€100,000 Dublin IMPAC Shortlist Includes Three Brits, Two Debuts, One Irish Dutchman

In What's the Buzz by Edward Nawotka

Cllr. Emer Costello, Lord Mayor of Dublin and Patron of the Award, and Deirdre Ellis-King, Dublin City Librarian, take the shortlist on a spin on a Dublin Bike - April 2010, Jason Clarke Photography

Cllr. Emer Costello, Lord Mayor of Dublin and Patron of the Award, and Deirdre Ellis-King, Dublin City Librarian, take the shortlist on a spin on a Dublin Bike (Jason Clarke Photography)

by Ed Nawotka

The shortlist for the annual Dublin IMPAC award was announced in Dublin today and includes eight titles (though the judges may nominate as many as ten). The list includes three Brits, two debuts (Bakker, Raisin), and O’Neill, whom the Irish are claiming as their own (though he spent as much, if not much more of his life in the Netherlands, natch).

The finalists are:

The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (Dutch) in translation. Harvill Secker

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Moroccan / French) in translation. Europa Editions, USA, Gallic Press, UK

In Zodiac Light by Robert Edric (British) Doubleday, UK

Settlement by Christoph Hein (German) in translation. Metropolitan Books

The Believers by Zoë Heller (British). Fig Tree

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (Irish) Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, UK, Pantheon Books, USA

God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin (British) Viking

The prize is touted as being among the richest book prizes in the world: with €100,000 which is awarded to the winning author if the book is written in English. If the winning book is in English translation, the author receives €75,000 and the translator, €25,000.

What’s also notable is that IMPAC, a Florida management company, has in the past sponsored the IMPAC Young Writers Awards which are given to authors in the USA, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Malaysia and Thailand. We can only say…thanks.

The winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award will be on June 17. More information is here.

About the Author

Edward Nawotka

A widely published critic and essayist, Edward Nawotka serves as a speaker, educator and consultant for institutions and businesses involved in the global publishing and content industries. He was also editor-in-chief of Publishing Perspectives since the launch of the publication in 2009 until January 2016.