An Post has renewed their headline sponsorship agreement with the Irish Book Awards. The company first sponsored the awards in 2018 and this new deal, of which the details were not disclosed, runs until 2025. Now in its 18th year, the awards celebrate and promote Irish writing to readers nationwide. Each year it brings together readers, authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians – to recognise the best of Irish writing talent.
The awards comprise 18 categories, including novel of the year, top children’s book, cookbook, crime fiction, popular fiction, non-fiction, sports, lifestyle, short story, Irish language, poem, newcomer, teen and young adult, Irish published and biography. Among the authors already honoured are Marian Keyes, Donal Ryan, Sinead Moriarty, Joe O’Connor, Sally Rooney, Roddy Doyle, Liz Nugent, Sinead Gleeson and Paul Howard.
As well as the category winners, a special honour, the Bob Hughes’ lifetime achievement award, is also presented. Among the previous winners are many of Ireland’s most highly-regarded writers and poets, including Anne Enright, Sebastian Barry, Colm Toibín, Thomas Kinsella, Eavan Boland, John Montague, JP Donleavy, Paul Durcan, John Banville, Maeve Binchy, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien, William Trevor and Séamus Heaney.
To mark the extended sponsorship, An Post has a new writing prize called New Voices.
The focus is on the Ireland’s Ukrainian community, with writers aged 16 and upwards invited to compose a new and original short story, essay or poem describing their experiences of flight and exile in no more than 1,000 words. The winner will be announced at the An Post Irish Book Awards gala dinner and awards ceremony in the Convention Centre Dublin on November 22. A shortlist for the awards will be announced on October 19.
Pictured above at An Post’s new Exo Building, from left: Liz Nugent, a previous winner for Unravelling Oliver; Maria Dickenson, Eason; Fintan O’Toole, a previous winner for We Don’t Know Ourselves and David McRedmond, CEO, An Post
