Caleb Azumah Nelson honoured

In The Irish Times this Saturday, Colm Tóibín talks to Keith Duggan about his Brooklyn sequel, Long Island. Rónán Hession tells Sarah Gilmartin about his new novel, Ghost Mountain. Adrian Dunbar discusses Beckett: Unbound 2024, the festival of the writer’s work in Paris and Liverpool which the actor has teamed up with composer Nick Roth to stage. Clinton-era White House adviser George Stephanopoulos talks about The Situation Room, his history of the White House. And there is a Q&A with David Nicholls about his latest novel, You Are Here.

Reviews are Brian Hanley on Land Is All That Matters: The Struggle That Shaped Irish History by Myles Dungan; Ian Hughes on United States Last: The Right’s Century-long Romance with Foreign Dictators by Jacob Heilbrunn; Oliver Farry on Carrie Sun’s Private Equity; Brian Cliff and Elizabeth Mannion on the best new crime fiction; Henrietta McKervey on Ravelling by Estelle Birdy; Helen Cullen on Shanghailanders by Juli Min; Pat Carty on Table for Two by Amor Towles; Niamh Donnelly on The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh by Ingrid Persaud; Rabeea Saleem on Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman; Liam Bishop on Ours by Phillip B Williams; Conor Brady on The Grateful Water by Juliana Adelman; John Boyne on Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan; and Pragya Agarwal on Like Love by Maggie Nelson.

This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is Booker Prize winner Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, just €5.99, a €5 saving.

British-Ghanaian author Caleb Azumah Nelson has been awarded the world’s largest and most prestigious literary prize for young writers, the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize 2024, for his ‘anthemic’ novel Small Worlds (Viking, Penguin Random House UK).

The 30-year-old author was awarded the £20,000 global accolade – celebrating exceptional literary talent aged 39 or under – at a ceremony held in Swansea this evening.

Namita Gokhale, chair of the judges, said: “Emotionally challenging yet exceptionally healing, Small Worlds feels like a balm: honest as it is about the riches and the immense difficulties of living of and away from your culture.” – full quote on the press release below.

Small Worlds – whose paperback edition came out last month – tells an intimate father-son story set between south London and Ghana over three summers. The win cements Azumah Nelson as a rising star in literary fiction, following his acclaimed debut, Open Water, which was shortlisted for the same prize in 2022.

The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) has awarded its 2024 RSL Ondaatje Prize, worth £10,000, to Ian Penman for his novel Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors, which judges lauded for its evocation of postwar Germany.

“I can’t believe it,” Penman said on collecting his prize from Jans Ondaatje Rolls, overseeing the ceremony on behalf of her father Christopher. “I’d like to thank Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who I think is astonishing and created a culture very much not like our own. Without him there wouldn’t be this book, and I dedicate this award to him.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the prize, which was instituted in 2004 to celebrate outstanding works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that best evoke the spirit of a place.

Chair of judges Xiaolu Guo praised Penman’s ingenuity and originality: “This is the only book I have read twice this year. Truly it is thousands of mirrors in terms of the thoughts, images and references running through this reflective and wonderfully interior work. The world of European cinema, especially Fassbinder’s film seen through Ian Penman’s eyes, has transported me to a tantalising place called postwar Europe. The book brings me back to my youth and my film school years in the east and West, and it reminds me of how powerful images have shaped our very understanding of love and life.”

Fellow judges Francis Spufford and Jan Carson, who helped whittle down 194 entries which included novels, poetry and non-fiction, were equally delighted with their eventual winner.

“Stendahl once described the novel as ‘a mirror being carried up the street’, but Ian Penman’s extraordinary critical memoir is more like a whole convoy of the things,’ said Spufford. “The book captures not only scenes both gross and beautiful from the 1970s life of the workaholic Fassbinder, but a glittering array of thoughts and moments from his own long fascination with Fassbinder’s place and time and historical moment – which was also the time of Penman’s youth, not as a German film director but as a London music journalist, hungry for Europe and all that it then represented to England, assembling a wider world for his imagination from clues and scraps and cherished frames of German movies.”

Carson said: “I’m so keen for more readers to discover this incredible little book. Every sentence is explosive. Every page left me reaching for my notebook to jot down things which required further thought. There are so many ideas, perspectives and tiny nuggets of deep insight contained within this book, I’d struggle to put a label on it. It’s biography. It’s philosophy. It’s critique. It’s flighty enough to read like fiction and yet it’s one of the most grounded books I’ve read in years. Yes, it’s about German cinema, but German cinema’s simply the mirror Penman’s holding up to force his readers to look long and hard at themselves.”

