ONE IRISH AUTHOR is on the shortlist for this year’s prestigious International Dublin Literary Award, which is sponsored by Dublin City Council.

Milkman, by Anna Burns, is one of this year’s novels that is in with a chance of winning the €100k prize. This year is the 25th year of the award, which is the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English.

If the book has been translated the author receives €75,000 and the translator receives €25,000.

The shortlist announced today includes three novels in translation. The writers, 8 of whom are female, come from Canada, France, India, Iran, Ireland, Poland, the UK and the USA.

The winner of the International Dublin Literary Award 2020 will be announced by its Patron, Lord Mayor Hazel Chu on Thursday 22 October, as part of International Literature Festival Dublin (ILFDublin).

The shortlisted titles are:

• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (British). Published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
• Milkman by Anna Burns (Irish). Published by Faber & Faber and Graywolf Press.
• Disoriental by Négar Djavadi (Iranian-French). Translated from the French by Tina Kover. Published by Europa Editions.
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Canadian). Published by Serpents Tail Ltd., HarperCollins Canada and Alfred A. Knopf.
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (American). Published by Algonquin Books.
• History of Violence by Édouard Louis (French). Translated from the French by Lorin Stein. Published by Harvill Secker.
• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (American). Published by Virago Press Ltd.
• There There by Tommy Orange (Native American). Published by Harvill Secker, Alfred A. Knopf and McClelland & Stewart Inc.
• All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy (Indian). Published by MacLehose Press and Atria Books.
• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (Polish). Translated by from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Patron of the Award, Lord Mayor Chu, said: “Looking at this fantastic list of books makes me so excited about our Literary Award this year. It’s more important than ever that Dublin City Council does its best to support the Arts in such challenging times and the International Dublin Literary Award is a huge statement of encouragement for writers.”

She urged people to read as many of the books as they can, by borrowing them from their local library countrywide.

The novels on this year’s shortlist were nominated by public libraries in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Poland, the UK and the USA, and come from Canada, France, India, Iran, Ireland, Poland the UK and the USA.

All the novels nominated for the Award are available for readers to borrow from Dublin’s public libraries and from public libraries around Ireland. Readers can also borrow most of the shortlisted titles on BorrowBox.

Meanwhile, the longlist of 156 titles has been published in a free magazine, and all details are also on the newly revamped Award website.

Previous winners of the award include Idaho by Emily Ruskovich (American) in 2019 and Irish winner Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (Irish), which won in 2018.

The six-strong judging panel includes Niall MacMonagle, Zoë Strachan, Yannick Garcia, Cathy Rentzenbrink, Shreela Ghosh and Professor Chris Morash. 

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