This year's Hennessy Literary Awards will be announced at a ceremony in Dublin next week.
A winner will be picked from a shortlist of 17 entries by the judges, West Indies writer Archie Markham and Northern Ireland novelist Glenn Patterson.
The Hennessy awards were established in 1971 to celebrate the best short stories published in the Irish Press,but moved to the Sunday Tribunein 1988.
Annual awards are made in three categories - first fiction, emerging fiction and emerging poetry - and will be announced on April 17th.
Each winner receives a trophy and €1,500.
An overall new Irish writer of the year is chosen from the three category winners and gets a further €2,500 and a trophy.
The hall of fame award was introduced four years ago to honour the achievement of major writers who were first published in New Irish Writingor who won Hennessy awards.
Previous recipients include Joseph O'Connor and Colum McCann.
Markham was born in Montserrat but has lived most of his life in Europe. Last year he was writer in residence at Trinity College Dublin.