The University of Liverpool's Institute of Irish Studies has announced the shortlist for the John McGahern Annual Book Prize, worth £5,000, for the best debut novel or short story collection by an Irish writer or writer resident in Ireland published last year. The three shortlisted books are Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick (Tramp Press); Frogs for Watchdogs by Seán Farrell (Dublin: New Island Books); and Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn (Stinging Fly Press). A record 25 entries were judged by Prof Dame Janet Beer, Dr Eleanor Lybeck, and Prof Frank Shovlin. Shovlin, editor of The Letters of John McGahern and author of an upcoming authorised biography, noted the strength of the field. Colm Tóibín will select the overall winner, to be announced in September before the Liverpool Literary Festival in October.
Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick ; Frogs for Watchdogs by Seán Farrell ; and Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn The University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies has announced the shortlist for the John McGahern Annual Book Prize worth £5,000 for the best debut novel or short story collection by an Irish writer or writer resident in Ireland published last year.
The three shortlisted books are Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick ; Frogs for Watchdogs by Seán Farrell ; and Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn . A record 25 entries were adjudicated upon by the shortlisting committee of Prof Dame Janet Beer, former vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool; Dr Eleanor Lybeck, senior lecturer in literature at the Department of English and Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool; and Frank Shovlin, Professor of Irish Literature, University of Liverpool.
Shovlin is editor of The Letters of John McGahern and of McGahern’s authorised biography, forthcoming from Faber this October. Prof Shovlin said: “Another notably strong field made choosing three titles for shortlisting more difficult than ever, but we feel we have come up with a terrific and representative list of two novels and one collection of short stories.
As in previous years, Colm Tóibín will have the unenviable task of choosing an overall winner, which we expect to announce in September in advance of our annual prizegiving at the Liverpool Literary Festival on the weekend of October 16th-18th. ”Page turners: 10 books to help you fall back in love with readingOpening Night by Sara Baume: Deep insights into her own psyche, with respect for the creative process Prof Pete Shirlow, director of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies, said: “Perhaps the most striking thing about this year’s shortlist is that all three of the books are the product of Irish publishing houses: Tramp Press, New Island Books and Stinging Fly Press.
This facet is a first for our prize and is testament to a remarkably healthy literary scene on the island. ” “Gethan Dick’s Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night is a skilfully written, first-person narration of the end of the world as we know it, plotted around a journey that is provoked by a near extinction event,” the judges said.
“Bringing back vivid memories of the Covid pandemic, the read is quite challenging; there are no chapters and the timeline is fragmented, which means that what could have been a predictable journey narrative trajectory is rendered complex and thought provoking. “The writing is allusive, drawing on literary and biblical language that is mixed skilfully with the demotic. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic novel replete with fresh takes on friendship, rebirth and the human condition.
” The judges described Seán Farrell’s Frogs for Watchdogs as “a remarkable novel for the ways in which it captures a family dynamic not often represented so intelligently and with such compassion for all involved. Set in rural Co Meath some 40 years ago, the voice of the unnamed boy who narrates much of the novel is brilliant: always compelling, sometimes concerning, and very funny. His mother and sister, meanwhile, are painfully and delightfully familiar by turns.
And Jerry Drain, a local farmer, though we see him for himself only fleetingly, is nevertheless fully rounded and, on occasion, utterly devastating. ” Liadan Ní Chuinn’s Every One Still Here, the pseudonymous Belfast author’s collection of six short stories, has already been shortlisted for the 2026 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. The judges called it “a disturbing book in the best possible sense of the word.
Interested primarily in the legacy of State-sanctioned violence through the Troubles, its haunting power knocks the reader off their axis, leaving one breathless and disorientated. ” The prize was established to promote new Irish writing and to celebrate the memory of one of the country’s greatest masters of prose fiction, John McGahern , four of whose books – The Dark , Amongst Women , That They May Face the Rising Sun and Memoir – will be reissued by Faber with new introductions in September.
Now in its seventh year, the prize has a formidable list of past winners: Adrian Duncan for Love Notes from a German Building Site; Hilary Fannin for The Weight of Love; Louise Kennedy for The End of the World is a Cul de Sac; Aingeala Flannery for The Amusements; Michael Magee for Close to Home; and Anna Fitzgerald for Girl in the Making. Entries are now being accepted for debut books of fiction published in 2026.
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