News 2025 Dublin Literary Award Judges Announced

We’re delighted to announce the Judging panel for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award.

The Dublin Literary Award will celebrate 30 years in 2025. Today (Tuesday 12, November 2024) Dublin City Council announced the members of the judging panel, for this, the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English.

The Dublin Literary Award, sponsored by Dublin City Council, celebrates excellence in world literature. Australian author David Malouf was the inaugural winner of the Dublin Literary Award in 1996 for the novel Remembering Babylon.

Uniquely, the Award receives its nominations from public libraries around the world and recognises both writers and translators. In 2024, there were 70 books on the 2024 longlist nominated from 80 libraries in 35 countries. This judging panel will choose both the shortlist and ultimate winner of the award.

The longlist will be announced on 14 January 2025 and the 30th winner of this internationally renowned award will be announced in May 2025 as part of International Literature Festival Dublin.

The international panel of Judges features Gerbrand Bakker, Dutch author and winner of the Dublin Literary Award (formerly IMPAC Prize) in 2010; Martina Devlin, award winning Irish author and newspaper columnist; Fiona Sze-Lorrain, writer, poet, translator, musician and editor based in Paris; Prof. Leonard Cassuto, professor of American literature at Fordham University, freelance literary journalist, columnist, editor and author; and Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, poet, pacifist and editor based in Dublin.

The non-voting chairperson is Professor Chris Morash, the Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin who has led the judging process since 2019. Commenting on the experience of being a DLA judge, Prof. Morash states,“ Each year, I find myself with a sense of awe at the seemingly endless possibilities of the novel as a literary form.  While the ‘death of the novel’ has been heralded for a century, it has never had a more vibrant life.”

Mairead Owens, Dublin City Librarian acknowledges with appreciation the contribution of the judges, ‘saying they are central to the award in their focus and dedication to this monumental task’ as they navigate their way through the 70 books from countries across the world.