VIDEO: The Irish Book Awards

The shortlist for the Irish Book Awards was announced this week in Dublin. Bestselling authors Cecelia Ahern and Marita Conlon-McKenna spoke to me for UTV Ireland on how they felt about being nominated and why they think their books stand out.

Here’s a round-up of the nominees:

Eason Book Club Novel of the Year

• All We Shall Know – Donal Ryan
• Days Without End – Sebastian Barry
• Solar Bones – Mike McCormack
• The Lesser Bohemians – Eimear McBride
• The Wonder – Emma Donoghue
• This Must Be The Place – Maggie O’Farrell
• Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

Irish Independent Popular Fiction Book of the Year

• Game of Throw-Ins – Ross O’Carroll-Kelly
• Holding – Graham Norton
• Lyrebird – Cecelia Ahern
• Rebel Sisters – Marita Conlon-McKenna
• The Girl From The Savoy – Hazel Gaynor
• The Privileged – Emily Hourican

RTÉ Radio 1’s The Ryan Tubridy Show Listeners’ Choice Award

• All Through The Night – edited by Marie Heaney
• All We Shall Know – Donal Ryan
• Conclave – Robert Harris
• Dictatorship: My Teenage War With OCD – Rebecca Ryan
• Lying In Wait – Liz Nugent
• Victim Without A Face – Stefan Ahnhem

Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year

• Himself – Jess Kidd
• Red Dirt – E.M. Reapy
• The Last Days of Summer – Vanessa Ronan
• The Maker of Swans – Paraic O’Donnell
• The Things I Should Have Told You – Carmel Harrington
• This Living and Immortal Thing – Austin Duffy

TheJournal.ie Best Irish-Published Book of the Year

• All Through the Night – edited by Marie Heaney
• Dublin Since 1922 – Tim Carey
• Looking Back: The Changing Faces of Ireland – Eric Luke
• Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks – edited by Fintan O’Toole
• The Glass Shore – edited by Sinéad Gleeson
• The Invisible Art: A Century of Music in Ireland 1916-2016 – edited by Michael Dervan

Books Are My Bag Crime Fiction Book of the Year

• Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard
• Little Bones by Sam Blake
• Lying In Wait – Liz Nugent
• The Constant Soldier – William Ryan
• The Drowning Child – Alex Barclay
• The Trespasser – Tana French

Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year

• Adventures Of A Wonky-Eyed Boy – Jason Byrne
• Fat Chance – Louise McSharry
• Making It Up As I Go Along – Marian Keyes
• Mr Pussy: Before I Forget To Remember – Alan Amsby and David Kenny
• Pippa – Pippa O’Connor
• Talking To Strangers – Michael Harding
• Adventures Of A Wonky-Eyed Boy by Jason Byrne

National Book Tokens Non-Fiction Book of the Year

• I Read The News Today, Oh Boy – Paul Howard
• Ireland: The Autobiography – John Bowman
• The Hurley Maker’s Son – Patrick Deeley
• The Supreme Court – Ruadhán Mac Cormaic
• Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir – John Banville and Paul Joyce
• When Ideas Matter – Michael D. Higgins

Avonmore Cookbook of the Year

• Natural Born Feeder – Roz Purcell
• Neven Maguire’s Complete Family Cookbook – Neven Maguire
• Recipes For A Nervous Breakdown – Sophie White
• The Brother Hubbard Cookbook – Garrett Fitzgerald
• The Little Green Spoon – Indy Power
• The World of the Happy Pear – Stephen and David Flynn

Bord Gáis Energy Sports Book of the Year

• Blood, Sweat and McAteer – Jason McAteer
• Coolmore Stud: Ireland’s Greatest Sporting Success Story – Alan Conway
• My Life In Rugby – Donal Lenihan
• Out of Control – Cathal McCarron
• The Battle – Paul O’Connell
• Win or Learn – John Kavanagh

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year – Junior

• A Child of Books – Sam Winston and Oliver Jeffers
• Goodnight Everyone – Chris Haughton
• Historopedia – Fatti and John Burke
• Pigín Of Howth – Kathleen Watkins, illustrated by Margaret Anne Suggs
• Rabbit and Bear: Rabbit’s Bad Habits – Julian Gough and Jim Field
• Rover and the Big Fat Baby – Roddy Doyle, illustrated by Chris Judge

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year – Senior

• Flawed – Cecelia Ahern
• Knights of the Borrowed Dark – Dave Rudden
• Needlework – Deirdre Sullivan
• Nothing Tastes As Good – Claire Hennessy
• The Book of Shadows – E.R. Murray
• The Making of Mollie – Anna Carey

Writing.ie Short Story of the Year

• Green Amber Red – Jane Casey
• Here We Are – Lucy Caldwell
• K-K-K – Lauren Foley
• The Birds of June – John Connell
• The Visit – Orla McAlinden
• What A River Remembers Of Its Course – Gerard Beirne

Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the Year

• In Glasnevin – Jane Clarke
• Love/Hotel/Love – Michael Naghten Shanks
• Patagonia – Emma McKervey
• Suppose I Lost – Andrew Soye

Congratulations to all. You can vote for your favourite book in each category on the Irish Book Awards website. Voting closes at midnight on Friday 11th November.