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2022 Michel Déon Shortlist Announced

18 May 2022

The Royal Irish Academy (RIA) in association with the Department of Foreign Affairs has today announced the six shortlisted titles for the 2022 Michel Déon Prize for non-fiction.

The six books on the shortlist for the 2022 Michel Déon Prize, are:

  • Imagining Ireland's Pasts: Early Modern Ireland through the Centuries by Nicholas Canny (Oxford University Press)
  • My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden (4th Estate, Harper Collins)
  • Unsettled by Rosaleen McDonagh (Skein Press)
  • Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground by Susan McKay (Blackstaff Press)
  • A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Tramp Press)
  • Corpsing: My Body and Other Horror Stories by Sophie White (Tramp Press)

Titles were nominated by both the public and publishing community through the RIA’s website and the judging panel made their choice from the eligible titles. In shortlisting the titles, the judges were looking for originality; quality of writing and contribution to knowledge and/or public debate. To reflect the work and interests of the French writer Michel Déon, who made Ireland his home from the 1970s until his death in 2016, the eligible categories for the prize were - autobiography, biography, cultural studies, history, literary studies, philosophy, travel. Authors of any nationality normally resident on the island of Ireland at the time of nomination who had published a non-fiction book in the period 1 April 2020 to 12 April 2022 were eligible. 

Professor Michael Cronin, Chair of the judging panel, commented

‘This year we received a very large number of submissions and the originality and range of non-fictional writing in Ireland at present is evident in the outstanding quality of the titles on the Michel Déon Prize shortlist.’

The €10,000 prize for the winning author is sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the winner will be announced at the award ceremony on 15 September.

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