By Dennis Abrams | @DennisAbrams2

November 11 Is Vote Deadline

The shortlists for the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards have been announced, featuring a mix of writing from both new and established writers across 15 categories. They include Novel of the Year, Children’s books, Cookbooks, Crime Fiction, Popular Fiction, Nonfiction, Sports, Short Story, and Poetry.

Now in its 11th year, the award program was founded to “celebrate and promote Irish writing to the widest range of readers possible,” according to promotional material.

“Hundreds of titles were submitted for consideration,” site statements say, “and the public is now being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year.”

Votes must be cast by midnight in Ireland on November 11.

Commenting on this year’s shortlist, Larry McHale, chair of the program, is quoted saying, “As the flagship event for the Irish book industry, the overriding motivation behind the awards is to celebrate the extraordinary quality of Irish writing, to help bring the best books to a wider readership annually, and to promote an industry under severe competitive pressure. We’re delighted with the quality of this year’s shortlist–sincere congratulations to all the shortlisted authors and their publishers.”

Dave Kirwan, managing director at Bord Gáis Energy, is also quoted, saying, “The Bord Gáis Energy Irish Books Awards [are] widely regarded as the highlight of the Irish literary calendar. Year after year, the shortlist features an impressively high standard of Irish writers, and this year is no different.”

Bord Gáis Energy Shortlists

Eason Novel of the Year
• All We Shall Know – Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland)
• Days Without End – Sebastian Barry (Faber & Faber)
• Solar Bones – Mike McCormack (Tramp Press)
• The Lesser Bohemians – Eimear McBride (Faber & Faber)
• The Wonder – Emma Donoghue (Pan Macmillan/Picador)
• This Must Be The Place – Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press)

TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the Year
• All Through the Night – Edited by Marie Heaney (Poetry Ireland)
• Dublin since 1922 – Tim Carey (Hachette Books Ireland)
• Looking Back: The Changing Faces of Ireland – Eric Luke (The O’Brien Press)
• Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks – Edited by Fintan O’Toole (Royal Irish Academy)
• The Invisible Art: A Century of Music in Ireland 1916-2016 – Michael Dervan (New Island Books)
• The Glass Shore – Sinéad Gleeson (New Island Books)

Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year
• Himself – Jess Kidd (Canongate Books)
• Red Dirt – E.M. Reapy (Head of Zeus)
• The Last Days of Summer – Vanessa Ronan (Penguin Ireland)
• The Maker of Swans – Paraic O’Donnell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Things I Should Have Told You – Carmel Harrington (HarperCollins)
• This Living and Immortal Thing – Austin Duffy (Granta Books)

National Book Tokens Nonfiction Book of the Year
• I Read The News Today, Oh Boy – Paul Howard (Picador)
• Ireland The Autobiography – John Bowman (Penguin Ireland)
• The Hurley Maker’s Son – Patrick Deeley (Doubleday Ireland)
• The Supreme Court – Ruadhán Mac Cormaic (Penguin Ireland)
• Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir – John Banville & Paul Joyce (Hachette Books Ireland)
• When Ideas Matter – Michael D. Higgins (Head of Zeus)

RTÉ Radio 1’s The Ryan Tubridy Show Listener’s Choice Award
• Lying In Wait – Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
• Conclave – Robert Harris (Hutchinson)
• Dictatorship: My Teenage War With OCD – Rebecca Ryan (On Stream Publications Ltd)
• All Through the Night – Edited by Marie Heaney (Poetry Ireland)
• All We Shall Know – Donal Ryan (Transworld Ireland)
• Victim Without A Face – Stefan Ahnhem (Head of Zeus)

Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year
• In Glasnevin – Jane Clarke (From: The Irish Times)
• Patagonia – Emma McKervey (From: The Compass Magazine)
• Suppose I Lost – Andrew Soye (From: Abridged Magazine)
• Love / Hotel / Love – Michael Naghtan Shanks (From: Poetry Ireland Review)

