Bono performs "exclusive first reading" from upcoming memoir at Dalkey Book Festival, while Sally Rooney and Victoria Kennefick take home top prizes

The 2022 edition of the Dalkey Book Festival came to a close over the weekend – with U2's Bono making a special appearance.

Ahead of the release of Bono's upcoming memoir, Surrender, in November, he gave an "exclusive first reading" from the book, and "discussed his relationship with his own father", in conversation with poet Paul Muldoon.

Surrender’s subtitle, 40 Songs, One Story, is a reference to the book’s 40 chapters – each named after a U2 song. Bono has also created forty original drawings for Surrender, which will appear throughout the book.

The book will chronicle his early days growing up in the Dublin, following U2's journey to become one of the world's most influential bands, as well as his decades of activism.

This Father’s Day, Bono made an appearance at Dublin's @dalkeybookfest in conversation with Paul Muldoon, with an exclusive first reading from his forthcoming #SurrenderMemoir, about his relationship with his own father.

Preorder here: https://t.co/IhUbySQJzc pic.twitter.com/RibrfjnOlI

— U2 (@U2) June 19, 2022

This year's Dalkey Literary Awards winners were announced over the weekend, as part of the 2022 Dalkey Book Festival – with Sally Rooney and Victoria Kennefick taking home the top prizes in their respective categories.

Castlebar author Rooney won Novel of the Year for Beautiful World, Where Are You, while Kerry-based poet Kennefick won this year’s Emerging Writer award for her collection Eat Or We Both Starve.

2022 is the third year of the Dalkey Literary Awards – and with a total prize fund of €30,000, they're the biggest prize value awards solely for Irish writers. Rooney will receive €20,000, and Victoria Kennefick will be awarded €10,000.

Each category had three judges, who each reviewed the five shortlisted authors and selected one overall winner.

The judging panels featured Frederick Studemann, Elaine Feeney and Willie White for Novel of the Year, and Madeleine Keane, Martina Devlin and Hugh Linehan for Emerging Writer.

The judges described Beautiful World, Where Are You as “the most ambitious of Sally Rooney’s books so far; it is exciting to experience her accomplishment in this determinedly contemporary Irish novel.”

“Her characters are minutely and sympathetically observed and her handling of tone, language and abundant ideas assured as she weaves a story of love and sex and friendship through an Anthropocene of vicious ideologies, failing systems and failed communication," they added.

Congratulations Sally Rooney for winning Novel of the Year 2022! ✨🎉#DLA2022 @Zurich_Irl @FaberBooks pic.twitter.com/G842RKBod8

— Dalkey Book Festival (@dalkeybookfest) June 18, 2022

They described Kennefick's Eat Or We Both Starve as "a slim volume with an impact that's heavy-hitting.

"It delivers everything one looks for in a piece of writing: emotional heft, story, nuance, hope, memorability; and because it's also quirky, it has the element of surprise," the judges continued. "Victoria Kennefick is a poet who can hold her own on the international stage.”

“It’s wonderful to include the Dalkey Literary Awards in this year’s Dalkey Book Festival," commented Sian Smyth, Director of the Dalkey Book Festival said. "With a virtual event last year, it’s very important for us to bring the much-loved weekend festival back to life this year, and the Awards are a key part of that.”

See the full shortlists for the two categories below:

Novel of the Year:

Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These
John Banville - April I Spain
Kevin Power - White City
Nuala O’Connor - Nora
Sally Rooney - Beautiful World, Where Are You

Emerging Writer:

Lisa Harding - Bright Burning Things
Louise Kennedy - The End of the World is a Cul de Sac
Rosaleen McDonagh - ‘Unsettled’
Una Mannion - A Crooked Tree
Victoria Kennefick - Eat Or We Both Starve