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Author Louise Kennedy Alamy

The 20 best new Irish fiction writers named by An Post Irish Book Awards

Louise Kennedy, Louise Nealon and Naoise Dolan are among those listed.

THE AN POST Irish Book Awards has today named its top 20 best new Irish fiction writers ahead of its awards in November.

The nominated authors work across a variety of fiction genres and all have had no more than two books published in the last decade. 

Chairperson on the judging panel Maria Dickenson said the list presents 20 of the most promising names in Irish literature, adding that Irish writing is in “great hands” with the new generation of authors. 

The list is published ahead of the An Post Irish Book Awards which will return on November 27 for its 19th year. 

Without further adieu, here (in alphabetical order) is the list in full: 

Aingeala Flannery

Aingeala Flannery is a writer and broadcaster. Her critically acclaimed debut novel The Amusements was published by Penguin Sandycove in 2022. She is also the current writer-in-residence at Dublin City University.

Alan Murrin

Alan Murrin is an Irish fiction writer based in Berlin. In 2021 he was the winner of the Bournemouth Writing Prize for his short story The Wake, which was later shortlisted for Short Story of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. He is a graduate of the prose fiction masters at the University of East Anglia and also writes for the Irish Times, Times Literary Supplement and Spectator.

Cathy Sweeney

Cathy Sweeney is a writer living in Ireland. Her short fiction has been published in the Stinging Fly, the Dublin Review, Egress, Winter Papers, Banshee and the Tangerine, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her debut short story collection, Modern Times, was published in 2020.

Catríona Lally

Caitríona Lally is the recipient of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (2018) and a Lannan Fellowship for Fiction (2019). In October 2021, she was announced as the inaugural Rooney Writer Fellow at Trinity Long Room Hub. Her first novel, Eggshells, was shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2015. Wunderland, her second novel, was published by New Island Books in 2021. 

Claire Coughlan

Claire Coughlan worked as a journalist in Ireland for many years. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UCD and lives in Co Kildare with her husband and daughter. Where They Lie is her debut novel.

Colin Walsh

Colin Walsh’s short stories have won several awards including the RTE Francis MacManus Short Story Prize and the Hennessy Literary Award. In 2019 he was named Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year. Kala is his first novel and was a number one bestseller. He is from Galway and lives in Belgium.

Disha Bose

Disha Bose was born and raised in India, and has lived in Calcutta, London, and Dublin. She worked in the tech industry before joining the Masters in creative writing programme at University College Dublin. She now lives in Cork, Ireland. Dirty Laundry is her debut novel. 

Ferdia Lennon

Ferdia Lennon was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and Libyan father. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. In 2019 and 2021, he received a Literature Bursary Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son.

Fíona Scarlett

Fíona Scarlett is from Dublin but now lives in Co. Kildare with her husband and two children. She holds an MLitt in creative writing from the University of Glasgow as well as a masters in early childhood education. She works full time as a primary school teacher and Boys Don’t Cry is her debut novel. 

Louise Kennedy

Louise Kennedy grew up a few miles from Belfast. She is the author of the Women’s Prize Longlisted novel, Trespasses, and the acclaimed short story collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac, and is the only woman to have been shortlisted twice for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award (2019 and 2020). Before starting her writing career, she spent nearly thirty years working as a chef. She now lives in Sligo.

Louise Nealon

Louise Nealon studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin, and then completed a masters in creative writing at Queen’s University Belfast in 2016. She lives on her family farm in County Kildare. Snowflake is her first novel and was the biggest-selling debut in Ireland, winning Newcomer of the Year at the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards.

Megan Nolan

Megan Nolan was born in Waterford, Ireland and is currently based in New York. For her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, Nolan was the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Ordinary Human Failings was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. 

Michael Magee

Michael Magee is the fiction editor of the Tangerine and a graduate of the creative writing PhD programme at Queen’s University, Belfast. Close to Home is his first novel and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2023.

Michelle Gallen

Michelle Gallen grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a few miles from the border. She studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and Publishing at Stirling University. Her debut novel, Big Girl, Small Town was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. Her critically acclaimed second novel, Factory Girls, won the Comedy Women in Print award and was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. Both books are being adapted for TV.

Naoise Dolan

Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer born in Dublin. Her debut novel Exciting Times was a Sunday Times bestseller, widely translated, and optioned for TV. She won the 2021 Hawthornden Prize and has been shortlisted and longlisted for several other prizes. She now lives in Berlin.

