FRENCH AUTHOR ALICE Zeniter and translator Frank Wynne have been named the winners of the 2022 Dublin Literary Award.
This significant award, which is sponsored by Dublin City Council, is the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English. The Art of Losing is the 10th novel in translation to win the Dublin Literary Prize.
The nominations for the award come from public libraries in cities around the globe and most notably, the prize recognises both writers and translators. While the author Alice Zeniter receives €75,000, Frank Wynne, as translator, receives €25,000. Frank was a previous winner in 2002, as translator of Atomised by Michel Houellebecq.
The winners were announced at a special event today at the International Literature Festival Dublin, which runs until 29 May.
Lord Mayor and Patron of the Award, Alison Gilliland made the announcement and Owen Keegan, Chief Executive of Dublin City Council, presented the prizes at the International Literature Festival Dublin Literary Village in Merrion Square Park.
Lord Mayor Gilliland remarked:
With its themes of colonisation and immigration, The Art of Losing, which follows three generations of an Algerian family from the 1950s to the present day, highlights how literature can increase our understanding of the world. I’d like to congratulate Alice Zeniter and Frank Wynne and thank all who are involved in the award – writers, translators, librarians, publishers and the administrative staff of Dublin City Council.
The novel was nominated by Bibliothèque publique d’information, in the Pompidou Centre, Paris, and was chosen from a shortlist of six novels by writers from Ireland, Nigeria, New Zealand, France and Canada.
The longlist of 79 titles was nominated by 94 libraries from 40 countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, the US, Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand.
Winner Alice Zeniter said:
“When I was writing the Art of Losing, I was almost certain that it was a niche novel. This book’s life, even five years after its release, keeps surprising me. I am really happy and thrilled that the Dublin Literary Award shows me today that this story can be shared with readers from different countries, readers who grew up outside the French post-colonial Empire. Readers that, maybe, had never thought about Algeria before opening the book. How crazy is that?”
Translator Frank Wynne commented: “In a very real sense, I owe my career as a literary translator to the Dublin Literary Award, a prize I cherish because it makes no distinction between English and translated fiction, treating authors and translators as co-weavers of the endless braid of literature.”
If you would like to read the novel, you can borrow a copy from Dublin City Libraries and from public libraries throughout Ireland, or on BorrowBox in eBook format. The French version will also be available to borrow from Dublin City Libraries. Further details about the Award and the winning novel are available on the Award website at
The 2022 Judging Panel was led by Professor Chris Morash of Trinity College Dublin, and includes Emmanuel Dandaura, Sinéad Moriarty, Clíona Ní Riordáin, Alvin Pang and Victoria White. They commented:
“The Art of losing offers insights at every scale, from the national and the individual, about the fluid nature of identity; how our relations to place and to each other situate and perhaps free us.”
Alice Zeniter is a French novelist, translator, scriptwriter and director. She has won multiple awards for her writing.
Frank Wynne is an award-winning Irish translator who has translated and published comics and graphic novels, and began translating literature in the late 1990s.
The other nominees for the award were:
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