A WEALTH OF Irish authors from across the island have been named on the shortlist of this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards. 

There are new and established writers across 18 categories, including Novel of the Year, Children, Cookbook, Crime Fiction, Popular Fiction, Non-fiction, Sports, Lifestyle, Short Story, Irish language, Poem, Newcomer, Teen and Young Adult, Irish Published – sponsored by The Journal – and Biography. 

A live ceremony to celebrate the winners will take place on Wednesday 23 November in the Convention Centre in Dublin, hosted by RTE’s Miriam O’Callaghan.

A one-hour special on the awards, hosted by Oliver Callan, will be broadcast on RTÉ One on Wednesday 7 December, dedicated to the six books and authors competing to be named An Post Irish Book Awards Book of the Year 2022.

Here’s this year’s shortlist:

Eason Novel of the Year

• Trespasses – Louise Kennedy (Bloomsbury Circus)
• The Colony – Audrey Magee (Faber & Faber)
• Seven Steeples – Sara Baume (Tramp Press)
• The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press)
• The Queen of Dirt Island – Donal Ryan (Doubleday)
• The Raptures – Jan Carson (Doubleday)

Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year

• Remember my Name – Sam Blake (Corvus)
• Run Time – Catherine Ryan Howard (Corvus)
• Breaking Point – Edel Coffey (Sphere)
• The Accomplice – Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• The Interview – Gill Perdue (Sandycove)
• Hide and Seek – Andrea Mara (Transworld)

Eason Sports Book of the Year in Association with Ireland AM

• The Game – Tadhg Coakley (Merrion Press)
• A History of the GAA in 100 Objects – Siobhán Doyle (Merrion Press)
• Point to Point – The Heart of Irish Horse Racing – Healy Racing, with words by Richard Pugh and photographs by Pat ‘Cash’ Healy (The O’Brien Press)
• Life Begins in Leitrim – Zak Moradi, with Niall Kelly (Gill Books)
• The Rodfather – Roddy Collins, with Paul Howard (Sandycove)
• Kellie – Kellie Harrington, with Roddy Doyle (Sandycove)

Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year

• None of This is Serious – Catherine Prasifka (Canongate Books)
• There’s Been a Little Incident – Alice Ryan (Head of Zeus)
• Speechless – Fiacre Ryan (Merrion Press)
• Breaking Point – Edel Coffey (Sphere)
• My Fourth Time, We Drowned – Sally Hayden (Fourth Estate)
• The Amusements – Aingeala Flannery (Sandycove)

Odgers Berndtson Non-fiction Book of the Year

• Listen to the Land Speak – Manchán Magan (Gill Books)
• Lessons from the Bench – Judge Gillian Hussey, with Rachel Pierce (Gill Books)
• My Fourth Time, We Drowned – Sally Hayden (Fourth Estate)
• Gaffs – Rory Hearne (HarperCollins Ireland)
• Fierce Appetites – Elizabeth Boyle (Sandycove)
• Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber – Sean O’Driscoll (Sandycove)

Dubray Biography of the Year

• The Last Good Funeral of the Year – Ed O’Loughlin (Riverrun)
• Without Warning and only Sometimes – Kit de Waal (Tinder Press)
• Time and Tide – Charlie Bird, with Ray Burke (HarperCollins Ireland)
• I Don’t Want to Talk About Home – Suad Aldarra (Doubleday)
• Surrender – Bono (Hutchinson Heinemann)
• All Down Darkness Wide – Seán Hewitt (Jonathan Cape)

Avoca Cookbook of the Year

• Bake – Graham Herterich (Nine Bean Rows Books)
• Lili’s Family Favourites – Lili Forberg (The O’Brien Press)
• The Daly Dish: Bold Food Made Good – Gina Daly, Karol Daly (Gill Books)
• The GIY Diaries: A Year of Growing and Cooking – Michael Kelly (Gill Books)
• Sweet Therapy: The Joy of Baking – Una Leonard (Hachette Books Ireland)
• Lush – Daniel Lambert (HarperCollins Ireland)

National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year

• Forever Home – Graham Norton (Coronet)
• What Eden Did Next – Sheila O’Flanagan (Headline Review)
• Duffy and Son – Damien Owens (HarperCollins Ireland)
• Again, Rachel – Marian Keyes (Michael Joseph)
• Once Upon a Time in Donnybrook – Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (Sandycove)
• Idol – Louise O’Neill (Transworld)

Bookstation Lifestyle Book of the Year

• The Homemade Year – Lilly Higgins (Gill Books)
• An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding – Eoghan Daltun (Hachette Books Ireland)
• Still Points: A Guide to Living the Mindful, Meditative Way – Brother Richard (Hachette Books Ireland)
• The Female Factor – Dr. Hazel Wallace (Yellow Kite)
• What Every Woman Needs to Know About Her Gut – Barbara Ryan, Elaine McGowan (John Murray Press)
• Climate Worrier – Colm O’Regan (HarperCollins Ireland)

TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the Year

• The Book of the Skelligs – John Crowley and John Sheehan (Cork University Press)
• Abandoned Ireland – Rebecca Brownlie (Merrion Press)
• The Guardians – 100 Years of An Garda Síochána 1922-2022 – Garda Stephen Moore (The O’Brien Press)
• The Irish Civil War in Colour – Michael B. Barry, John O’Byrne (Gill Books)
• The Great Lighthouses of Ireland – David Hare (Gill Books)
• An Irish Folklore Treasury – John Creedon (Gill Books)

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Junior)

• Cloud Babies – Eoin Colfer, illustrated by Chris Judge (Walker Books)
• Well Done, Mommy Penguin – Chris Haughton (Walker Books)
• Fox and Son Tailers – Paddy Donnelly, (The O’Brien Press)
• Our Big Day – Bob Johnston, illustrated by Michael Emberley (The O’Brien Press)
• Meanwhile Back on Earth – Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
• Sir Adam the Brave and the Moody Monsters – David King, illustrated by Rhiannon Archard (Sandycove)

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)

• The Lost Girl King – Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• The Day I Got Trapped in my Brain – Amy Huberman, illustrated by Katie Kear (Scholastic)
• Frankie’s World – Aoife Dooley, (Scholastic)
• The Truth About Riley – Sinéad Moriarty (Gill Books)
• The Great Irish History Book – Myles Dungan, illustrated by Alan Dunne (Gill Books)
• Girls Who Slay Monsters – Ellen Ryan, illustrated by Shone Shirley MacDonald (HarperCollins Ireland)

Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year

• Truth be Told – Sue Divin (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• Rock, Paper, Killers – Alexia Mason (Simon and Schuster)
• The Gifts That Bind Us – Caroline O’Donoghue (Walker Books)
• The Asparagus Bunch – Jessica Scott-Whyte (Welbeck Flame)
• Let’s Talk – Richie Sadlier (Gill Books)
• Twin Crowns – Katherine Webber and Catherine Doyle (Farshore – Electric Monkey, Harper Collins)

Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year

• Unmaking His Chair – Jim McElroy (From: We Are the Weather, published by Smith/ Doorstop
• Wedding Dress – Martina Dalton (From: New Irish Writing, Irish Independent)
• What Man Doesn’t – Paul McMahon (From: The Poetry Society – VII, No. 4, Winter 2021)
• Amelia’s Model – Michael Longley (From: The Slain Birds – Jonathan Cape)

Writing.ie Short Story of the Year

• Sleep Watchers – Roisín O’Donnell (From: The Stinging Fly Press)
• Red Market – Sheila Armstong (From: How to Gut a Fish – Bloomsbury)
• This Small Giddy Life – Nuala O’Connor (From: A Little Unsteadily into Light – New Island)
• The Chekhovians – Rebecca Miller (From: Total – Canongate Books)
• Mathematics – Wendy Erskine (From: Dance Move – The Stinging Fly Press)
• Miles of Bad Road – Neil Tully (From: The Waxed Lemon Literary Journal)

Love Leabhar Gaeilge Irish Language Book of the Year

• EL – Thaddeus Ó Buachalla (Coiscéim)
• An Dara Roghna – Celia de Fréine (LeabhairCOMHAR)
• Bádh B’fhéidir – Seán Ó Muireagáin (Éabhlóid)
• Súil an Dáill – Darach Ó Scolaí (Leabhar Breac)
• Bláth na dTulach – Stories form 28 Authors (Éabhlóid)

Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year

• Catherine Ryan Howard
• Sally Rooney
• Sarah Webb
• Roisín Meaney
• Louise O’Neill
• John Boyne

An Post Bookshop of the Year

• Bridge Books – Dromore, Down
• Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop – Galway
• Tertulia – Westport, Mayo
• Bridge Street Books – Wicklow
• Philip’s Bookshop – Mallow, Cork
• Books at One Letterfrack – Connemara, Galway

Brendan Corbett, Chairperson of the An Post Irish Book Awards, said that the shortlist this year “once again, displays the talent of Irish writers and exemplifies the diversity of Ireland’s literary culture”. David McRedmond, CEO of An Post, noted that the event will be the first in-person book awards in three years. 

The public are now being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year on the An Post Irish Book Awards website. All voters will be entered into a prize draw to win one of five €100 National Book Token vouchers. You can cast your votes from 9am on 21 October until voting closes on 10 November.

To find out more about the awards, visit the An Post Irish Book Awards website.