I’m in Dublin and yesterday the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award longlist was announced. Here’s how it looks by the numbers:
160 books
10 of them Canadian
118 cities
44 countries
19 languages
6 judges
1 winner
The Canadian titles are (alphabetically by author last name):
- Sweetland by Michael Crummey
- Outline by Rachel Cusk
- The Back of the Turtle by Thomas King
- Us Conductors by Sean Michaels
- The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O’Neill
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
- Who by Fire by Fred Stenson
- All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
- Will Starling by Ian Weir
- The Lobster Kings by Alexi Zentner
Ian Weir is on the Vancouver Sun Book Club with me and I reviewed Will Starling around this time last year.
If you’re new to this award, here are some interesting tidbits. Libraries in Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Ottawa, Saint John, St. John’s Sydney, Toronto and Winnipeg were among those that nominated books for the 2016 award.
Two Canadians have won the prize, the late Alistair MacLeod for No Great Mischief in 2002 and Rawi Hage for De Niro’s Game in 2008.
The International DUBLIN Literary Award was formerly known as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Watch for this hashtag #DubLitAward
The book that received most nominations this year is Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See, chosen by 14 libraries in Canada, Germany, Greece, Ireland, The Netherlands and the USA.
All the Light We Cannot See was one of my favourite titles last year.
The shortlist will be published on 12th April 2016 and the winner announced on 9th June.