Fiona McCannrounds up the six shortlisted writers and describes the genesis of the award
There are six writers on the shortlist for the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009, all in contention for the world’s richest prize for a single short story. They are Claire Keegan, Mary Leland, Molly McCloskey, Kathleen Murray, Susan Stairs and the only man on the list, Eoin McNamee.
CLAIRE KEEGAN, who was raised in Wicklow, studied in New Orleans and Cardiff before earning an MPhil in creative writing from Trinity College Dublin. Her first short story collection, Antarctica, was a Los Angeles TimesBook of the Year and earned her the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, while her second collection Walk the Blue Fieldswon the Edge Hill Prize. She is a member of Aosdána.
Cork-born journalist MARY LELANDhas published two novels, The Killeenand Approaching Priests, and a book of short stories, The Little Galloway Girlsas well as three non-fiction books, The Lie of the Land: Journeys through Literary Cork, That Endless Adventure: A History of the Cork Harbour Commissioners, and Dwyers of Cork: A Family Business and a Business Family.
MOLLY McCLOSKEY, who was born in Philadelphia but has lived in Ireland for the past 20 years, is the author of two collections of short stories, Solomon's Sealand The Beautiful Changes, and a novel, Protection. She has also worked for the United Nations in Kenya, and is currently completing a non-fiction book about schizophrenia.
Carlow native KATHLEEN MURRAY'Sstories have appeared in the anthologies The Incredible Hides in Every Houseand These Are Our Lives, and in the Stinging Flymagazine. She was the winner of the Fish Short Story Prize 2006-07 and is working on her first collection of short stories.
NCAD graduate SUSAN STAIRSis currently a student on the MA in creative writing programme in UCD. She has published three books about Irish art, Markey Robinson: A Life, The Irish Figurists, and Drawing from Memory: The Life of Irish Artist Gladys Maccabeand is currently working on a novel.
EOIN MCNAMEE, from Kilkeel, Co Down, was shortlisted for the Irish Timesliterature prize for his first book, the novella The Last of Deeds, in 1989. He has published four novels – Resurrection Man, The Blue Tango, The Ultrasand 12:23– a poetry collection, two screenplays and two books for children. He also writes under the name John Creed.
THE OVERALL WINNERof the award will receive €25,000, with the five runners up each receiving €1,000. The award, organised by the Stinging Flyin association with The Irish Times, is sponsored by Davy Byrnes, the pub immortalised by James Joyce in Ulysses. Its owners, the Doran family, see this award as an opportunity to give something back to literature, having benefited greatly over the years from their establishment's literary associations.
The competition, open to all Irish citizens and residents, was previously held in 2004 as part of the Bloomsday centenary celebrations, with the prize that year going to Anne Enright – who went on to win the Booker Prize – for her short story Honey.
This year, more than 800 entries were received, all of which were read in an anonymous process by a panel of readers. A longlist of 30 was then passed on – again anonymously – to the competition judge, Richard Ford, from which the six prize winners were selected.
"The whole purpose of running the competition again was to find and reward excellence, and with the shortlist that Richard Ford has come up with, I believe we've definitely achieved that," said Declan Meade, editor of the Stinging Flyand administrator of the award.
The winner will be announced in Davy Byrnes, Duke Street, Dublin, on Monday, June 22