IMPAC Award 2014 gets underway

Three Irish novels are among 152 titles that have been nominated by libraries worldwide for the €100,000 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award. Organised by Dublin City Council, the 2014 Award was launched by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Oisín Quinn, Patron of the Award.

The Irish titles are:

• The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan, nominated by Cork City Libraries and by Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland;
• The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín, nominated by Bibliothèque Municipale de Mulhouse, France and by Winnipeg Public Library, Canada
• The Light of Amsterdam by David Park (Northern Irish), nominated by Tampere City Library, Finland.

Lord Mayor, Oisín Quinn, commended the ‌ DUBLIN Award for its promotion of excellence in world literature as well as for the opportunity to promote Irish writing internationally.  ‘Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature and cultural tourism is a vital part of the City’s economy’ he said: ‘this prestigious Award enhances the City’s worldwide reputation as a literary destination’.

The 2014 Judging Panel comprises Irish author, Catherine Dunne (shortlisted for Irish Book Awards – 2013 Eason Novel of the Year); Malaysian novelist Tash Aw (longlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize); Giles Foden, British novelist and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia; Maya Jaggi, award winning cultural journalist and critic for Guardian Review  and Maciej Świerkocki, Polish translator, critic, scriptwriter, novelist and editor. The non-voting Chairperson is Eugene R. Sullivan.

Other novels nominated for the 2014 Award include Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize and the Costa Prize; The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson , winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for  Fiction, and The Round House by Louise Erdrich, winner of the 2012 National Book Award.

Among the 41 translated authors are Mario Vargas Llosa (Peruvian-Spanish writer, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature); Karl Ove Knausgård (Norway), Herman Koch (The Netherlands) and Ragna Sigurðardóttir (Iceland).

Two previous winners of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2010 winner Gerbrand Bakker and 1998 winner Herta Müller, have also been nominated. Herta Müller was also the recipient of the 2009 Nobel prize.

The most nominated books this year are Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel and Canada by Richard Ford, both of which received nine nominations from libraries in Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, Britain and America. Other books nominated by multiple libraries are The Dinner by Herman Koch, The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson, The Round House by Louise Erdrich and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.

All the novels nominated for the Award are available for readers to borrow from Dublin’s public libraries.

The shortlist will be made public on 9th April 2014.

The Lord Mayor will announce the winner on 12th June 2014.