Niamh Campbell

Niamh Campbell’s debut novel This Happy was nominated for the An Post Irish Book Awards, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the John McGahern Book Prize and the Kate O’Brien Award. In 2020 she also won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for Love Many. In 2021, Campbell won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. She lives and works in Dublin.

Nicole Flattery

Nicole Flattery is the author of the story collection Show Them a Good Time. She is the winner of the An Post Irish Book Award, the Kate O’Brien Prize, the London Magazine Prize for Debut Fiction, and the White Review Short Story Prize. A graduate of the master’s program in creative writing at Trinity College, she lives in Dublin, Ireland. 

Noel O’Regan

Noel O’Regan is from Tralee, Co. Kerry. A recipient of an Arts Council Next Generation Artist Award, his debut novel, Though the Bodies Fall (Granta Books, 2023), was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction, the John McGahern Book Prize and Newcomer of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards.

Sheila Armstrong

Sheila Armstrong is a writer and editor from the north-west of Ireland. How to Gut a Fish, her first collection of short stories, was shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Award and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. Falling Animals, her debut novel, was chosen for BBC2’s Between The Covers Book Club and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.

Una Mannion

Una Mannion is based in County Sligo Ireland. Her debut novel A Crooked Tree made the Irish bestsellers list, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Emerging Writer Award and won the Kate O’Brien Prize. Her second novel Tell Me What I Am was shortlisted for the Encore Awards and was the winner of the prestigious Gold Dagger at the CWA Dagger Awards. In September 2024, Una joins the Oscar Wilde Centre and English Department at Trinity College Dublin teaching creative writing.

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13 Comments
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    Mute Stiles
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:33 PM

    I wudnt send mcentee for a bag of chips, she’d make a bollix of it..

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    Mute Buster Lawless
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:03 PM

    @Stiles: if she legalised drugs first then opened the clubs later, would make more sense.

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    Mute Pork Hunt
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:17 PM

    @Buster Lawless: what drugs ?

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    Mute David Glynn
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:23 PM

    @Stiles: are they not all closed bar coppers

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    Mute Tim Brennan
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    Nov 15th 2024, 11:14 PM

    @Stiles: Chips

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    Mute Brian D'Arcy
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:35 PM

    Promising a previous promise ha ha, that’ll solve everything.

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    Mute Jerry LeFrog
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:32 PM

    @Brian D’Arcy: and of course she’d promise this and the moon. Should have been expected.
    That will give her party 5 more years to cook up excuses to explain why they did not deliver on any of their promises when the next bout of elections comes round the corner.

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    Mute F1rYnpWc
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:52 PM

    Who was the party who brought in early closure of nightclubs in the first place?

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    Mute John Doe
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:06 PM

    @F1rYnpWc: FF did in 2008. Why can’t you people google this basic info?

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    Mute Tired Jim
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:14 PM

    @F1rYnpWc: Fianna Fail, they also closed the off licences at 10pm under then justice minister Dermot Ahern, becausewe weredrinkingtoo much. Always good to have a bit of knowledge before discussing things

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    Mute Jerry LeFrog
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:35 PM

    @Tired Jim: oh, thanks Jim for an intelligent comment (genuine appreciation).
    Always good to (re)learn things when they are factually said [thumps up]

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    Mute Tired Jim
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:40 PM

    @Jerry LeFrog: you are more than welcome, anytime

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Nov 15th 2024, 6:10 PM

    @Tired Jim: Did his measures work Tim?

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Nov 15th 2024, 6:10 PM

    @Brian Hunt: Jim

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    Mute Tired Jim
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    Nov 15th 2024, 6:14 PM

    @Brian Hunt: no, people just bought in bulk lol

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    Mute Oh Mammy
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:52 PM

    What could go wrong?

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    Mute giles wolohan
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:28 PM

    Sure the rest of Europe is giving up on all hours open even spain nightclubs close at 4am.our government tries to do stuff axse ways

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    Mute John Moore
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    Nov 16th 2024, 11:50 AM

    @giles wolohan: No they don’t. Where do people get this stuff from? We are a complete outlier in Europe closing way earlier than anywhere else. 2:30am. I am out quite regularly and tourists etc. don’t believe you when you tell them that’s a wrap. FG backbenchers saying there is no demand. Then what’s the problem? If there’s no demand premises just won’t stay open any longer. And also how would they know? When is the last time any of them were out in the city centre at the weekend?

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    Mute Michale Kane
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:02 PM

    I pinky-swear I’ll do it this time.

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    Mute Tim Brennan
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:44 PM

    This is shortly one very poor minister. She has become extremely touchy and narky during this campaign a sign of someone completely out of their depth.

