Brit Bennett, Sara Collins, Bernardine Evaristo, and Colson Whitehead are on the longlist for the Dublin International Literary Award 2021 announced on February 4, 2021.
The Dublin International Literary Award is awarded annually for a novel written in English or translated into English. The prize worth €100,000, sponsored by the Dublin City Council, Ireland, is the richest prize for one work in or translated into English. African writers like Scholastique Mukasonga, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Mahi Binebine, Aminatta Forna and Noviolet Bulawayo, Mia Couto, Chinelo Okparanta, and Yewande Omotoso have been in the running in the past. The prize went to Angolan author José Eduardo Agualusa for his novel A General Theory of Oblivion in 2017.
In 2021, the judging panel comprises Prof Chris Morash the Non-Voting Chair alongside Jan Carson, a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast; David James Karashima, an author, translator, and associate professor of creative writing at Waseda University in Tokyo; Lebanese-born, Dr Rita Sakr who lectures in Postcolonial and Global Literatures at Maynooth University; Dr Martín Veiga, a Cork-based Galician poet, translator, and academic who lectures in Hispanic Studies at University College Cork, and Enda Wyley, an Irish poet, author, and teacher who has published six collections of poetry.
The longlist of 49 books nominated by 69 libraries around the world announced had some interest for African and Black literature and those who made the cut this year were;
Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo,
The Confessions of Frannie Langton, Sara Collins
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett
Speaking about the longlist, Patron of the Award, Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu, commended the Award for its promotion of excellence in world literature and the opportunity it provides to promote Irish writing internationally:
‘Readers each year anticipate the longlist and later the shortlist with keen excitement and interest. This anticipation will be rewarded when I announce the twenty-sixth winner on Thursday, 20th May 2021. As Patron of the Award, I am extremely proud of the DUBLIN Literary Award as it affirms Dublin’s commitment to international writers and translators, to literature and creativity. It’s more important than ever that Dublin City Council does its best to support the Arts in such challenging times and the DUBLIN Literary Award is a huge statement of encouragement and support,’ she said.
The winner of the Dublin International Literary Award 2021 will be announced by its Patron, Lord Mayor Hazel Chu on May 20, 2021.
