Winners of the An Post Irish Book Awards 2022 announced

Richie Sadlier, Sally Hayden, John Boyne, Kellie Harrington, John Creedon and Marian Keyes are among the winning authors at this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards, held in the Convention Centre Dublin this evening. Charlie Bird claimed victory with his biography Time and Tide, while the Eason Novel of the Year Award was won by Louise Kennedy.

First awarded in 2006, the An Post Irish Book Awards celebrate and promote Irish writing to the widest range of readers possible. Each year it brings together a vast community passionate about books – readers, authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians – to recognise the very best of Irish writing talent and 2022 is no different.

Below is the full list of winners for the ‘An Post Irish Book Awards 2022’ 

Eason Novel of the Year

• Trespasses – Louise Kennedy 

TheJournal.ie Best Irish-Published Book of the Year

• An Irish Folklore Treasury – John Creedon

Odgers Berndtson Non-fiction Book of the Year

• My Fourth Time, We Drowned – Sally Hayden

Bookstation Lifestyle Book of the Year

• An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding – Eoghan Daltun

Avoca Cookbook of the Year

• The Daly Dish: Bold Food Made Good – Gina and Karol Daly

Eason Sports Book of the Year in Association with Ireland AM

• Kellie – Kellie Harrington, with Roddy Doyle

Dubray Biography of the Year

• Time and Tide – Charlie Bird, with Ray Burke

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year – Junior

• Our Big Day – Bob Johnston, illustrated by Michael Emberley

Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year – Senior

• Girls Who Slay Monsters – Ellen Ryan, illustrated by Shona Shirley Macdonald

Bookselling Ireland Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year

• Let’s Talk – Richie Sadlier

An Post Irish Bookshop of the Year

• Bridge Street Books, Wicklow

Love Leabhar Gaeilge Irish Language Book of the Year

• EL – Thaddeus Ó Buachalla

Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year

• Wedding Dress – Martina Dalton

Writing.ie Short Story of the Year

• This Small Giddy Life – Nuala O’Connor

Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year

• Breaking Point – Edel Coffey

National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year

• Again, Rachel – Marian Keyes

Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year

• There’s Been a Little Incident – Alice Ryan

Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year

• John Boyne

The An Post Irish Book Awards also presented Anne Enright with the ‘Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award’. The writer has occupied a central position in the cultural life of Ireland for over three decades, with her literary career spanning seven novels, three short story collections, a memoir of motherhood and the 2007 Booker Prize for her fourth novel, The Gathering. The author was also named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction between 2015 – 2018.

As the 2022 Lifetime Achievement honouree, Anne Enright joins a host of other distinguished recipients such as Sebastian Barry, Colm Toibín, Thomas Kinsella, Eavan Boland, John Montague, JP Donleavy, Paul Durcan, John Banville, Maeve Binchy, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien, William Trevor, Séamus Heaney and Jennifer Johnston.

Brenden Corbett, Chairperson of the An Post Irish Book Awards, says:

“Our industry has worked so hard to grow the awards from something quite small into the behemoth it has become today and we are immensely proud of what we’ve achieved through a broad coalition of readers, writers, publishers, sponsors, booksellers and librarians.

Some wonderful books have been published this year, many by established literary stars, but also by an astonishing number of talented newcomers who seem to spring fully-formed on to the Irish literary scene every year. We are delighted to congratulate the winners with their An Post Irish Book Awards.”

David McRedmond, CEO of An Post, says:

“Books represent the best of us as a nation. An Post is very proud to be associated with the Irish Book Awards. It’s wonderful to celebrate such great writers, illustrators, poets and bookshops from across the island. I congratulate the winners and all those who were shortlisted.”

The ‘An Post Irish Book Awards’ public vote was sponsored by National Book Tokens.

A one-hour television special, hosted by Oliver Callan, will be broadcast on RTÉ One on Wednesday 7^th December which will reveal this year’s ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2022’, selected by a distinguished panel of judges.

Previous winners of the An Post Irish Book of the Year include Fintan O’Toole for We Don’t Know Ourselves, Doireann Ni Ghriofa for A Ghost in the Throat, the late Vicky Phelan for Overcoming, Emilie Pine for Notes to Self, John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, Mike Murphy and John Borgonovo for Atlas of the Irish Revolution, Mike McCormack for Solar Bones, Louise O’Neill for Asking For It, Mary Costello for Academy St, Donal Ryan for The Spinning Heart, Michael Harding for Staring at Lakes, and Belinda McKeon for Solace.