Dalkey Book Festival returns this June 13th to 16th with Paul Lynch, Colm Tóibín, Claire Keegan, Anne Enright, Paul Murray, Kevin Barry, Donal Ryan, Elaine Feeney, Jan Carson, John Boyne, Victoria Kennefick, Colin Barrett, Nuala O’Connor, Mary Costello, Ferdia Lennon and Sinéad Gleeson.

David Baddiel will launch his latest book, a family memoir, at Dalkey Book Festival. Neil Jordan, who is also launching his memoir at Dalkey, will be in conversation with actor Stephen Rea. Speaking of actors, from the US, Henry Winkler, the legend who played The Fonz in Happy Days, will be speaking about his memoir and Irish star, Barry McGovern, will read Beckett.

With the world’s eyes on Gaza, Palestinian voices in a number of events include writers Isabella Hammad and Karim Kattan, as well as author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, Nathan Thrall and Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East correspondent.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the famous broadcaster and frontline reporter who has won almost every prize going for journalism, David Brooks of The New York Times, probably the most influential commentator in United States, and Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, will appear alongside Fintan O’Toole. Also from the US, leading Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro will discuss the health of democracy and theatre, the right-wing political playbook and the origin of today’s culture wars. From unpicking violence in the Middle East to the war in Ukraine and threats to the stability of global order, the swing to the right in Europe, and the future of Irish politics, Dalkey will welcome Katja Hoyer from Germany, David de Jong from the Netherlands and Robert Shrimsley, Janine Gibson and Fred Studemann from the Financial Times, James O’Brien from LBC on his latest book, How They Broke Britain alongside Jennifer O’Connell, Simon Carswell, Pat Leahy and David McWilliams from The Irish Times.

And there’s history with Peter Frankopan and Paddy Cullivan, nature with Manchán Magan and Sean Ronayne, science with Luke O’Neill, Ruth Freeman and Ian Robertson, and a session on writing satire with Robert Shrimsley, Kathy Lette, Colm O’Regan and Colm Williamson of Waterford Whispers.

Sian Smyth, festival director, said, “Ireland’s literary talent is being celebrated the world over, and in 2024 we are thrilled to be hosting many of our finest writers. We also have guests from right across the globe including Christiane Amanpour and, as the world’s attention is fixed on Palestine, we welcome Isabella Hammad, winner of the Palestinian Book Award, and Karim Kattan (who one literary festival attempted to silence, asking him to ‘refrain from mentioning the situation in Gaza’) as well as Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen flying in from Jerusalem. And much more – with a dash of history, science, theatre, poetry and comedy, there really is something for everyone. “ dalkeybookfestival.org

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The shortlist for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2024 features one of Ireland’s foremost social and oral historians, Dr Jackie UI Chionna, for her book, Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain’s Greatest Female Code Breaker (Headline).

Also shortlisted are Deborah E. Lipstadt for Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch (Yale); Kal Raustiala for The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire (OUP); MW Rowe for JL Austin: Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer (OUP); and Jackie Wullschläger for Monet: The Restless Vision (Allen Lane).

The judges are Prof Roy Foster (Chair), Antonia Fraser, Chair Emerita and daughter of Elizabeth Longford, Flora Fraser, Richard Davenport-Hines and Prof Rana Mitter. The winner will be announced on June 12th.

Foster said: “Over 21 years the Elizabeth Longford Prize has extended and redefined the concept of lives that change history. The 2024 shortlist carries this forward. We have chosen a short but substantial book about a formidable and controversial woman world leader who helped create a nation, leaving a pioneering but deeply divisive legacy; a profile of a major diplomat who embodied the UN and its values, which is simultaneously a powerful commentary on racial issues and attitudes in the twentieth century; an eye-opening portrait of a painter who fundamentally changed the way we see things, and even how we understand time; and two intriguing biographies of people who combined distinguished scholarly lives with secret but profoundly important careers in Intelligence during second World War.

“All these books show that an individual life can cross barriers and partake in different worlds, often in ways no less historically influential for being unrecognised in their own time. In each case their life-stories have been told with scholarly rigour and narrative verve, qualities which characterise Elizabeth Longford’s own work and that of previous winners of this prize.”

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A vivid tale set in a fictional town in northern Australia, an exploration into the work of a writer who took their own life, and a snapshot of a post-second world War culture of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll have won the 2024 James Tait Black Prizes, Britain’s longest-running literary awards.

Alexis Wright has won the fiction award for Praiseworthy, which is also shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, whose winner will be announced next week. Though the Bodies Fall by Noel O’Regan was shortlisted for the fiction award.

