International Dublin Literary Award

The International DUBLIN Literary Award (Irish: Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath) is an international literary award awarded each year for a novel written in English or translated into English. It aims to promote excellence in world literature and is solely sponsored by the City of Dublin, Ireland.

At €100,000, the award is one of the richest literary prizes in the world. If the winning book is a translation (as it has been 8 times), the prize is divided between the writer and the translator, with the writer receiving €75,000 and the translator €25,000.^[1]

Nominations are submitted by public libraries worldwide – over 400 library systems in 177 countries worldwide are invited to nominate books each year – from which the shortlist and the eventual winner are selected by an international panel of judges (which changes each year).

The most recent winner of the award is Akhil Sharma for Family Life.^[2]

Award

The Award was established in 1994^[3] as the "International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award", a joint initiative of Dublin City Council and the American productivity company IMPAC, which had its European headquarters in Dublin. James Irwin, president of IMPAC established the prize money at €100,000. A trust fund was established to pay for the award and its maintenance. The Award has been administered by Dublin City Public Libraries since its inception. IMPAC went defunct in the late-2000s when its founder and president James Irwin died in 2009.^[3] In late 2013, the trust fund became exhausted and there was no money left to run the Award.^[3] Dublin City Council agreed to step in and continue funding the Award under the same brand name of the now-defunct company while seeking a new sponsor.^[3] It was reported in 2015 that Dublin City Council paid in 2015 €100,000 for the prize plus €80,250 in administration costs.^[3] The award was renamed the International DUBLIN Literary Award in November 2015.

Describing the Award as "the most eclectic and unpredictable of the literary world's annual gongs", Michelle Pauli posed the question in relation to the longlist for the 2004 edition, "Where would you find Michael Dobbs and Tony Parsons up against Umberto Eco and Milan Kundera for a €100,000 prize?"^[4]

Eligibility and procedure

Qualification

The prize is open to novels written in any language and by authors of any nationality, provided the work has been published in English or English translation.

The year an award is given is post-dated by two years from the date of publication. Thus, to win an award in 2007, the work must have been published in 2005. If it is an English translation, the work must have been published in its original language in the same calendar year.^[5]

Process

Dublin City Public Libraries seek nominations from public libraries from major cities across the world. The longlist is announced in October or November of each year, and the shortlist (up to 10 titles) is announced in March or April of the year following. The longlist and shortlist are chosen by an international panel of judges which rotates each year. Allen Weinstein was the non-voting chair of the panel from 1996 to 2003. Eugene R. Sullivan is the non-voting chair from 2004 to the current date.^[5] The winner of the award is announced each June. ^[5]

