European Union Prize for Literature Call-Out for Titles
Ireland will participate in the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) this year and as part of the Consortium tasked with selecting the national jury, Publishing Ireland would like to invite its members to nominate titles that they wish to go forward for consideration for the prize. Previous winners of the prize include Kevin Barry for City of Bohane and Donal Ryan, for The Spinning Heart.
The aim of the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) is to put the spotlight on the creativity and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature in the field of fiction, to promote the circulation of literature within Europe and to encourage greater interest in non-national literary works.
The works of the selected winners (one per country participating in the Prize on a rotation basis) will reach a wider and international audience, and touch readers beyond national and linguistic borders.
The Prize is financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission, which aims to achieve three main goals: to promote cross-border mobility of those working in the cultural sector; to encourage the transnational circulation of cultural and artistic output; and to foster intercultural dialogue.
EUPL Eligibility Criteria
- It has to be fiction (can be a collection of short stories).
- The author must be ‘emerging‘, which is defined as having had between two and four books published, with no more than four translations of any title. The EU will be strict here, if an author wrote some academic books, for example, then turned to fiction, the academic books would rule him or her out.
- If the author is clearly established by other indicators, such as membership of Aosdána, that author would not be eligible.
- The entry must be the author’s latest book and have been published after August 2017.
- The winning author agrees to attend the September ceremony and attend one bookshop event in Ireland.
This is a really wonderful opportunity to showcase your authors on a European stage (and significantly increase the title’s prospects of EU translation support, as the winners obtain a major boost to weightings in applications).
If you would like to send us your titles, please do so no later than Thursday 31 January.
If you have any questions about the prize or selection process, please contact Stephanie@publishingireland.com