The biography prize has been awarded jointly for Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translated by Robin Moger, published by And Other Stories, and Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors by Ian Penman, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

It is the first time that the biography prize has been jointly awarded, and the first time a writer and translator have been awarded a prize together in the history of the awards. The prizes were opened to translations in 2021, with author and translator to be honoured equally. The prizes are the only major British book awards judged by literature scholars and students.

Praiseworthy, published by And Other Stories, is a 700-page novel exploring the climate crisis and how it affects the fictional town of Praiseworthy in northern Australia. Wright, a member of the Waanyi nation in Australia, is one of the country’s most acclaimed writers. The author has written several award-winning fiction and nonfiction books, and Praiseworthy is her fourth novel.

Judge Dr Benjamin Bateman, of the University of Edinburgh, called Praiseworthy “a kaleidoscopic and brilliantly conceived novel that interweaves matters of climate and Indigenous justice in prose that accomplishes the most difficult of feats – being funny and simultaneously ferociously engaged with some of the most pressing ethical and political questions of our contemporary moment.”

Traces of Enayat illuminates the life story of author Enayat al-Zayyat, whose only novel, Love and Silence was published posthumously following her suicide in her early 20s. First published in Arabic in 2019, Traces of Enayat is a memoir of Mersal’s journey through a changing Cairo as she traces her subject’s moving life story. Egypt-born Iman Mersel, who lives in Canada, is a poet, writer, academic and translator, who has published several works covering topics such as motherhood and parent-child relationships.

Robin Moger is an award-winning translator of Arabic literature to English, who has translated several novels and prose works.

Biography Judge Dr Simon Cooke, of the University of Edinburgh, called Traces of Enayat “an absorbing work of recovery and appreciation: formally inventive and reflective in its fusion of biographical approaches into a form all its own, beautifully attentive to the elusive, and deeply moving in its evocation of Enayat al-Zayyat’s life. It vividly opens up the cultural world of Cairo – and Enayat’s relation to it – in a translation of great tonal and narrative integrity, even as the book traverses different forms and registers.”

Ian Penman’s winning book is an insight into the post-second world War culture of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll through the eyes of West German film-maker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It presents a portrait of the artist, who created more than 40 films and is regarded one of the major figures of the New German Cinema movement.

Penman is a British writer, music journalist and critic. He is the author of three books.

Judge Dr Simon Cooke said the panel found Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors to be “an extraordinary, signal achievement in the art of life-writing: poetically luminous at every turn, fascinating and agile in form, and hauntingly moving as a portrait – of Fassbinder, vividly brought to life on the page in all his complexity of the wider culture. A time-bound meditation in fragments, it also has a deep, powerfully affecting tonal integrity and pathos.”

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Una Mannion has been shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association’s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel for her second novel, Tell Me What I Am by (Faber & Faber). Also shortlisted are Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans; The Secret Hours by Mick Herron; Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane; Black river by Nilanjana Roy; and Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto.

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The 2024 Listowel Writer’s Week programme has been announced under the curatorship this year of the poet Martin Dyar. The programme is themed around the idea of Mother Nature.

First hosted in 1971, the festival will take place between May 29th and June 2nd.

On the opening night, the John B. Keane Lifetime Achievement Award will be bestowed to President Michael D. Higgins, in recognition of ‘Service to the Arts in Ireland’. President Higgins will be in Listowel to accept the award.

Festival highlights include the legendary American novelist Alice McDermott who will read from and discuss her New York Times bestselling novel, Absolution.

There will be screening of the IFTA award winning film “That They May Face the Rising Sun” followed by an interview between with the film’s director Pat Collins and the Shakespeare scholar Andy Murphy.

Marking the thirtieth anniversary of Riverdance, Grammy award winning composer Bill Whelan will be in conversation with Philip King.

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Dingle Lit Festival has announced the results of its Short Story Competition. Tracey Ní Mhaonaigh won the Irish-language category with Áine sa Phríomhchathair, with Brian Ó Donnchadha in second place and Úna Nic Cárthaigh third. Pauline Clooney won the English-language category with The Last Smoking Wedding in the Country. Miriam Needham came second and Claire O’Reilly third.

“It was an absolute pleasure to read the submissions for the Dingle Short Story Competition,” said judge Nicole Flattery. “The three winning stories are not only technically accomplished but full of voice and humour. I can’t wait to read what these writers do next.”

The competition judges also included Anna Stein and Camilla Dinkel for the entrants in English, with Cathal Póirtéir judging the entrants in Irish. Póirtéir said, “Tá an scéal truacánta seo sochreidthe, sothuigthe agus cumhachtach. Téann eachtraí an scéil go croí an léitheora chomh maith le croí an phríomhcharachtéir ar shlí ata cumasach agus ealaíonta.”

