Kate McCusker’s excellent article about the success of the Irish literary scene (‘We all read like hell!’ How Ireland became the world’s literary powerhouse, 20 August) does have one omission: the Dublin literary award, the biggest prize in the world for a single novel published in English (€100,000).
The award takes nominations from libraries around the world (not publishers) to create a longlist, then a shortlist, then a winner. Library nominations are for fiction from any country. The whole process is funded and administered by Dublin city council. In recent years, winners have been from Germany, France, the US and Northern Ireland (Anna Burns’ truly excellent Milkman). This year’s winner was Solenoid by the Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu.
The award develops interest beyond Ireland but, by doing that, must contribute to the wide interest in “native” Irish writing. Unfortunately, only one UK public library nominated a novel for the 2024 award (thank you, Norfolk Library and Information Service). Here in the UK, we don’t need a competitor for the Dublin award; we do need more libraries to nominate books.
Bob Mortimer
Louth, Lincolnshire
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