A Clare author has been announced as a category winner in the annual An Post Irish Book Awards.
Gráinne O’Brien from Ministers Cross, Sixmilebridge, has been named winner in the International Education Services Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year (in honour of John Treacy) category.
Tom McCaughren and Erika McGann with illustrator Shannon Bergin, Jacqueline Connolly with Kathryn Rogers, Vincent Barton, Nicola Pierce, Claire Gleeson, Pádhraic Quinn and Gráinne O’Brien are among the winning authors at this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards which were held in the Convention Centre, Dublin.
The Eason Novel of the Year Award was won by Roisín O’Donnell for her book Nesting, while Elaine Feeney won The Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year Award.
The An Post Irish Book Awards also presented former President Michael D. Higgins with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award. Higgins has published a significant body of literary works including five poetry collections and several collections of speeches and essays on arts and politics. He has also had a profound impact on Irish art and culture, both as a public figure and as an artist in his own right.
Throughout his distinguished career, his influence has spanned the full cultural spectrum – from literature and visual arts to film, music, and public cultural policy. Michael D. Higgins also presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Seamus Heaney in 2011 at the beginning of his first term as President of Ireland.
As the 2025 Lifetime Achievement honouree, Michael D. Higgins joins a host of other distinguished recipients including Martin Waddell, Professor Roy Foster, Anne Enright, Sebastian Barry, Eavan Boland, Colm Tóibín, and many others.
Gráinne O’Brien’s book ‘Solo’ tells the story of Daisy, whose first love is music while her second was David.
As she starts her final year of school dealing with a breakup, the betrayal of her ex-best friend, and her dad’s illness, she feels more alone than ever. Even music feels lost to her.
But when she unexpectedly makes a new friend, Daisy begins to find her way back to herself.
Gráinne O’Brien is a bestselling author and a bookseller at Kennys, Galway, Ireland. She was a member of the Irish Booksellers Association committee and was named a Bookshop Hero by The Bookseller in 2022. She is the founder of Rontu Literary Service, an agency dedicated to supporting writers of fiction for children as they seek publication.
She completed the MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick in 2018 and received Arts Council Agility Awards in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Her picturebook A Limerick Fairytale was published by The O’Brien Press in 2023. Solo is her first novel.