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We are thrilled to announce this year’s winners of the An Post Irish Book Awards 2023! From the Convention Centre, Dublin - Unesco City of Literature - illustrious writing icons, talented newcomers, and remarkable authors take to the stage to claim their prizes. Our podium of 2023 winners marks the pinnacle of what has been a sensational year for Irish literature and is a celebration of the vibrant literary community that makes Ireland a haven for wordsmiths.
With categories spanning fiction, non-fiction, children’s, poetry, lifestyle and more, and names from Liz Nugent to Mark Moriarty, Róise Ní Bhaoill, Roz Purcell, Mark O’Connell, Sophie White, Paul Murray, Katriona O’Sullivan, Colin Walsh and Sarah Binchy among the winners, these are the works that have already left an imprint on the Irish literary landscape and will continue to do so for many more years to come.
The acclaimed Eason Novel of the Year Award was won by Paul Murray, whose tragicomedy The Bee Sting is also shortlisted for The Booker Prize, while Katriona O’Sullivan claims two prizes with the moving, inspiring, and courageous Poor, winning the Bookselling Ireland Biography of the Year as well as The Last Word Listeners’ Choice Award, meanwhile, Mark O’Connell took the Dubray Non-Fiction Book of the Year with his profound confrontation of true crime, A Thread of Violence.
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 2023 is no different.
“The An Post Irish Book Awards has established itself as a highlight of the Irish literary calendar and we are immensely proud of what we’ve achieved through a broad coalition of readers, writers, publishers, sponsors, booksellers and librarians.
Many Irish books have been published during the last year, not only by established writers but also by a number of incredibly talented newcomers who are a wonderful addition to the Irish literary scene. We are delighted to congratulate all of this year’s winners of the An Post Irish Book Awards.”
- Brenden Corbett, Chairperson of the An Post Irish Book Awards
Eason Novel of the Year
TheJournal.ie Best Irish-Published Book of the Year
Bookselling Ireland Biography of the Year
Cookbook of the Year
Bookstation Lifestyle Book of the Year
Dubray Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Eason Sports Book of the Year in association with Ireland AM
Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year
Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year
Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year
National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year
Foras na Gaeilge Irish Language Fiction Book of the Year Award
The Last Word Listeners’ Choice Award
New Voices: The An Post Writing Prize
International Education Services Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year, in honour of John Treacy
Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year – Junior
Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year – Senior
Writing.ie Short Story of the Year
Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year
An Post Bookshop of the Year
“We are delighted with our continued association with the An Post Irish Book Awards. Quality writing has never been more important than in turbulent times, whether fiction illuminating our inner lives, or non-fiction the world outside. This year An Post added a new award - “New Voices” - for communities who have been marginalised or traumatised, to give voice to their experiences. This year the award was open to Ukrainian refugees. An Post’s sponsorship is more than financial: it is driven from the deepest passion for writing.”
- David McRedmond, CEO of An Post
A one-hour television special, hosted by Oliver Callan, will be broadcast on RTÉ One on 6th December which will reveal this year’s ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023’, selected by a distinguished panel of judges:
Previous winners of the An Post Irish Book of the Year 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, 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.
The An Post Irish Book Awards also presented Professor Roy Foster with the ‘Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award’. Foster has published widely on Irish history and has taught at some of the world’s most prestigious universities including the University of London, Oxford, and Princeton. Foster’s repertoire includes a two-part biography of W.B. Yeats, which was awarded the 1998 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography, and Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890 -1923, which won a British Academy Medal and the Frokosch Prize from The American Historical Association.
As the 2023 Lifetime Achievement honouree, Professor Roy Foster joins a host of other distinguished recipients including Anne Enright, Sebastian Barry, Colm Tóibín, Thomas Kinsella, Eavan Boland, John Montague, J.P. Donleavy, Paul Durcan, John Banville, Maeve Binchy, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien, William Trevor, Séamus Heaney and Jennifer Johnston. All previous winners of The Lifetime Achievement Award can be found here.