Winners and nominees

Year		Winner	Country	Novel	Shortlisted nominees & novels	Ref(s)
1996		David Malouf	Australia	Remembering Babylon	John Banville – Ghosts V. S. Naipaul – A Way in the World Cees Nooteboom – The Following Story Connie Palmen – The Laws José Saramago – The Gospel According to Jesus Christ Jane Urquhart – Away
1997		Javier Marías	Spain	A Heart So White (translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa)	Sherman Alexie – Reservation Blues Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance Duong Thu Huong – Novel Without a Name Antonio Tabucchi – Pereira Maintains Lars Gustafsson – A Tiler's Afternoon A.J. Verdelle – The Good Negress Alan Warner – Morvern Callar
1998		Herta Müller	Germany (born in Romania)	The Land of Green Plums (translated from the German by Michael Hofmann)	Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace Andre Brink – Imaginings of Sand David Dabydeen – The Counting House David Foster – The Glade within the Grove Jamaica Kincaid – Autobiography of my Mother Earl Lovelace – Salt Lawrence Norfolk – The Pope's Rhinoceros Graham Swift – Last Orders Guy Vanderhaeghe – The Englishman's Boy
1999		Andrew Miller	United Kingdom	Ingenious Pain	Jim Crace – Quarantine Don DeLillo – Underworld Francisco Goldman – The Ordinary Seaman Ian McEwan – Enduring Love Haruki Murakami – The Wind-up Bird Chronicle Cynthia Ozick – The Puttermesser Papers Bernhard Schlink – The Reader
2000		Nicola Barker	United Kingdom	Wide Open	Michael Cunningham – The Hours Jackie Kay – Trumpet Colum McCann – This Side of Brightness Alice McDermott – Charming Billy Toni Morrison – Paradise Philip Roth – I Married a Communist	[6]
2001		Alistair MacLeod[7]	Canada	No Great Mischief	Margaret Cezair-Thompson – The True History of Paradise Silvia Molina – The Love You Promised Me Andrew O'Hagan – Our Fathers Victor Pelevin – Buddha's Little Finger Colm Tóibín – The Blackwater Lightship	[8]
2002		Michel Houellebecq[9]	France	Atomised/The Elementary Particles (aka Atomised) (translated from French by Frank Wynne)	Peter Carey – True History of the Kelly Gang Margaret Atwood – The Blind Assassin Michael Collins – The Keepers of Truth Helen DeWitt – The Last Samurai Carlos Fuentes – The Years with Laura Diaz Antoni Libera – Madame
2003		Orhan Pamuk	Turkey	My Name Is Red (translated from Turkish by Erdağ Göknar)	Dennis Bock – The Ash Garden Achmat Dangor – Bitter Fruit Per Olov Enquist – The Visit of the Royal Physician Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections Lidia Jorge – The Migrant Painter of Birds John McGahern – That They May Face the Rising Sun Ann Patchett – Bel Canto
2004		Tahar Ben Jelloun	Morocco	This Blinding Absence of Light (translated from French by Linda Coverdale)	Paul Auster – The Book of Illusions William Boyd – Any Human Heart Sandra Cisneros – Caramelo Jeffrey Eugenides – Middlesex Maggie Gee – The White Family Amin Maalouf – Balthasar's Odyssey (translated from French by Barbara Bray) Rohinton Mistry – Family Matters Atiq Rahimi – Earth and Ashes (translated from the Persian by Erdağ M. Göknar) Olga Tokarczuk – House of Day, House of Night (translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones)
2005		Edward P. Jones	United States	The Known World	Diane Awerbuck – Gardening at Night Lars Saabye Christensen – The Half Brother (translated from Norwegian by Kenneth Steven) Damon Galgut – The Good Doctor Douglas Glover – Elle Arnon Grunberg – Phantom Pain (translated from Dutch by Sam Garrett) Shirley Hazzard – The Great Fire Christoph Hein – Willenbrock (translated from German by Philip Boehm) Frances Itani – Deafening Jonathan Lethem – The Fortress of Solitude
2006		Colm Tóibín	Ireland	The Master	Chris Abani – GraceLand Nadeem Aslam – Maps for Lost Lovers Ronan Bennett – Havoc in Its Third Year Jonathan Coe – The Closed Circle Jens Christian Grøndahl – An Altered Light (translated from Danish by Anne Born) Vyvyane Loh – Breaking the Tongue Margaret Mazzantini – Don't Move (translated from Italian by John Cullen) Yasmina Khadra – The Swallows of Kabul (translated from French by John Cullen) Thomas Wharton – The Logogryph
2007		Per Petterson[10]	Norway	Out Stealing Horses (translated from Norwegian by Anne Born)	Julian Barnes – Arthur & George Sebastian Barry – A Long Long Way J. M. Coetzee – Slow Man Jonathan Safran Foer – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Peter Hobbs – The Short Day Dying Cormac McCarthy – No Country for Old Men Salman Rushdie – Shalimar the Clown
2008		Rawi Hage[11]	Canada (born in  Lebanon)	De Niro's Game	Javier Cercas – The Speed of Light (translated from Spanish by Anne McLean) Yasmine Gooneratne – The Sweet & Simple Kind Gail Jones – Dreams of Speaking Sayed Kashua – Let It Be Morning (translated from Hebrew by Miriam Shlesinger) Yasmina Khadra – The Attack (translated from French by John Cullen) Patrick McCabe – Winterwood Andrei Makine – The Woman Who Waited (translated from French by Geoffrey Strachan)	[12]