Dr Ní Mhaonaigh said, “Tá an-áthas go deo orm gur bhuaigh scéal de mo chuidse an comórtas gearrscéalaíochta. Is iontach an rud é go bhfuil comórtais den chineál seo againn sa Ghaeilge a thugann idir spreagadh agus mhisneach do scríbhneoirí idir shean agus nua!”

“It is an honour and a privilege, and a wonderful affirmation as a writer to be the winner of the Dingle Literary Festival short story competition,” Clooney said. “My heartfelt thanks to the judges and to the Festival team; I look forward to the time and space to write that this prize affords me, in the beautiful surroundings of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig.”

The Dingle Lit Short Story Competition, in partnership with Dingle Distillery, was open for short story writers to submit work in Irish or English. The winner of the Irish competition will receive a week’s retreat in the West Kerry Gaeltacht. The winner of the English competition will get a week at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig. Each runner up will receive €250 and a place on a Dingle Lit writing workshop in 2024, and the third prize for each category will be €100 and a place on a Dingle Lit writing workshop in 2024.

The winners’ and runners-up’ submission will be featured on dinglelit.ie and extracts from the winning short stories will be featured in 2024 Dingle Lit festival brochure. Winners will also be invited to to read from their work during this year’s festival which will take place from November 15th to 17th. Last year’s event was attended by over 2,000 people.

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Six Irish literary creators and reviewers have made it on to the The TikTok Book Awards longlist this year.

@irishfella.exe is up for Booktoker of the Year. Otherwise known as Shane, @irishfella.exe made a name for himself on TikTok for his live-stream storytelling and now boasts more than two million followers! Claire Wright @clairewright.author has been nominated for Breakthrough Author of the Year. Claire is the Irish author of adult fantasy series, Fair Ones. Based on a retelling of Irish mythology, the series takes place in both urban and epic fantasy settings, with a murder mystery to solve in book 1, Realm of Lore and Lies. Realm of Trials and Trickery Fair Ones, her second book, is out now. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue @czaronline has been nominated for Book of the Year. Kenny’s Bookshop @kennysbookshop has been nominated for Indie Bookshop of the Year. Two Irish nominees made it on to the Rising Stars of BookTok category: Niamh Wallace, known to the BookTok community as @booksarebrainfood, is a self-proclaimed book babbler who works in the publishing industry. @colinjmccracken’s page covers all things books, from his favourite bookshops to his top recommendations. He is also very involved with the #GothicBookClub.

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Instituto Cervantes Dublin is bringing renowned Basque author Bernardo Atxaga, known for his profound exploration of the human experience, to two events in Dublin. At the International Literature Festival Dublin (ILFD) on May 19th, Atxaga will engage in a dialogue with Irish writer Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin, emphasising the significance of minority languages in literature. He will present his acclaimed work Water over Stones, delving into the intertwined lives of characters in a Basque village across decades. On May 20th, Atxaga will participate in a literary conversation and reading in Spanish at Instituto Cervantes Dublin, celebrating diverse literary voices.

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Lilliput Press is to publish Shattered Dreams: The Story of Ireland’s Mica Scandal and the Lives it Left in Ruins by Rodney Edwards next spring. In this exposé of one of Ireland’s most profound housing crises, award-winning investigative journalist Edwards delves into the heart of the mica controversy, unravelling the intricate web of regulatory oversights and institutional failures that have left thousands of families shattered and homes uninhabitable.

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Award-winning writer Colin Barrett will talk about his first novel Wild Houses, at the Linenhall Arts Centre in his native Castlebar, on Saturday, May 25th, at 8pm. It’s the story of a simmering feud between a small-time drug dealer, Cillian English, and local enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, which spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. Tickets are €15 from thelinenhall.com/whats-on/events/colin-barrett

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Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the world’s largest and most prestigious celebration of crime fiction, takes place in Harrogate from July 18th-21st with Irish crime writers Catherine Ryan Howard, Jane Casey and Liz Nugent joining the all-star line-up of global best-sellers including Richard Osman, Mick Herron, Erin Kelly, Vaseem Khan, Shari Lapena, Elly Griffiths, James Comey and Peter James.

Two Irish writers have been selected for the prestigious Critics’ New Blood Panel showcasing outstanding debut talent from around the world, Claire Coughlan, author of Where They Lie, and Colin Walsh, author of Kala.

From cutting-edge AI and technology’s impact on criminal investigation, to the complexities of neurodivergent sleuths; from the shadowy world of spies and boundary-pushing thrillers, the programme, curated by 2024′s festival chair, bestselling crime novelist Ruth Ware, reflects a festival looking firmly to the future while celebrating the rich heritage of the crime fiction world. harrogateinternationalfestivals.com