found on its website: paperlanternslit.com