Last night’s An Post Irish Book Awards honoured a diverse range of extraordinary Irish talent, old and new, with a particular spotlight on female authors. The award ceremony enjoyed unprecedented levels of public engagement, with over 100,000 votes cast – almost double last year’s tally.
Sally Rooney won Novel of the Year for her second book, Normal People. At age 27, Rooney is blazing a trail across the literary landscape, with Normal People having been longlisted for the legendary Man Booker prize earlier this year. A tough and unflinching story of first love and two teenagers’ enduring fascination with one another, Normal People is a coming-of-age story worthy of a place amongst the classics of the genre.
Senator and former Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Lynn Ruane took home Non-Fiction Book of the Year for her memoir, People Like Me. An intimate portrait of struggle and tireless activism, in People Like Me, Ruane describes her incredible journey from a troubled, chaotic youth to becoming an activist in Trinity, and later being elected as a senator in the Seanad. It is a remarkable story of bravery and survival against the odds.
Sarah Breen and Trinity graduate Emer McLysaght won Popular Fiction Book of the Year for their uproariously funny second collaboration, The Importance of Being Aisling. The writing duo have followed the enormous success of their debut Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling with a sequel that is just as entertaining, and just as perceptive. Speaking to The University Times last month, McLysaght described the novel as “a snapshot of what’s happening in Ireland”, and hit upon what makes the novel quite so popular: “to see a character who’s more like yourself is really relatable for people.”
Notes to Self author Emilie Pine was awarded Newcomer of the Year for her confessional and unsentimental series of essays, published by Tramp Press. Varying in substance from her father’s alcoholism to her own struggles as a UCD lecturer, the essays delve deep into the dark bonds between the self, the body and the past.
Poet Thomas Kinsella, who is due to mark his ninetieth birthday with celebratory readings in Trinity on Tuesday, December 4th, accepted the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award.
Awards Chairperson and Managing Director of Dubray Books, Maria Dickenson commended the “outstanding line-up of winners”, and noted the number of female authors who received awards: “It is also great to see so many female writers winning accolades this year. Many of them, including Emilie Pine, Sarah Webb, Lynn Ruane, Cora Staunton and Sally Rooney, are all writing about what it means to be a modern woman in contemporary Ireland and it is striking that these authors used the art of writing to tell their stories in such a truthful and honest way.”
Last night marked the Irish Books Awards’ 13th year in existence, and served to confirm the award ceremony’s status as a staple in the Irish literary calendar year, attended as it was by Ireland’s top writers, publishers, booksellers and media personalities.
