TWO IRISH AUTHORS have been shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award - the world’s most valuable annual literary prize for English fiction.

The annual award is worth €100,000 and is sponsored by Dublin City Council and managed by Dublin City Libraries.

Chosen by an international panel of judges, 10 titles have been shortlisted for the 2019 prize. These include Irish author Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends and Bernard MacLaverty’s Midwinter Break, 2017 Irish Novel of the Year.

Two novels from Britain have been shortlisted for the prize – Jon McGregor’s 2017 Costa Novel Award winner Reservoir 13 and Rachel Seiffert’s A Boy in Winter. Joining them on the shortlist are two British-Pakistani authors - Moshin Hamid, shortlisted his novel Exit West (a 2017 Man Booker Prize finalist) and Kamila Shamsie for her novel Home Fire.

French author Mathias Énard has been nominated for his novel Compass while American author George Saunders has been nominated for Lincoln in the Bardo, which won Saunders the 2017 Man Booker Prize. 

American author Emily Fridlund has been shortlisted for her novel History of Wolves – another finalist for 2017′s Man Booker – with fellow-American Emily Ruskovich completing the list of 10 shortlisted nominees with her novel Idaho.   

Dublin Lord Mayor Nial Ring, who is patron of the award, has praised the accolade and encouraged Dubliners to visit libraries and pick up the shortlisted novels. 

“The egalitarian way in which books are long-listed, through public libraries worldwide, is to be commended in a world where sales figures can dominate the literary conversation so often,” he said. 

“The beauty of this award is that it reaches out to readers and authors worldwide, while also celebrating excellence in contemporary Irish literature represented on the 2019 shortlist by Sally Rooney and Bernard MacLaverty.”

The winner of the award will be announced by Ring on 12 June. “Readers have plenty of time to pick their own favourite between now and 12 June,” Ring said.