Emma Donoghue receives Ireland Funds literary award

The novelist Emma Donoghue has received this year's AWB Vincent Literary Award.

She was presented with the award, worth $25,000 (€22,000), by Marie Heaney yesterday at an event in the Mansion House in Dublin attended by writers, actors and artists including John Banville, Marina Carr, , Stephen Rea and Peter Sheridan.

Donoghue's screenplay for the film version of her novel Room was nominated for an Academy Award this year. The novel, which had been nominated for the Man Booker and Orange awards, has sold over two million copies.

Her other novels include the literary mystery Frog Music, the historical novels The Sealed Letter, Life Mask, and Slammerkin, and contemporary novels Landing, Hood and Stir-fry and several short-story collections.

The Ireland Funds award is presented annually in recognition of literary achievement. Previous winners include Seamus Heaney and Colum McCann.