Culture
17 Feb 26

Sally Rooney and Niamh Ní Mhaoleoin selected for 2026 Dublin Literary Award long-list

Credit: Kalpesh Lathigra

The long-list of 20 includes big names like Ali Smith, Alan Hollinghurst and Rachel Kushner. But the two Irish literary stars are both well in the running...

Irish writers Sally Rooney and Niamh Ní Mhaoleoin are among the authors who have had books long-listed for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award.

The top 20 novels were announced by Dublin City Council today.

Sally Rooney also selected for her brilliant and widely acclaimed Intermezzo (Faber). Meanwhile, the long-listing represents a powerful endorsement for Niamh Ní Mhaoleoin and her debut novel Ordinary Saints (Manilla Press).

The prize for a single work of fiction published in English is €100,000. If a translated work is selected, €75,000 is awarded to the author and €25,000 to the translator. Nominations for the award are submitted by librarians and readers from library systems worldwide.

The 2026 long-list also includes the following: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Dream Count (4th Estate/HarperCollins), Alan Hollinghurst's Our Evenings (Picador), Ocean Vuong's The Emperor of Gladness (Jonathan Cape), Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake (Simon & Schuster), Maria Reva’s Endling (Penguin Random House), Ali Smith’s Gliff (Hamish Hamilton), Aria Aber’s Good Girl (Bloomsbury) and There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Viking)

There are six translated titles on the list, including The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Fitzcarraldo Editions), and In Late Summer by Madalena Blažević, translated from Croatian by Anđelka Raguž (Linden Editions).

The shortlist will be announced on 7 April, with the overall winner being revealed on 21 May 2026 by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Ray McAdam, during the International Literature Festival Dublin.

The 2025 Dublin Literary Award was won by Michael Crummey for The Adversary, with Mircea Cărtărescu taking the prize in 2024 with Solenoid.

The full long-list for 2026 is as follows:

Karen Russell: The Antidote

Jemimah Wei: The Original Daughter

Olga Tokarczuk: The Empusium

Ocean Vuong: The Emperor of Gladness

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu: The Creation of Half-Broken People

Evie Wyld: The Echoes

Donatella Di Pietrantonio: The Brittle Age

Elif Shafak: There Are Rivers in the Sky

Éric Chacour: What I Know About You

Laurent Binet: Perspective(s)