Congratulations to Vijay, whose novel, The House of Subadar, is on a shortlist of six for the fiction prize in The Glen Dimplex Awards.

The Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards 2007 – Shortlists Announced

Glen Dimplex in association with the Irish Writers’ Centre announces today the shortlists for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards.

With a total prize fund of €45,000, the annual Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards offer unprecedented support and exposure for emerging writers in a range of genres. Awards will be made to the best first book published by an author within each of the following five categories: Fiction, Biography/Non-fiction, Children’s literature, Poetry and Irish-language (all genres).


Shortlists for this year’s awards are:

• Kevin Barry, There Are Little Kingdoms  (Stinging Fly Press)
• Jane Feaver, According to Ruth  (Harvill Secker)
• Nikita Lalwani, Gifted  (Penguin/Viking)
• Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men (Penguin/Viking)
• Mark McNay, Fresh (Canongate Books)
• Vijay Medtia, The House of Subadar  (Arcadia Books)

 Biography/Non-fiction

• Catherine Bailey, Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty (Penguin/Viking)
• Rob Gifford, China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power (Bloomsbury)
• Ed Husain, The Islamist: Why I joined radical Islam in Britain, what I saw inside and why I left  (Penguin/Viking)
• Rory McCarthy, Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated: Stories from the New Iraq  (Chatto & Windus)
• William Rosen, Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe (Jonathan Cape)
• John Stubbs, Donne: The Reformed Soul (Penguin)

 Children’s literature

• Sharon Dogar, Waves  (Chicken House)
• Lyn Gardner, Into the Woods  (Random House)
• Rowland Molony, After the Death of Alice Bennett (Oxford University Press)
• Sarah Mussi, The Door of No Return  (Hodder Children’s Books)
• Andy Stanton, You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum!  (Egmont Press)
• Jenny Valentine, Finding Violet Park  (Harper Collins Children's Books)

• Tiffany Atkinson, Kink and Particle (Seren)
• Annie Freud, The Best Man that Ever Was (Pan Macmillan)
• Maria McManus, Reading the Dog (Lagan Press)
• Daljit Nagra, Look, We Have Coming to Dover! (Faber and Faber)
• Nell Regan, Preparing for Spring (Arlen House)
• Clare Shaw, Straight Ahead (Bloodaxe Books)

Irish-language

• Tony Bromell, Rian mo Chos ar Ghaineamh an tSaoil  (Cló Iar-Chonnachta)
• Mícheál De Barra, An Bóthar go Santiago  (Cois Life)
• Máirín Ni Laoithe Uí Shé, Sin Iad na Rudaí  (Coiscéim)
• Brenda Ní Shúilleabháin, Bibeanna: Memories from a Corner of Ireland  (Mercier Press)
• Gabhán Ó Fachtna, Bás is Beatha ar an Bhóthar Chreagach  (Coiscéim)
• Seán O'Connor, Seán Ruiséal agus Iníon an Oileáin  (Coiscéim)

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin on 26 November. Each category winner will receive a prize of €5,000. The Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year 2007 will be chosen from the five category winners and receive a further €20,000.

The judges for this year’s awards are: Kevin Crossley-Holland, Maire Cruise O’Brien, Philip Cummings, David Goodhart, Kerry Hardie, Dermot Healy, Michael Longley, Christina McKenna, James Ryan and last year’s Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year, Alice Hogge.