Listowel Writers’ Week reveals novel of the year, poetry and short story prizes
Bina by Anakana Schofield won the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award at the 2021 Listowel Writer’s Week Awards.
The award-winning Canadian author was delighted with the win, and thanked her readers and publishers on Twitter.
“Thank you readers who embrace my ludic novels and the publishers who put Bina proudly into the world,” she said. Bina also won the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize. The Novel of the Year winner receives a prize of €15,000.
The awards ceremony was held virtually on June 2nd during Listowel Writer’s Week, which runs until Sunday. In its 50th year, the festival celebrates the brilliant work of the arts community.
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s Collected Poems won the Pigott Poetry Prize (€14,000). The book contains work from over 50 years and includes previously unpublished poems.
Ní Chuilleanáin, Fellow and Professor of English (Emerita) at Trinity College, has previously won the Patrick Kavanagh Award, the Irish Times Award for Poetry, the O’Shaughnessy Award of the Irish-American Cultural Institute and the International Griffin Poetry Prize.
Nostos & Algos by David Wilkes won the Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award (€1000), while Eoin Hegarty’sOre won the Poetry Collection Award. In 2018, Hegarty won the Cúirt Poetry Prize and was a runner up in the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition.
The Duas Foras na Gaeilge (€1000) winner was Bean-Eala by Eibhlís Carcione.
Martin Moore’s Deeds Not Words won first prize for the Nilsson Local Heritage Award, while second prize went to The Lost Gaeltacht by Mártan John Mhailic Sheáin Leachlainn. The total prize fund for the Nilsson Award is €1400.
In the Creative Writing for Adults with Special Needs Award, with a total prize fund of €1000, first place went to How Was It? by Joseph Ganley, second place went to Red Sun Over Olympus by William O’Connor and third place went to My Life Story by Clare Conway.
