Siobhan Dowd

How fantastic to see the Carnegie Medal, the premier award in children’s publishing, won today by the late Siobhan Dowd for BOG CHILD.

I’ve read all four of Siobhan’s books and while they’re all of the very highest quality, BOG CHILD is, I think, the best of the lot and one of the finest novels of the decade. I read it earlier this year and was completely transfixed by the story of Fergus, who finds a body in a Northern Irish bog and thinks at first that this is another victim of the Troubles; very quickly he learns that the body is in fact 2000 years old and has remained mummified through the centuries. Written with a real sense of place and a central character of heroic proportions, the tragedy of the book is that Siobhan Dowd did not live long enough to see how inspiring her books have become to readers.

All royalties from Siobhan Dowd’s books go to Siobhan Dowd Trust, which was established to support disadvantaged young readers. You can read more about it here.

Hennessy XO Literary Awards

Award winners Kevin Power, Eimear Ryan and David Mohan

I spent most of yesterday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin where this year’s Hennessy Literary Awards were being presented. The awards run annually in three categories, First Fiction, Emerging Fiction and Poetry. A few weeks ago, Ciaran Carty, who has edited the New Irish Writing page at the Sunday Tribune for many years, Sally Nicholls (Ways To Live Forever) and I, who were this year’s judges, gathered in the same venue to go through all of this year’s shortlisted works and select the winners.

with fellow judges Sally Nicholls and Ciaran Carty

The standard of work was exceptionally high but we were delighted to present the prizes to Eimear Ryan (First Fiction), Kevin Power (Emerging Fiction) and David Mohan (Poetry/Overall New Writer of the Year Award), each of whom produced highly original and creative work.

It was my first time back at the Hennessy Awards since 1992, the year my own first short story was published in the Sunday Tribune which was subsequently shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award. I didn’t win, but at the age of 21 it was a great thrill to be part of the ceremony. The story that made it to the awards was called ‘The Entertainments Jar’ and was part of my application for the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where I studied from 1994/1995.

Also honoured at yesterday’s ceremony with induction into the Hennessy Hall of Fame was Hugo Hamilton, whose most recent book DISGUISE was one of the best reviewed novels of 2008 and whose distinguished career marks him out as one of our finest writers.

Leeds Book Award

Many thanks to all the organisers of the Leeds Book Award, who sent me this lovely trophy as winner of the 2008 Leeds Book Award.

 I was sadly unable to attend the prize ceremony due to a previous commitment but this has taken its place on my mantlepiece.

Irish Book Awards

The Mansion House – the Dublin Lord Mayor’s residence – was the venue for last night’s Irish Book Awards, a very enjoyable night for everyone involved in publishing in Ireland. The evening moved along at a brisk pace with awards going to Diarmaid Ferriter for Judging Dev, Roddy Doyle for Wilderness and Anne Enright for The Gathering amongst other winners. I’m a member of the Irish Literary Academy and some – but not all – of the books I voted for won. I won’t say which ones…! The shortlist for the Irish Novel of the Year was particularly impressive – Enright, John Banville, Ronan Bennett and Joe O’Connor’s wonderful Redemption Falls were all up for the main prize. The quality of all these books clearly proves that Irish writers are the best writers in the world, right?!! The picture shows me in conversation with fellow author Anthony Horowitz.

Qué Leer Award 2007

With Juan José Millas, who won the Best Spanish Language Novel at the Qué Leer Awards.

Barcelona

I spent the last three days in Barcelona, my first visit to Spain and definitely not my last. The main focus of the trip was to attend the Qué Leer Awards party, where the Spanish language version of BOY, EL NINO CON EL PIJAMA DE RAYAS, was awarded the prize for the Best Translated novel of the year.

The novel has been a tremendous success in Spain, selling over 800,000 copies so far, and a celebratory lunch with my Spanish publisher, Salamandra, on Monday made a very pleasant start to the trip, so many thanks to Pedro, Sigrid and Alix for all their hospitality. Later that afternoon, there was a television interview for Pagina 2 which meant I had to be made up for the cameras, something I never enjoy. (Here’s a tip if you’re ever going on television – always wear long sleeves or your arms will be made up too!)

Tuesday was filled with interviews. I went to the rooftop terrace of my hotel – the view seen from the photo that accompanies this entry – at 9 in the morning and sat there while journalists from all the major Spanish and Catalan newspapers and magazines came by for 45 minute interview sessions. I think there was 8 or 9 in total, one after the other, so by the late afternoon I was tired of talking about myself and grateful for a relaxing lunch with Eugenia and Nurya from my Catalan publishers, Editorial Empuries.

Tuesday night was the Qué Leer party, attended by perhaps 500-600 people, a wonderful extravaganza in a Barcelona hotel where I was presented with a beautiful piece of sculpture as my prize. Photos of this and the ceremony will be posted here over the next day or two.

The trip ended this morning with a farcical situation where a taxi driver collected me from my hotel to take me to the airport, only he wasn’t the right taxi driver, the one who was booked I mean, and demanded payment when we reached the airport. Standing outside his taxi, insisting that he had been paid in advance, we reached an impasse, which was only solved when he decided to get back in his cab and drive off with my suitcase in the boot, which left me running after him, waving my arms frantically in the air in an attempt to get him to stop. Not the best spectacle. Anyway all was solved in the end, my bags and I were reunited, the taxi driver got his money (I gave in), and soon I was winging my way back to Dublin for an early night, for another big night to come tomorrow…