Eoin Purcell

I may have mentioned some time ago
That I was at the launch of Bibeanna: Memories from a Corner of Ireland pretty soon after I joined Mercier.

Well, now we have just heard some absolutely great news. Brenda Ní Shúilleabháin has been nominated for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Award in the Irish-language category. Yippee!

Congratulations to Brenda and all involved. It is a wonderful book and one we are enormously proud of. It is also selling very well (selling through a reprint very rapidly) which just goes to show that dual language titles with quality design and good content can make a big impact.

Pleased as pie,
Eoin

Oh and here are some pictures from that launch (It was an amazing day in the Kingdom!)

PRESS RELEASE BELOW JUMP WITH ALL NOMINATIONS

The Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards 2007 – Shortlists Announced
Glen Dimplex in association with the Irish Writers’ Centre announces today the shortlists for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards.

With a total prize fund of €45,000, the annual Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards offer unprecedented support and exposure for emerging writers in a range of genres. Awards will be made to the best first book published by an author within each of the following five categories: Fiction, Biography/Non-fiction, Children’s literature, Poetry and Irish-language (all genres).

Shortlists for this year’s awards are:

Fiction
Kevin Barry, There Are Little Kingdoms (Stinging Fly Press)
Jane Feaver, According to Ruth (Harvill Secker)
Nikita Lalwani, Gifted (Penguin/Viking)
Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men (Penguin/Viking)
Mark McNay, Fresh (Canongate Books)
Vijay Medtia, The House of Subadar (Arcadia Books)

Biography/Non-fiction
Catherine Bailey, Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty (Penguin/Viking)
Rob Gifford, China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power (Bloomsbury)
Ed Husain, The Islamist: Why I joined radical Islam in Britain, what I saw inside and why I left (Penguin/Viking)
Rory McCarthy, Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated: Stories from the New Iraq (Chatto & Windus)
William Rosen, Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe (Jonathan Cape)
John Stubbs, Donne: The Reformed Soul (Penguin)

Children’s literature
Sharon Dogar, Waves (Chicken House)
Lyn Gardner, Into the Woods (Random House)
Rowland Molony, After the Death of Alice Bennett (Oxford University Press)
Sarah Mussi, The Door of No Return (Hodder Children’s Books)
Andy Stanton, You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum! (Egmont Press)
Jenny Valentine, Finding Violet Park (Harper Collins Children’s Books)

Poetry
Tiffany Atkinson, Kink and Particle (Seren)
Annie Freud, The Best Man that Ever Was (Pan Macmillan)
Maria McManus, Reading the Dog (Lagan Press)
Daljit Nagra, Look, We Have Coming to Dover! (Faber and Faber)
Nell Regan, Preparing for Spring (Arlen House)
Clare Shaw, Straight Ahead (Bloodaxe Books)

Irish-language
Tony Bromell, Rian mo Chos ar Ghaineamh an tSaoil (Cló Iar-Chonnachta)
Mícheál De Barra, An Bóthar go Santiago (Cois Life)
Máirín Ni Laoithe Uí Shé, Sin Iad na Rudaí (Coiscéim)
Brenda Ní Shúilleabháin, Bibeanna: Memories from a Corner of Ireland (Mercier Press)
Gabhán Ó Fachtna, Bás is Beatha ar an Bhóthar Chreagach (Coiscéim)
Seán O’Connor, Seán Ruiséal agus Iníon an Oileáin (Coiscéim)

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin on 26 November. Each category winner will receive a prize of €5,000. The Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year 2007 will be chosen from the five category winners and receive a further €20,000.

The judges for this year’s awards are: Kevin Crossley-Holland, Maire Cruise O’Brien, Philip Cummings, David Goodhart, Kerry Hardie, Dermot Healy, Michael Longley, Christina McKenna, James Ryan and last year’s Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year, Alice Hogge.
Full details of this year’s awards at: http://www.newwritersawards.ie