Book Award News
Throughout the calendar year, there are many literature prizes for genres such as crime writing, science fiction, poetry, short stories and so on.
This section of the Books' zone aims to give you a flavour of what's out there and lists current winners and links to official websites. For all authors and titles, you can check our catalogue 24/7 and reserve titles online.
- Arthur C. Clarke Award - science fiction writing
- Costa Book Awards
- CWA Dagger Awards -crime writing
- International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- Irish Book Awards
- Man Booker Prize
- Man Booker International Prize
- Noble Prize in Literature
- Orange Prize for Fiction
- PEN/Faulkner Award
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Arthur C. Clarke Award 
This award presented annually for the best science fiction novel of the year.
The 2012 award was won by Jane Rogers for The Testament of Jessie Lamb
Costa Book Awards 
The Costa Book Awards recognise some of the most enjoyable books of the year by authors based in the UK and Ireland.
Prizes are awarded in 5 categories:
First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book. One of the 5 winning books is chosen to receive The Costa Book of the Year Award.
The 2011 winners were announced in January 2012:
First Novel Award – Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson
Novel Award – Pure by Andrew Miller
Biography Award – Now All Roads Lead to France by Matthew Hollis
Poetry Award – The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy
Children’s Book Award – Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Costa Book of the Year Award – Pure by Andrew Miller
CWA Dagger Awards (Crime Writers’ Association) 
The Crime Writers’ Association Daggers are awarded annually for the best in crime writing.
The 2012 Daggers were awarded to:
Diamond Dagger (lifetime achievement award) – Frederick Forsyth
Gold Dagger (best crime novel) – The Rage by Gene Kerrigan
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (best thriller) – A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming
John Creasy (New Blood) Dagger – A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash
International Dagger – The Potter’s Field by Andrea Camilleri
Dagger for Non-Fiction – The Eleventh Day by Anthony Summers & Robbyn Swan
Ellis Peters Historical Dagger – Icelight by Aly Monroe
Dagger in the Library (nominated by UK libraries & readers’ groups) – Steve Mosby
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 
Administered by Dublin City Public Libraries, this international literary award is presented annually for a single work of fiction published in English. Nominations are submitted by public libraries worldwide.
Jon McGregor won the 2012 award for his novel Even the Dogs
Three Irish novels were among 147 titles nominated:
Room by Emma Donoghue
Faithful Place by Tana French
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 
The 2012 winners are:-
Eason Novel of the Year - Ancient Light by John Banville
RTE !'s The John Murrary Show Listeners' Choice - Just Mary by Mary O'Rourke
Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year - Broken Harbour by Tana French
Avonmore Cookbook of the Year - Eat Like an Italian by Catherine Fulvio
Argosy Non-Fiction Book of the Year - Country Gril by Edna O'Brien
Eason Popular Fiction Book of the Year - A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy
International Education Services Best Irish Published Book of the Year - Atlas of the Great Famine by John Crowley, William J. Smyth & Mike Murphy
Sunday Independent Best Newcomer of the Year - The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
Lifestyle Sports Sports Book of the Year - My Olympic Dream by Katie Taylor
Man Booker Prize
This prize, awarded annually, aims to promote the widest possible readership for the best literary fiction.
The 2012 Man Booker Prize was won by Hilary Mantel for Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2009.
Mantel is the first woman, the first British author and only the third author after Peter Carey and J.M. Coetzee to win the award twice. She is also the first author to win with a sequel.
Man Booker International Prize
This prize, awarded every two years, celebrates literary excellence. It is given for an author’s body of work rather than for a single novel.
The 2011 prize was won by American novelist Philip Roth. His best know works include Goodbye, Columbus (1959), Portnoy’s Complaint (1969),
the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998) and The Human Stain (2000).
Man Booker International Prize website
Nobel Prize in Literature 
The Noble Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. Awards are presented annually for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace.
Mo Yan, a Chinese author, who left school at the age of 12 to work in the fields, has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in literature.
He is the first Chinese citizen to win the prize in its 111-year history. The Swedish Academy praised his work for merging 'folk tales, history and the contemporary' with 'hallucinatory realism'.
Orange Prize for Fiction 
This prize is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman. American author Madeline Miller won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction with her debut novel The Song of Achilles.
Joanna Trollope, Chair of Judges, declared it ‘a more than worthy winner – original, passionate, inventive and uplifting. Homer would be proud of her’.
PEN/Faulkner Award 
Named for William Faulkner who used his Nobel Prize funds to create an award for young writers, and affiliated with PEN,
the international writers’ organisation, the PEN/Faulkner Award is presented annually for the best fiction written by an American citizen.
The 2013 award was won by Benjamin Alire Saenz for his collection of short story: Everything begins and ends at the Kentucky Club.
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.
The 2013 winner was Adam johnson for The Orphan Master's Son