2009		Michael Thomas[13]	United States	Man Gone Down	Junot Díaz – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Jean Echenoz – Ravel (translated from the original French by Linda Coverdale) Mohsin Hamid – The Reluctant Fundamentalist Travis Holland – The Archivist's Story Roy Jacobsen – The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles (translated from the original Norwegian by Don Shaw and Don Bartlett) David Leavitt – The Indian Clerk Indra Sinha – Animal's People
2010		Gerbrand Bakker	Netherlands	The Twin (translated from the Dutch by David Colmer)	Muriel Barbery – The Elegance of the Hedgehog (translated from the original French by Alison Anderson) Robert Edric – In Zodiac Light Christoph Hein – Settlement (translated from the original German by Philip Boehm) Zoë Heller – The Believers Joseph O'Neill – Netherland Ross Raisin – God's Own Country Marilynne Robinson – Home
2011		Colum McCann[14]	Ireland	Let the Great World Spin	Michael Crummey – Galore Barbara Kingsolver – The Lacuna Yiyun Li – The Vagrants David Malouf – Ransom Joyce Carol Oates – Little Bird of Heaven Craig Silvey – Jasper Jones Colm Tóibín – Brooklyn William Trevor – Love and Summer Evie Wyld – After the Fire, A Still Small Voice	[15]
2012		Jon McGregor[16]	United Kingdom (born in  Bermuda)	Even the Dogs	Jon Bauer – Rocks in the Belly David Bergen – The Matter with Morris Jennifer Egan – A Visit From the Goon Squad Aminatta Forna – The Memory of Love Karl Marlantes – Matterhorn Tim Pears – Landed Yishai Sarid – Limassol Cristovão Tezza – The Eternal Son Willy Vlautin – Lean on Pete	[17]
2013		Kevin Barry[18]	Ireland	City of Bohane	Michel Houellebecq – The Map and the Territory Andrew Miller – Pure Haruki Murakami – 1Q84 Julie Otsuka – The Buddha in the Attic Arthur Phillips – The Tragedy of Arthur Karen Russell – Swamplandia! Sjón – From the Mouth of the Whale Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold – The Faster I Walk , The Smaller I Am Tommy Wieringa – Caesarion (translated from Dutch by Sam Garrett)	[19]
2014		Juan Gabriel Vásquez[20]	Colombia	The Sound of Things Falling (translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean)	Gerbrand Bakker – The Detour (translated from the Dutch by David Colmer) Michelle de Kretser – Questions of Travel Patrick Flanery – Absolution Karl Ove Knausgård – A Death In The Family (translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett) (My Struggle – First Book) Marie NDiaye – Three Strong Women (translated from the French by John Fletcher) Andres Neuman – Traveller of the Century (translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia) Tan Twan Eng – The Garden of Evening Mists	[20]
2015		Jim Crace[21]	United Kingdom	Harvest	Richard Flanagan – The Narrow Road to the Deep North Hannah Kent – Burial Rites Bernardo Kucinski – K (translated from the Portuguese by Sue Branford) Andreï Makine – Brief Loves That Live Forever (translated from the French by Geoffrey Strachan) Colum McCann – TransAtlantic Mahi Binebine – Horses of God (translated from the French by Lulu Norman) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Americanah Alice McDermott – Someone Roxana Robinson – Sparta	[22]
2016		Akhil Sharma[2][23]	United States (born in  India)	Family Life	Javier Cercas – Outlaws (Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean) Mary Costello – Academy Street Dave Eggers – Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? Jenny Erpenbeck – The End of Days (Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky) Marlon James – A Brief History of Seven Killings Michel Laub – Diary of the Fall (Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa) Scholastique Mukasonga – Our Lady of the Nile (Translated from the French by Melanie Mauthner) Jenny Offill – Dept. of Speculation Marilynne Robinson – Lila	[24]

References

External links

• Official website

Recipients of the International Dublin Literary Award
If the winning book is a translation, the prize is divided between the writer and the translator, with the writer receiving €75,000 and the translator €25,000.
Writer / Translator	David Malouf (1996) Javier Marías / Margaret Jull Costa (1997) Herta Müller / Michael Hofmann (1998) Andrew Miller (1999) Nicola Barker (2000) Alistair MacLeod (2001) Michel Houellebecq / Frank Wynne (2002) Orhan Pamuk / Erdağ Göknar (2003) Tahar Ben Jelloun / Linda Coverdale (2004) Edward P. Jones (2005) Colm Tóibín (2006) Per Petterson / Anne Born (2007) Rawi Hage (2008) Michael Thomas (2009) Gerbrand Bakker / David Colmer (2010) Colum McCann (2011) Jon McGregor (2012) Kevin Barry (2013) Juan Gabriel Vásquez / Anne McLean (2014) Jim Crace (2015) Akhil Sharma (2016)