Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, Edna O'Brien, Roddy Doyle and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill are among the writers nominated for the 1999 Irish Times Literature Prizes.
Doyle's novel A Star Called Henry is the only Irish book among the four nominated for The Irish Times International Fiction Prize. Two short story collections, Lorrie Moore's Birds of America and Alice Munro's Love of a Good Woman join the novel Underworld by American writer Don DeLillo to complete the list.
Because of its publication date Doyle's book was technically ineligible, but the judges - New Yorker literary and fiction editor and former editor of Granta, Bill Buford and novelists Douglas Kennedy and Mary Morrissy - insisted that it be included "as a book that is already part of our literary culture".
In a statement on behalf of the three judges, the panel chairman Bill Buford states:
"When we sat down this morning to determine our final shortlist of the best English language novels published in the last two years, we were unanimous in our conviction that one of the most important novels wasn't technically eligible - Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry, even though the book was already widely reviewed and available in bookshops.
"This, to us, made a mockery of our endeavour. It was to our minds, a great achievement and would do harm to our judgment and to the prize's reputation to exclude it. Why must the prize wait a full two years to consider a book that its judges have read and say deserves recognition now?
"The object of the prize, or at least the object as we understand it, is to celebrate fiction at its very best. This book is here, it's a fact, it exists - to pretend it is not here would be to misrepresent this literary moment."
The International Fiction Prize is for work written in English and published in Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States, and is presented biennially.
The Irish Literature Prizes, also presented biennially, are awarded in three categories, fiction, poetry and non-fiction written in English. The three authors on this year's fiction shortlist are: Antonia Logue for Shadow-Box, Colum McCann for This Side of Brightness, and Niall Williams for As It Is In Heaven.
In the poetry section Seamus Heaney is nominated for Opened Ground, Paul Durcan for Greetings to Our Friends In Brazil, and Medbh McGuckian for Selected Poems.
This year's nominees for the non-fiction prize are Neil Belton for The Good Listener. Helen Bamber: A Life Against Cruelty; Edna O'Brien for James Joyce and Peter Sheridan for 44 - A Dublin Memoir. The Irish Literature Prizes are being judged by former National Library director Pat Donlon, who chairs the panel, author and critic Rabbi Julia Neuberger and Dr Richard Kearney, novelist , Professor of Philosophy at UCD and visiting European Professor of Philosophy at Boston College.
For the non-fiction shortlist they considered works of history, biography, autobiography, politics, criticism, travel, current affairs and belle lettres.
This year, for the first time since the prizes were initiated 10 years ago, a separate prize is to be awarded for a work in the Irish language. This award will go to the single most outstanding title to be chosen from among works of fiction, poetry and non-fiction.
The shortlisted works are two poetry collections, Do Lorg: Danta agus Aortha by Pol Breathnach, and Cead Aighnis by Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, and a work of scholarly study, B'Ait Leo Bean by Mairin Nic Eoin
The judges for the Irish language prize are: Alan Titley, head of the Irish department at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, who is the chairman, Aine Ni Ghlinn, poet and journalist, and Diarmaid O Muirithe, author and former lecturer in the Department of Irish Language and Literature in UCD.
The winner of the International Fiction Prize will receive £7,500, with £5,000 going to each of the four winning authors in the Irish Literature categories. The eligibility period for all the prizes was for books published between July 31st, 1997 and August 1st, 1999.
The winning authors will be announced in The Irish Times in early October and the President, Mrs McAleese, will present them with their prizes at a ceremony in Dublin on November 3rd.