Originally, the Awards developed from the Hughes & Hughes Novel of the Year, project managed by Hughes and Hughes Booksellers in 2003 with the support of Madeleine Keane from The Sunday Independent.
In later years the awards were expanded and widened with the support of the whole Irish book-selling and publishing industry. From a small base of three categories, the awards now include eighteen categories spanning a broad range of literary genres. Thousands of readers vote to select the winners every year. Libraries and bookshops showcase the best books of the year and the Awards Dinner has become the major event in the Irish literary calendar.
The Lifetime Achievement award is named after Derek Hughes’s deceased father, Bob Hughes, although the Hughes’s are no longer involved in bookselling nor with the awards.