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The five regional winners for the ‘An Post Bookshop of the Year’ 2021 award have been revealed. They are:
• Kerr’s Bookshop, Clonakilty, Cork (Munster)
• Little Acorns Bookstore, Derry (Ulster)
• Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries, Galway (Connacht)
• Maynooth Bookshop, Kildare (Leinster)
• The Company of Books, Ranelagh (Dublin)
Each regional winner will receive a certificate of recognition from The An Post Irish Book Awards. The overall winner will be named at the An Post Irish Book Awards on 23 November, 2021 and will receive a prize of €5,000 worth of business services from An Post Commerce.
Each year, the annual literary event, which promotes Irish writing to the widest range of readers possible, brings together a vast community passionate about books – readers, authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians – to recognise the very best of new and established Irish writing talent.
The ‘An Post Bookshop of the Year’ category was added to the award line-up this year to acknowledge the significant role played by independent bookshops and local book store chain branches right across the country in helping their local communities to find the titles of their choice, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“On behalf of the board of the Irish Book Awards, I’d like to congratulate all five regional winners in the An Post Irish Bookshop of the Year category. This year, we wanted to acknowledge bookshops across Ireland in this new category for the extraordinary impact they have made to their customers and communities in 2021. Ireland is blessed with many wonderful bookshops, chains and independents, so this Christmas, I would urge readers to visit their local bookshops and support Irish writers. The holy trinity of bookshops, writers and readers is a wonderful alliance we can all get behind.”
“We at Bookselling Ireland would like to extend a huge congratulations to the regional winners of the An Post Irish Bookshop of the Year category. All five bookshops shortlisted have been recognised for their passion, perseverance, creativity, and hard work over the past 18 months. This new category reminds us that even in difficult times, the love and enthusiasm for books in Ireland is as strong as ever.”
“Bookshops discovered a renewed sense of purpose in the Pandemic: an oasis of calm, and a source of ideas and dreams. These shortlisted bookstores love their customers and communities, and are loved back by them in return. At An Post we are thrilled to honour them”
The winners of the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards will be announced at a live in-person ceremony on Tuesday 23rd November in the Convention Centre in Dublin. The event will also be live-streamed for those who are unable to attend.
A one-hour special will be broadcast on RTÉ One television on Wednesday 8th December exploring the six books and authors shortlisted for the ‘An Post Irish Book Awards Book of the Year 2021’, culminating in the reveal of this year's overall winner.