Former Trinity student Megan Nolan had been long listed for this year’s Dublin Literary award for her debut novel Acts of Desperation.
Nolan studied French and film studies at Trinity before dropping out. A successful writer best known for her personal style, she has been published in the New York Times, the Guardian and the Sunday Times, Nolan said last year that her decision to leave Trinity “literally made no difference to what I’ve ended up doing”.
Acts of Desperation, set in Dublin, traces the dynamic within a destructive relationship between the unnamed protagonist and her cruel, older boyfriend Ciaran. In 2019, after signing a two book deal with publisher Jonathan Cape, the publisher praised Nolan’s book as “masterful and riveting”, and her style “fresh, searching and addictive”.
A Waterford native, Nolan’s debut was praised by Waterford City and County Libraries when longlisted today, describing her as “an exciting and original new voice for Irish fiction.” She began writing the novel in 2016 with the help of the Ted and Mary O’Regan Arts Bursary, a scheme that offers financial support to Waterford creatives.
Another Irish writer nominated alongside Nolan on the longlist is Irish writer Donal Ryan for his novel Strange Flowers. A writer whose novels have all been number one bestsellers in Ireland, Ryan was described in 2016 by playwright Sebastian Barry as “the king of the new wave of Irish writers”.
Strange Flowers follows the disappearance of a twenty-year-old from her rural home in 1973 Ireland and the bewilderment her parents must then face. Ryan holds the joint record, with Colum McCann and Colm Tóibín, for most nominations for the International Dublin Literary Award.
Danielle McLaughlin, a Cork writer is also nominated for the Dublin Literary award this year for her debut novel The Art of Falling. McLaughlin’s stories have appeared in the Irish Times, the New Yorker, the Stinging Fly, and various anthologies.
A number of writers longlisted this year are making an appearance with their debut novel.
Nektaria Anastasiadou’s debut A Recipe for Daphne is set among Istanbul’s dwindling population of Rum, Greek Orthodox Christians. The Washington Post described it as “a novel to be thoroughly savoured”.
Kelli Jo Ford, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Everett Southwest Literary Award, and she appears on the award’s longlist for her debut novel Crooked Hallelujah.
Sri Lankan writer Carmel Miranda, previously an anaesthatist, has been selected for the award’s longlist for her first novel Crossmatch. Crossmatch won the Sri Lanka State National Literary Award for the Best Novel in English 2021.
Poet Patricia Lockwood also appears on the list with her debut novel No One is Talking About This, which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021.
The array of writers appearing on the longlist this year is astounding. Among debut novelists are seasoned writers such as Charles Stuart Kaufman, an American screenwriter, best known for writing the film Being John Malkovich. His novel Antkind is longlisted.
The Dublin Literary Award is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English. The award promotes excellence in world literature and is solely sponsored by Dublin City Council, and administered by Dublin City Libraries. Nominations are submitted by libraries in major cities throughout the world.
