Booker Shortlist

The 2012 Man Booker Prize winner is announced tonight.  We don't like to leave anyone out so we have all six shortlisted titles available for loan in the Library...

• Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books) 
• Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber) 
• Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate) 
• Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt) 
• Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury) 
• Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)

Teaching and Learning Award

Congratulations to the Síol Team in the Library who won an award for excellence in Teaching and Learning.

Genevieve Larkin, Ben Staunton and Victoria Smyth were presented with their award by the College President at a special ceremony on 31st May in recognition of the work they do in Information and Research Support.

Colum McCann wins IMPAC Award

The winner of the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was announced last night and went to Irish author Colum McCann for his novel Let the Great World Spin.

The prize for the IMPAC award is €100,000, the largest for a single novel published in English. It is also unique in that the shortlist is drawn from nominations received from public libraries around the globe, with the winner then chosen by the IMPAC judging panel. As well as being selected by the judging panel, McCann's novel also received the highest number of nominations from the participating libraries this year.

The first half of the novel is framed by a real event in New York in August 1974 when Frenchman Philip Petit performed a tightrope walk between the twin towers. The judging panel remarked of the novel

"In the opening pages of Let The Great World Spin, the people of New York City stand breathless and overwhelmed as a great artist dazzles them in a realm that seemed impossible until that moment; Colum McCann does the same thing in this novel, leaving the reader just as stunned as the New Yorkers, just as moved and just as grateful."

The book is in stock in the library so if you'd like to be stunned, moved and grateful, check it out today from our literature section here!

IMPAC/Orange Nominees

The nominees for this year's International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award were announced today and included three novels by Irish writers. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, Brooklyn by Colm Toibín and Love and Summer by William Trevor are all on the shortlist, the largest Irish contingent since the award was founded in 1994.

Other titles shortlisted include The Vagrants by Chinese writer Yiyun Li and The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver's novel, set in 1930s Mexico, includes depictions of seminal artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera who are subject of a new exhibition in the IMMA which opened last week.

The IMPAC award, managed by Dublin City Public Libraries, is voted for by libraries in over 100 cities across the globe. You can see the full shortlist and the libraries that nominated them here.

There was further Irish success in the nominations for the Orange Prize for Fiction announced today, with Dublin-born writer Emma Donoghue's novel Room among the shortlisted titles.

Booker Booker On The Shelf...

"He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one…"

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobsen, winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize, is now available for loan in the main lending section of the Library.

Notable as the first comic novel to win the prize, it was described by Andrew Motion, Chair of the judges as "very funny, of course, but also very clever, very sad and very subtle. It is all that it seems to be and much more than it seems to be. A completely worthy winner of this great prize."

The other shortlisted titles for this year's prize are also available from the Library, including Room by Irish author Emma Donoghue. Check them out!

IMPAC longlist

The longlist for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was announced this week. The nominations are voted for by selected libraries throughout the world and it is the world's most valuable literary prize for a single work of fiction.

This years longlist includes Irish nominations for The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry and Netherland by Joseph O'Neill. The shortlist is not announced until April 4th, so you've plenty of time to get cracking!

See the full longlist here.

IMPAC Award Winner Announced

Boston-born writer Michael Thomas has won the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his debut novel Man Gone Down.

The story is narrated by an unnamed young black father of three in an inter-racial marraige in Boston. We meet him on the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday, broke and living in the bedroom of a friend’s six-year-old child. He has four days to come up with the money necessary to keep his family together.

The judges said of the book that "tuned urgently to the way we live now, [it] is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth."

The prize is the richest literary award in the world. Its nomination process is unique as nominations are made by selected libraries in capital and major cities throughout the world. For more information on the award and a list of the nominees visit http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/index.htm.

IMPAC longlist announced

The longlist for the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was announced this week. It is the world's most valuable annual literary prize for a single work of fiction with the winner picking up €100,000. The nominations are voted for by selected libraries throughout the world. This years nominations include Irish writers Anne Enright and Joseph O'Connor.
See the full list here.

Booker Prize Winner announced - do you agree?

Aravind Adiga was the suprise winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize for his debut novel The White Tiger. Adiga is the fourth first-time novelist to win the prize and was highly praised for the book's unromantic portrayal of contemporary Indian society.

The full 2008 shortlist, which included Dubliner Sebastian Barry is below and all six titles are now in stock in the Library. Check them out (literally) and make up your own mind!

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Winner)
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

Congratulations!

Library staff member Ronan Kelly has been shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards 2008, for his book Bard of Erin: The Life of Thomas Moore.

Close to 350 books were submitted by book publishers from both Ireland and the UK for inclusion in the competition, which has a total prize fund of €45,000. Ronan is nominated in the biography/non-fiction category and is also in the running for the overall award.

Congratulations to Ronan on his fine achievement. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed on the 10 November 2008 when the winners are announced!