Spotlight on the 2026 Dublin Literary Award longlist

Twenty novels have been named to the longlist for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award, supported by Dublin City Council.

The shortlist will be posted on April 7, 2026, and the winner of the Dublin Literary Award will be announced on May 21 during the Dublin International Literary Festival.

“At the heart of this award are libraries and their readers dotted across the world unified through a culturally rich reading experience. I wish the featured writers on this strong list the best of luck this year and encourage readers to seek out the books in their local libraries or bookstores,” said Mairéad Owens, Dublin City Librarian.

The longlisted titles are:

“Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner (American)

“Dream Count” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian)

“Gliff” by Ali Smith (British)

“Good Girl” by Aria Aber (Afghan-German)

“In Late Summer” by Madalena Blažević (Bosnian-Croatian)

“Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney (Irish)

“Live Fast” by Brigitte Giraud (French)

“Ordinary Saints” by Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin (Irish)

“Our Evenings” by Alan Hollinghurst (British)

“Perspectives” by Laurent Binet (French)

“The Antidote” by Karen Russell (American)

“The Brittle Age” by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (Italian)

“The Creation of Half-Broken People” by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (Zimbabwean)

“The Echoes” by Evie Wyld (British)

“The Emperor of Gladness” by Ocean Vuong (American)

“The Empusium” by Olga Tokarczuk (Polish)

“The Original Daughter” by Jemimah Wei (Singaporean)

“There are Rivers in the Sky” by Elif Shafak (British-Turkish)

“What I Know About You” by Éric Chacour (Canadian)

Maria Reva, a Canadian author of Ukrainian origin, has also been shortlisted with her book “Endling.” Her novel, described by The Guardian as a dark comedy “inflected with a feminist sensibility,” is set in Ukraine just before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Dublin Literary Award honors excellence in world literature since 1996. Presented annually, the Award is one of the most significant literature prizes in the world, worth €100,000 for a single work of fiction in original English or translated into English. If the winning book is an English translation, the author receives €75,000 and the translator €25,000.

Each year public libraries from around the world are invited to submit book nominations.

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Images: Chytomo, award website

Copy editing: Ben Angel