Nominated by Cork City Libraries, Ireland

The 2022 DUBLIN Literary Award longlist of 79 books has been painstakingly narrowed down to a shortlist of just 6 titles. The award, sponsored by Dublin City Council, is the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English, worth €100,000 to the winner. The DUBLIN Literary Award will be presented during ILFDublin. Nominated by libraries around the world, all the books on the shortlist can be read in both physical and digital formats, from libraries around the country and through BorrowBox.

This exclusive limited podcast series, hosted by Jessica Traynor and Séan Hewitt, is designed to give you access to the authors behind the 6 shortlisted titles. Their conversation about The Art of Falling is followed by an interview with Danielle McLaughlin. A short story and fiction writer, Danielle’s work has been published in the New Yorker, Irish Times, the Stinging Fly, and various anthologies. The Art of Falling is her first novel and with it she has crafted an intricate portrayal of one woman caught between the past and the present, facing the emotional consequences of truth and betrayal. Ness McCormack’s marriage is slowly coming back together, piece by piece, in the aftermath of her husband’s affair and betrayal. At the helm of a retrospective art exhibition for one of Ireland’s most seminal and enigmatic artists, Nessa is finally excited about her life again. But the arrival of two outsiders threatens this new and fragile balance – a chance encounter with an old friend that brings memories of past betrayals, and a strange conversation with a woman who claims to know the truth about something Nessa has taken for granted. Skilful and intimate, The Art of Falling shines a piercing light on what it means to live authentically.

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Jessica Traynor is a poet, essayist and librettist. Her debut poetry collection, Liffey Swim, was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award. The Quick was a 2019 Irish Times poetry choice. Awards include the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary and Hennessy New Writer of the Year. Paper Boat, a new opera commission from Irish National Opera and Music for Galway, will premiere in April 2022. Residencies in 2021-22 include the Yeats Society Sligo, The Seamus Heaney Home Place and the DLR LexIcon. Her third collection, Pit Lullabies, has just been published by Bloodaxe Books, and is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Seán Hewitt’s debut collection, Tongues of Fire, was published by Jonathan Cape (2020). It won The Laurel Prize in 2021, and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, a Dalkey Literary Award. In 2020, he was chosen by The Sunday Times as one of their “30 under 30” artists in Ireland. His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, is published with Jonathan Cape and Penguin Press (2022). He is a Poetry Critic for The Irish Times and teaches Modern British & Irish Literature at Trinity College Dublin.