IRELAND’S FAVOURITE BOOKS of 2018 are up for gongs at the country’s prestigious book awards event this year. 

The An Post Irish Book Awards event is due to take place on 27 November, and tonight saw the unveiling of the shortlist.

Across the 16 categories are established writers and newcomers, from Liz Nugent to Melatu Uche Okorie, John Boyne to Graham Norton.

The best part of the awards is that the public can join in – people are being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year on the An Post Irish Book Awards website.

You can cast your votes until Friday 23 November, and the winners will be announced at the gala ceremony in The Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road on Tuesday 27 November. 

Here are the nominees:

TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the Year

• Lighthouses of Ireland – An Illustrated Guide to the Sentinels that Guard our Coastline – Roger O’Reilly (The Collins Press)
• The Great Irish Weather Book – Joanna Donnelly, illustrator Fuchsia MacAree (Gill Books)
• Dr Hibernica Finch’s Compelling Compendium of Irish Animals – Rob Maguire, illustrator Aga Grandowicz (Little Island Books)
• People on the Pier – Betty Stenson and Marian Thérése Keyes (New Island Books)
• Humanology – Professor Luke O’Neill (Gill Books)
• Blazing A Trail – Irish Women Who Changed the World – Sarah Webb, illustrator Lauren O’Neill (The O’Brien Press)

National Book Tokens Children’s Book of the Year (Junior)

• The First Christmas Jumper (And the Sheep Who Changed Everything) – Ryan Tubridy, illustrator Chris Judge (Walker Books)
• The Magic Moment – Niall Breslin, illustrator Sheena Dempsey (Gill Books)
• The President’s Cat – Peter Donnelly (Gill Books)
• Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth – Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
• The Pooka Party – Shona Shirley Macdonald (The O’Brien Press)
• I Say Ooh, You Say Aah – John Kane (Templar Press)

National Book Tokens Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)

• Tin – Pádraig Kenny (Chicken House)
• The Trouble with Perfect – Helena Duggan (Usborne Publishing)
• Secret Science: The Amazing World Beyond Your Eyes – Dara Ó Briain, illustrator Dan Brammall (Scholastic)
• The Storm Keeper’s Island – Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• Blazing A Trail – Irish Women Who Changed the World – Sarah Webb, illustrator Lauren O’Neill (The O’Brien Press)
• The Dog Who Lost His Bark – Eoin Colfer, illustrator PJ Lynch (Walker Books)

Dept 51@Eason Teen / Young Adult Book of the Year

• Doctor Who: Twelve Angels Weeping – Dave Rudden (BBC Children’s Books)
• The Surface Breaks – Louise O’Neill (Scholastic)
• The Wren Hunt – Mary Watson (Bloomsbury)
• The Weight of a Thousand Feathers – Brian Conaghan (Bloomsbury)
• Spare and Found Parts – Sarah Maria Griffin (Titan Books)
• Dark Wood Dark Water – Tina Callaghan (Poolbeg)

Eason Book Club Novel of the Year

• Milkman – Anna Burns (Faber & Faber)
• From a Low and Quiet Sea – Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland)
• A Ladder to the Sky – John Boyne (Doubleday)
• Normal People – Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber)
• Travelling in a Strange Land – David Park (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Future Popes of Ireland – Darragh Martin (Fourth Estate)

Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of the Year

• The Importance of Being Aisling – Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen (Gill Books)
• Letters to My Daughters – Emma Hannigan (Hachette Books Ireland)
• Grace After Henry – Eithne Shortall (Corvus)
• Our Secrets and Lies – Sinead Moriarty (Penguin Ireland)
• A Keeper – Graham Norton (Coronet)
• Dancing with the Tsars – Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (Penguin Ireland)

Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year

• Skin Deep – Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
• A House of Ghosts – WC Ryan (Bonnier Zaffre)
• The Confession – Jo Spain (Quercus)
• One Click – Andrea Mara (Poolbeg)
• The Ruin – Dervla McTiernan (Sphere)
• Thirteen – Steve Cavanagh (Orion)

Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year

• The Earlie King and the Kid in Yellow – Danny Denton (Granta Books)
• This Hostel Life – Melatu Uche Okorie (Skein Press)
• Notes to Self – Emilie Pine (Tramp Press)
• The Lost Letters of William Woolf – Helen Cullen (Michael Joseph)
• Promising Young Women – Caroline O’Donoghue (Virago)
• Mind on Fire – Arnold Thomas Fanning (Penguin Ireland)

Onside Non-Fiction Book of the Year

• Notes to Self – Emilie Pine (Tramp Press)
• People Like Me – Lynn Ruane (Gill Books)
• Michael O’Leary – Matt Cooper (Penguin Ireland)
• Climate Justice – Mary Robinson (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• On The Edge – Diarmaid Ferriter (Profile Books)
• A Reluctant Memoir – Robert Ballagh (Head of Zeus)