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Junior)
• A Child of Books – Sam Winston and Oliver Jeffers (Walker Books)
• Goodnight Everyone – Chris Haughton (Walker Books)
• Historopedia – Fatti and John Burke (Gill Books)
• Pigín of Howth – Kathleen Watkins, illustrated by Margaret Anne Suggs (Gill Books)
• Rabbit and Bear: Rabbit’s Bad Habits – Julian Gough & Jim Field (Hachette Children’s Group)
• Rover and the Big Fat Baby – Roddy Doyle, illustrated by Chris Judge (Pan Macmillan)

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)
• Knights of the Borrowed Dark – Dave Rudden (Puffin)
• The Book of Shadows – E.R. Murray (Mercier Press)
• The Making of Mollie – Anna Carey (The O’Brien Press)
• Needlework – Deirdre Sullivan (Little Island Books)
• Nothing Tastes As Good – Claire Hennessy (Hot Key Books)
• Flawed – Cecelia Ahern (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Avonmore Cookbook of the Year
• Recipes For A Nervous Breakdown – Sophie White (Gill Books)
• The World of The Happy Pear – Stephen and David Flynn (Penguin Ireland)
• Natural Born Feeder – Roz Purcell (Gill Books)
• The Little Green Spoon – Indy Power (Ebury Press)
• Neven Maguire’s Complete Family Cookbook – Neven Maguire (Gill Books)
• The Brother Hubbard – Garrett Fitzgerald (Gill Books)

Irish Independent Popular Fiction Book of the Year
• Game of Throw-Ins – Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (Penguin Ireland)
• Lyrebird – Cecelia Ahern (HarperCollins)
• Rebel Sisters – Marita Conlon-McKenna (Transworld Ireland)
• The Girl From The Savoy – Hazel Gaynor (HarperCollins)
• The Privileged – Emily Hourican (Hachette Books Ireland)
• Holding – Graham Norton (Hodder & Stoughton)

Ireland AM Popular Nonfiction Book of the Year
• Adventures of a Wonky-Eyed Boy – Jason Byrne (Gill Books)
• Fat Chance – Louise McSharry (Penguin Ireland)
• Making It Up As I Go Along – Marian Keyes (Michael Joseph)
• Pippa – Pippa O’Connor (Penguin Ireland)
• Talking to Strangers – Michael Harding (Hachette Books Ireland)
• Mr. Pussy: Before I Forget to Remember – Alan Amsby/David Kenny (New Island Books)

Bord Gáis Energy Sports Book of the Year
• Blood, Sweat & McAteer – Jason McAteer (Hachette Books Ireland)
• Coolmore Stud, Ireland’s Greatest Sporting Success Story – Alan Conway (Mercier Press)
• My Life in Rugby – Donal Lenihan (Transworld Ireland)
• Out of Control – Cathal Mc Carron (Simon & Schuster)
• The Battle – Paul O’Connell (Penguin Ireland)
• Win or Learn – John Kavanagh (Penguin Ireland)

Writing.ie Short Story of the Year
• Here We Are – Lucy Caldwell (Faber&Faber)
• K-K-K – Lauren Foley (Ol Society – Australia)
• The Visit – Orla McAlinden (Sowilo Press)
• Green Amber Red – Jane Casey (New Island)
• The Birds of June – John Connell (Granta Magazine)
• What a River Remembers of its Course – Gerard Beirne (Numero Cinq Magazine)

Books Are My Bag Crime Fiction Award
• Distress Signals – Catherine Ryan Howard (Atlantic Books (Corvus)
• Little Bones – Sam Blake (Bonnier Zaffre)
• Lying In Wait – Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
• The Constant Soldier – William Ryan (Mantle)
• The Drowning Child – Alex Barclay (HarperCollins)
• The Trespasser – Tana French (Hachette Ireland)

The winners are to be announced at a Dublin awards ceremony on November 16.