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A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s strikingly original combination of essay and self-fiction, has been named 2020 Irish Post Book of the Year.
The titles competing for the award were the category winners this year. An Post Irish Book Awards, a fortnight ago, including Strange Flowers, by Donal Ryan, A Light That Never Goes Out, by Keelin Shanley, Champagne Football, by Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan, Old Ireland in Color, by John Breslin and Dr. Sarah-Anne Buckley, and Diary of a Young Naturalist, by Dara McAnulty.
A Ghost in the Throat, Ní Ghríofa’s prose debut, which won the category of Nonfiction Book of the Year, intertwines the narrator’s own relationship with pregnancy and motherhood, and the life of the 18th century poet Eibhlín Dublin Ni Chonaill.
In her September book review for The Irish Times, Sarah Gilmartin wrote: “While caring for his young family, four boys and a girl, in various rental accommodations around Cork, Ní Ghríofa sets himself the onerous task of writing a new translation of the 18th century poem Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (The Keen for Art Ó Laoghaire) by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill. Ní Ghríofa is not the first to translate the poem … but the way she weaves this process of years with stories from her own life results in a truly unique project that comes to life on the page ”.
Ní Ghríofa says she is delighted to have won. “A Ghost in the Throat is a telling of my story, but it also tells the story of Eibhlín Dublin Ní Chonaill, and I am very grateful to all the readers who have welcomed us both into their hearts. I accept this award with deep appreciation to each and every one of you. Míle buíochas libh go léir ”.
Ní Ghríofa, one of Ireland’s most successful bilingual poets and essayists, has published collections in both English and Irish, such as Clasp, Oighear and Lies. Born in Galway, raised in Clare and now living in Cork, she received the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2016.
A Ghost in the Throat was also named the Foyles Nonfiction Book of the Year 2020 by the prestigious London bookstore on Wednesday. On Monday, Dublin bookseller Hodges Figgis named it Irish Book of the Year.
Today’s victory marks the third time in five years that a title published by the independent Tramp Press has won the Irish Book of the Year award, following Emilie Pine’s Notes to Self in 2018 and Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones. in 2016..
John Treacy, President of the awards, says: “A Ghost in the Throat had an immediate impact on the Irish book trade in publishing. It is astonishing for an established poet to suddenly produce a work as accomplished and interesting as his debut in prose. It is also a very well produced book, and Tramp Press deserves great credit for its unerring eye in finding original material to publish. Congratulations to Doireann, a worthy winner of the An Post Irish Book of the Year. ”
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