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    Mute Concerned Driver
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:37 PM

    Yea right ….

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    Mute FlipBip
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:53 PM

    With a few strokes of a pen, they can sign legislation, practically overnight, to keep you within 5km of your home, ban you from visiting your family, “cancel” Christmas and ban minorities (unvaxxed) from pubs and restaurants. Remember that. They can do a lot. But they don’t do it.

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    Mute Patrick Perill
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:09 PM

    @FlipBip: … and ignored the expert opinions of virologists here on social media.

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    Mute Mick O'K
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:19 PM

    @Patrick Perill: yeah especially the ones saying that you take the vaccine you won’t get Covid. The loooooopera

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:26 PM

    @Mick O’K: Strange. I can’t remember anybody saying that. What I CAN remember is people saying that the symptoms would be greatly decreased, chances of hospitalisation would be greatly decreased and transmission rates would be reduced. But, no, I can’t remember any reputable source having said that I wouldn’t get Covid.

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    Nov 15th 2024, 5:11 PM

    @Patrick Perill: could be worse. Remember that buying a substantial meal with your pint apparently kept you safe from COVID in the pubs. I’d love to meet the “expert” in government who came up with that

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    Mute FlipBip
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    Nov 15th 2024, 5:21 PM

    @Sean O’Dhubhghaill: The president of America said it. But anyway, kinda drifting off topic here. Point is, they can do something quickly, when they want to.

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Nov 15th 2024, 5:58 PM

    @Ger Whelan: A perfect example of twisting a story! People sit in limited and well spaced numbers in a restuarant. People stand and mingle in much larger numbers in pubs. So Restuarants were allowed open. Cue publicans saying “But, but, but,………!”. So pubs which served meals to seated customers were allowed to open. But if you wish to believe that somebody said having a meal with your pint prevented the spread of Covid I won’t stop you.

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    Mute David S
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    Nov 15th 2024, 7:21 PM

    @Sean O’Dhubhghaill: As far as I remember nobody could define what a substantial meal was so it opened the rule up to different interpretations, thus allowing it to be, let’s say manipulated so people could go on the piss. So really it was a daft idea.

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    Mute Mick O'K
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    Nov 15th 2024, 7:32 PM

    @Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden said it Seán

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    Mute Mags G
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    Nov 15th 2024, 8:14 PM

    @Sean O’Dhubhghaill: and then it came out that the Covid vaccine did nothing to reduce transmission.

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    Mute Michale Kane
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:00 PM

    It’s like Christmas morning unwrapping pressies

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    Mute Paul O Connor
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:37 PM

    Good luck finding staff to work that late. It’s hard enough to get staff as it is with the current opening hours.

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    Mute Gerry Lamont
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:40 PM

    Just get on with it you useless tw at.

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    Mute John Doe
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    Nov 15th 2024, 3:50 PM

    Commenting before all the old men tell us it’s a bad idea

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    Mute Derek Moran
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    Nov 15th 2024, 6:02 PM

    I was going to vote FG until I read this.

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    Mute Padraig O'Brien
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    Nov 15th 2024, 5:17 PM

    She is committed. Well that’s a good start!

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Nov 15th 2024, 6:08 PM

    Totally useless politician, a disaster at Justice Dept!

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    Mute The Firestarter
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    Nov 15th 2024, 10:18 PM

    Like everything in this country they talk something to death, and then it never happens. Seriously five years for a relatively simple piece of legislation, and they still haven’t managed to get it over the line. Probably explains why we still don’t have a metro, and our health service is embarrassing.

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    Mute Dominic Leleu
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    Nov 16th 2024, 8:57 AM

    and if you contest anything that would be hate speech ?
    send her a message: don’t vote for her

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    Mute Tired Jim
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:08 PM

    I am looking forward to voting for FG in a fortnight’s time

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    Mute wwvCLOuF
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    Nov 15th 2024, 4:47 PM

    @Tired Jim: will you get off comments forever if they win? I’ll vote for them too if you promise. Your friend Simon didn’t do great on caple st yest? That old boy put him firmly in his place, Simon came off as a grumpy boy taking his football elsewhere.

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    Mute SV3tN8M4
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    Nov 16th 2024, 12:57 AM

    Micheal & Fianna Fail going to legalize drugs for all & Mc Entee going to have all night opening, what could go wrong. These people are beyond contempt with their failures & their lies.

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    Mute Veronica
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    Nov 16th 2024, 3:41 AM

    Given cost of a taxi is due to rise in December & public transport is on it’s knees it’s not going to happen plus so many people have house parties since covid!

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