TEN AUTHORS HAVE been shortlisted for the Novel of the Year and Emerging Writer categories in the Dalkey Literary Awards which will take place in June.

Sally Rooney’s book Beautiful World, Where Are You, as well as Booker-prize winner John Banville’s April in Spain have been announced as contenders for Novel of the Year.

Nora by Nuala O’Connor, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, and White City by Kevin Power are also shortlisted for the award which has a €20,000 prize.

The Emerging Writer shortlist features: A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion, Bright Burning Things by Lisa Harding, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy, Unsettled by Rosaleen McDonagh and Eat Or We Both Starve by Victoria Kennefick.

Zurich Insurance Group has provided a prize fund of €10,000 for the category as well as the prize for Novel of the Year, as part of their sponsorship of the Dalkey Book Festival which hosts the awards.

Sian Smyth, Director of the Dalkey Book Festival referred to the prize fund as “the most lucrative in the Irish literary calendar”, stating: “I’m extremely proud to be announcing the shortlists for the third year running.”

“We launched these Awards to honour Irish writing at a time when festivals, book launches, and public readings were shut down and this year it is exciting to anticipate getting together for a public celebration of the winners at a live ceremony as part of the Dalkey Book Festival in June.

“I hope the announcement of these shortlists will prompt the reading – or re-reading – of the shortlisted titles.”

Both categories are open to Irish writers, or Irish residents who have had a book published in Ireland or the UK  in 2021.

The shortlisted authors are set to appear at a panel event on 18 June during the four-day event before the awards take place later that evening.  

The festival aims to celebrate literature, history, theatre, film and comedy since its founding in 2010, while the awards were established in 2020.

Previous winners of the awards include Maggie O’Farrell, Elaine Feeney, Christine Dwyer Hickey and Sinéad Gleeson.

The winner of Novel of the Year will be decided by the literary editor of the Financial Times Weekend, Fred Studemann, writer Elaine Feeney and director Willie White of the Dublin Theatre Festival.

The Sunday Independent’s Madeleine Keane, the Irish Times’ Hugh Linehan and writer Martina Devlin make up the judging panel for the Emerging Writer category.