Kevin Barry on Costa shortlist

Submitted by stingingfly on Wed, 16/11/2011 - 15:34

Hearty congratulations are due to Kevin Barry for making it onto the Costa First Novel Award shortlist. His debut novel, City of Bohane, described by the judging panel as “startlingly original – a tour de force of language and imagination,” is joined on the list by Patrick McGuinness’ The Last Hundred Days, Christie Watson’s Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, and Kerry Young’s Pao. 

The Costa Book Awards consist of five categories: first novel, novel, biography, poetry, and children’s book; category winners will be announced on January 4th and the overall winner be revealed on January 24th.

Meanwhile, the winner of the Hughes and Hughes Irish Novel of the Year will be announced tomorrow with City of Bohane again on the shortlist. Also in contention for the prize are novels by Anne Enright, Neil Jordan, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Belinda McKeon and Sebastian Barry.

 

About Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry was born in Limerick in 1969 and now lives in Dublin. His first collection of stories, There Are Little Kingdoms was published by The Stinging Fly Press and was awarded The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2007. City of Bohane has been optioned for film by Parallel Productions. The New Yorker published his story 'Fjord of Killary' in 2010, and his short fiction has appeared widely on both sides of the Atlantic. A second collection of stories, Dark Lies The Island, is due from Jonathan Cape in April 2012.