Ireland AM Popular Non- Fiction Book of the Year

• Tony 10 – Declan Lynch and Tony O’Reilly (Gill Books)
• Help Me! – Marianne Power (Picador)
• The Skin Nerd – Jennifer Rock (Hachette Books Ireland)
• The Cow Book – John Connell (Granta Books)
• Play it Again, Des – Des Cahill and Mary Hannigan (Sport Media)
• Born for the Road: My Story So Far – Nathan Carter (Penguin Ireland)

EUROSPAR Cookbook of the Year

• The Currabinny Cookbook – James Kavanagh and William Murray (Penguin Ireland)
• Vegan-ish – Holly White (Gill Books)
• The Happy Pear: Recipes for Happiness – David and Stephen Flynn (Penguin Ireland)
• Donal’s Meals in Minutes – Donal Skehan (Hodder & Stoughton)
• How to Eat a Peach – Diana Henry (Mitchell Beazley)
• Neven Maguire’s Home Economics for Life – Neven Maguire (Gill Books)

Bord Gáis Energy Sports Book of the Year

• The Hurlers – Paul Rouse (Penguin Ireland)
• At All Costs – Davy Fitzgerald with Vincent Hogan (Gill Books)
• Fighter – Andy Lee with Niall Kelly (Gill Books)
• Sean Cavanagh: The Obsession – Sean Cavanagh with Damian Lawlor (Black & White Publishing)
• Driven – Rosemary Smith with Ann Ingle (HarperCollins)
• Game Changer – Cora Staunton with Mary White (Transworld Ireland)

RTE Radio One’s The Ryan Tubridy Show Listeners’ Choice Award

• Ladder to the Sky – John Boyne (Doubleday)
• The Stolen Girls – Patricia Gibney (Bookouture)
• The President is Missing – Bill Clinton and James Patterson (Century)
• The Ruin – Dervla McTiernan (Sphere)
• Skin Deep – Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
• The Woman in the Window – A.J. Finn (HarperCollins)

Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the Year

• Kintsugi – Shannon Kuta Kelly (Poetry Ireland Review)
• Birthday – Brian Kirk (After the Fall Salmon Poetry)
• Inglis & Co. Ltd. – Erin Halliday (Poetry Ireland Review)
• The Snail – John W. Sexton (SurVision Magazine)

Writing.ie Short Story of the Year

• How to Build a Space Rocket – Roisin O’Donnell (From The Broken Spiral ed by RM Clarke)
• Prime – Caoilinn Hughes (From Granta March 2018)
• The Mother – Deirdre Sullivan (The Dublin Review December 2017)
• Pollyfilla – Mia Gallagher (From Shift – New Island Books)
• Gooseen – Nuala O’Connor (From Granta June 2018)
• The Woman Who Was Swallowed Up by the Floor and Who Met Lots of Other Women Down There Too – Cecelia Ahern (From Roar – HarperCollins)

The Love Leabhar Gaeilge Irish Language Book of the Year

• Tuatha Dé Danann – Diarmuid Johnson (Leabhar Breac)
• Fuascailt an Iriseora – Michelle Nic Pháidín (Cois Life)
• Táin Bó Cúailnge – Darach Ó Scolaí (Leabhar Breac)
• Teach an Gheafta – Cathal Ó Searcaigh (Leabhar Breac)
• Lámh, Lámh Eile – Alan Titley (Cló lar – Chonnacht)
• Luíse Ghabhánach Ní Dhufaigh: Ceannródaí – Celia De Fréine (LeabhairCOMHAR)

Maria Dickenson, Chairperson of the An Post Irish Book Awards, said: “This year’s shortlist once again demonstrates the wonderful wealth of writing talent we have in Ireland.”

We know that the Irish literary culture is regarded as one of the greatest in the world and we’ve always wished for an awards project that rises to that challenge. We’re immensely proud of what we’ve achieved with the Irish Book Awards through a broad coalition of readers, publishers, writers, booksellers, librarians, and media.

David McRedmond, CEO at An Post, added: “Our message is simple: These are fantastic books. Buy them and send them to your friends. Enjoy them.”

The An Post Irish Book Awards will be presented by Keelin Shanley this year and a one hour highlight television programme will be broadcast on RTÉ One on Thursday 29 November at 10.45pm.

2018 marks the first year of An Post’s sponsorship of the Irish Book Awards. To support this, An Post has launched #ReadersWanted, a national campaign that celebrates reading.

TheJournal.ie will be featuring all of the authors in our sponsored Best Irish Published Book category for the next month, until the An Post Irish Book Awards take place.