The International Dublin Literary Award, formerly known as the IMPAC Award, is the richest in the world for a single work of fiction in English with the winner going home with €100 000. If the winning book is a translation, the author receives €75 000 and the translator €25 000.
Just like last year, there are many Africans represented in this award longlist. South Africa has the largest contingent on the prize with Zakes Mda for Rachel’s Blue, Mandla Langa for The Texture of Shadows and Imraan Coovadia for Tales of the Metric System.
Also on the longlist are Ethiopian-American novelist Dinaw Mengestu for All Our Names, Moroccan-American novelist Laila Lalami for The Moor’s Account which was long listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize as well as the eventual winner Marlon James for A Brief History of Seven Killings. Rwandan writer Scholastique Mukasonga who made the FT/Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices shortlist this year is on the list for Our Lady of the Nile while Nigerian-born Helen Oyeyemi is there for Boy, Snow, Bird.
The shortlist will be announced on April 12, 2016, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin will reveal the winner on June 9.
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