Top: Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Sharon Dodua Otoo
Bottom:Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Mia Couto, Chidi Ebere
Novels by five African authors are among the 70 books nominated by libraries around the world for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award. They are:
Chidi Ebere for Now I Am Here
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim for When We Were Fireflies
Mia Couto for The Drinker of Horizons
Sharon Dodua Otoo for Ada’s Realm
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for Chain-Gang All-Stars
Now in its 29th year, the Dublin Literary Award is one of the world’s most prestigious annual prizes for a work of fiction published or translated into English. The longlist was garnered from libraries across 35 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, the US, Canada, South America, Australia, and New Zealand; and features 31 novels in translation and 16 debut novelists.
“This year’s longlist is an eclectic mix of world literature..” The Lord Mayor of Dublin Daithí de Róiste praised at the launch of the longlist; they take “the reader on a journey through different cultures and traditions and highlights the importance of our shared literary imagination and the power of the written word.”
The shortlist will be released on 26th March 2024 while the winner will be announced by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste, on 23rd May 2024, as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin. The winner will receive a cash prize of €100,000. If the book is a translated work, the author will receive €75,000, while the translator gets €25,000.
The international judging panel includes: Irenosen Okojie, a Nigerian British author and journalist who has judged various literary prizes; Daniel Medin, a professor of comparative literature at the American University of Paris, where he teaches courses on East Central European literature and culture; Lucy Collins an Associate Professor at University College Dublin, where she teaches modern and contemporary literature; Anton Hur, a Korean author and translator who was double-longlisted and shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize; and Ingunn Snædal an Icelandic poet, translator, literary editor and teacher who has translated over 100 novels and children’s books from Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, English and Icelandic, and received several nominations and accolades for her translations.
The non-voting Chairperson is Professor Chris Morash, the Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin.
The prize is sponsored by Dublin City Council.
Click here to check out the longlist.
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