An Post Irish Book Awards Name the 2026 Shortlists

Eight novels are up for Eason Novel of the Year at the 2026 An Post Irish Book Awards. The awards site unveiled shortlists across 19 categories on October 22, as the prizes mark their 21st anniversary. The lists are on the Irish Book Awards shortlist page. RTÉ Culture reported them the same day.

The Novel of the Year shortlist:

• Land, Maggie O'Farrell (Tinder Press)
• Stations, Louise Kennedy (Bloomsbury Circus)
• All Them Dogs, Djamel White (John Murray)
• Where Are the Kings, Donal Ryan (Doubleday)
• Other People's Lives, Kathleen MacMahon (Sandycove)
• The Newer World, Sebastian Barry (Faber & Faber)
• Few and Far Between, Jan Carson (Doubleday)
• The Weight of Angels, John Boyne (Doubleday)

RTÉ notes that O'Farrell's Land and Kennedy's Stations are also on the Last Word Listeners' Choice Award list, and that White's All Them Dogs is also a Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year nominee.

Elsewhere on the shortlist

The awards site says the 19 categories run through Novel of the Year, best Irish-published book, children's books for junior and senior readers, history, newcomer, lifestyle, crime fiction, biography, popular fiction, non-fiction, sports, teen and young adult, and Irish-language books. RTÉ says the span also takes in poetry and short stories, and that the Book of the Year is chosen from six finalists.

Sally Hayden and Doireann Ní Ghríofa are each on two lists, RTÉ reports: Non-Fiction Book of the Year and Author/Illustrator of the Year. Hayden is shortlisted for This is Also a Love Story: Searching for Good in a Divided World. Ní Ghríofa is shortlisted for Said the Dead. The author/illustrator list on the awards site also includes Colm Tóibín, for The News from Dublin, and Liz Nugent, for The Truth About Ruby Cooper.

On biography, RTÉ names Talk to Joe: Life, Liveline and Me by Joe Duffy, Home Economics: A Memoir by Caitríona Lally, Not the Perfect Victim by Nikita Hand with Kathryn Rogers, John McGahern: A Writing Life by Frank Shovlin, No One Tells You: The Last Years of Edna O'Brien by Carlo Gébler, and Charles Haughey: Glory, Greed and Guns by Vincent Browne. On sport it names My Greatest Race by Ciara Mageean with Clíona Foley, All In by Peter O'Mahony with Dion Fanning, The Walls by James McClean with Daniel McDonnell, and Zeebs: My Autobiography by Simon Zebo with Gerry Thornley.

Children's books are split into eight junior titles and eight senior titles, RTÉ says. Junior names in that report include Paddy Donnelly's The Upside-Down Lighthouse, Patricia Forde's Letters to a Giant, and Peter Donnelly's I Am Not a Dog. Senior names include Deerheart by Eoin Colfer, illustrated by P.J. Lynch, and Millie McCarthy and the Doggy Daycare Drama by Leona Forde, illustrated by Karen Harte.

Crime fiction, titled on the awards site as The Book Centre Crime Fiction Book of the Year in association with the Irish Independent, includes Nugent's The Truth About Ruby Cooper and Tana French's The Keeper among its nominees. The An Post Bookshop of the Year shortlist is given in alphabetical order: Bridge Books, Dromore, Co. Down; Charlie Byrne's Bookshop, Galway; O'Mahony's Booksellers, Limerick; Tales for Tadpoles, Bray, Co. Wicklow; The Book Centre, Waterford; and Woodbine Books, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare.

Voting, a ceremony, and a package for new writers

Readers can vote until 6:00 p.m. on Friday, November 13. Voting opened at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 22, on the awards vote page. Each voter is entered to win one of five €100 National Book Tokens.

Best Short Story and Best Poetry continue a partnership with the Irish Independent's New Irish Writing competition, introduced in 2024. All eight shortlisted writers in both categories will receive a package at the Irish Writers Centre: mentoring, courses, and membership.

Sinéad McCorry, chairperson of the An Post Irish Book Awards, said: "This year's An Post Irish Book Awards shortlist is a wonderful reflection of the depth and diversity of talent across Irish writing. As we celebrate the Awards' 21st anniversary, it is fantastic to see such a strong mix of established and new writers represented across the categories, alongside the publishers, illustrators and booksellers who play such an important role in bringing these stories to readers." She added: "We're particularly pleased to continue our partnership with the Irish Independent through the Best Short Story and Best Poetry categories." And: "we look forward to coming together on the 1st December to celebrate this year's outstanding books and writers."

Fergal Leamy, CEO of An Post, congratulated "all the writers, publishers, illustrators and book sellers who have made the 2026 shortlist, giving us the best possible Recommended Reading list for readers of all ages and interests this year." He said he was looking forward to reading from the shortlist ahead of the awards, and he encouraged everyone to get reading and voting.

RTÉ says winners will be announced at the Convention Centre Dublin on Tuesday, December 1. A one-hour special hosted by Oliver Callan airs on RTÉ One on December 10. The awards site says that programme looks at the six finalists for Book of the Year and ends with the overall winner.

Why it matters for authors and publishers

The clock is public. Voting stays open until 6:00 p.m. on November 13, and Leamy is treating the shortlists as a reading list for the season. Poets and short-story writers on those two lists are promised more than a nomination: mentoring, courses, and membership at the Irish Writers Centre. Six bookshops have a category of their own. The Book of the Year is still a later cut, down to six finalists, with the ceremony on December 1 and the broadcast on December 10.

Sources

• An Post Irish Book Awards, October 22, 2026: Shortlist 2026
• An Post Irish Book Awards: public vote
• RTÉ Culture, October 22, 2026: shortlist report