Six Titles in the Running for Prestigious Overall ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year Award’ 2023

We are excited to announce that books by Liz Nugent, Paul Murray, Katriona O’Sullivan, Mark O’Connell, Eimear Ryan and editors Lucinda Jacob and Sarah Webb along with illustrator Ashwin Chacko are in the running for the accolade of ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023’.

The six titles competing for the overall An Post Irish Book of the Year Award were drawn from the category winners at the An Post Irish Book Awards last night, and were chosen on the principle of the highest number of votes secured during the shortlist voting process across all categories. One of the six titles will be revealed as the ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023’ during a one-hour television special hosted by Oliver Callan on RTÉ One on Wednesday 6^th December at 10:35pm.

The six nominated titles are:

• Strange Sally Diamond – Liz Nugent (Sandycove)

• The Bee Sting – Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)

• Poor – Katriona O’Sullivan (Sandycove)

• A Thread of Violence – Mark O’Donnell (Granta Books)

• I Am the Wind: Irish Poems for Children Everywhere – Edited by Lucinda Jacob and Sarah Webb, illustrated by Ashwin Chacko (Little Island Books)

• The Grass Ceiling – Eimear Ryan (Sandycove)

The overall ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023’ winner will now be decided by a distinguished panel of judges, including a literary editor, a bestselling novelist, a broadcaster with RTE, Director of International Trade with An Post, the CEO of Children’s Books Ireland and a bookstore general manager. The judging panel consists of:

• Madeleine Keane – Literary editor of the Sunday Independent, lecturer at University College Dublin and Board Member of Children’s Books Ireland

• Sinead Moriarty – Award-winning author of 16 novels and three children’s books. Sinead is the books ambassador for Eason Must Reads book club and founded and co-hosted the podcast ‘What’s In The Water’ with fellow author Anna McPartlin

• Rick O’Shea – Broadcaster with RTÉ Gold, Rick runs The Rick O’Shea Book Club on Facebook and chooses the Eason Must Reads list four times a year. He is also literary curator for the annual UCD Festival and a board member of Fighting Worlds NI in Belfast

• Cyril McGrane – A certified public accountant by profession, Cyril has worked with An Post for the last 26 years, holding a succession of senior roles in retail, operational and logistics management. Cyril is An Post’s key liaison lead with IPC and UPU and he is leading An Post’s Customs 2020 and Brexit programmes

• Elaina Ryan – CEO of Children’s Books Ireland and Co-Artistic Director of Tower and Tales Children’s Books Festival in Co. Wexford

• Tómas Kenny – General Manager of Kenny’s bookshop, Tomás has worked in Kenny’s for over 20 years, dealing with purchasing, marketing and the selling of new, second hand and rare books along with archive material. He has served on the committee of Bookselling Ireland since 2020

Since its inception, the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award has been won by a series of landmark titles which have gone on to become Christmas bestsellers and firm favourites with readers. Previous winners of the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award include Sally Hayden for My Fourth Time, We Drowned, Fintan O’Toole for We Don’t Know Ourselves, Doireann Ní Ghríofa for A Ghost in the Throat, the late Vicky Phelan for Overcoming, Emilie Pine for Notes to Self, and many more. Explore all of our previous winners here.

Make sure to tune into RTÉ One at 10:35pm on Wednesday 6th December to find out who wins the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award 2023!