Sally Rooney and Niamh Ní Mhaoleoin Vie for Prestigious Dublin Literary Award
Dublin City Council has announced the longlist of 20 novels competing for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award, the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single operate of fiction in English. The award, worth €100,000 to the winner, recognizes outstanding literary achievement and is unique in that nominations come directly from librarians and readers from library systems around the globe.
Irish Authors Prominently Featured
Among the longlisted authors are two Irish writers: Sally Rooney, recognized for her bestselling work Intermezzo and Niamh Ní Mhaoleoin, whose debut novel Ordinary Saints has garnered significant attention.
International Literary Landscape
The 2026 longlist showcases a diverse range of international voices, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) for Dream Count, Alan Hollinghurst (Britain) for Our Evenings, and Ocean Vuong for The Emperor of Gladness. Six translated works are too included, representing languages such as Polish and Croatian.
Award Details and Timeline
The Dublin Literary Award offers €100,000 for a winning work of original fiction. For translated works, the author receives €75,000, and the translator is awarded €25,000. The shortlist will be announced on April 7th, 2026, with the winner revealed on May 21st, 2026, by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Ray McAdam, during the International Literature Festival Dublin.
2026 Longlist
- Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (American)
- Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
- Endling by Maria Reva (Ukraine)
- Gliff by Ali Smith (Britain)
- Quality Girl by Aria Aber (Afghanistan-Germany)
- In Late Summer by Magdalena Blažević (Bosnia-Croatia)
- Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Ireland)
- Live Fast by Brigitte Giraud (France)
- Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ní Mhaoleoin (Ireland)
- Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst (Britain)
- Perspectives by Laurent Binet (France)
- The Antidote by Karen Russell (US)
- The Brittle Age by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (Italy)
- The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
- The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland)
- There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Viking)