Liverpool Literary Festival - John McGahern Book Prize
2:30pm - 3:45pm /
Sunday 18th October 2026
/ Venue: Victoria Gallery & Museum
Type: Lecture /
Category: Department
- Viola Segeroth
- Admission: FREE but please register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-john-mcgahern-annual-book-prize-tickets-1992772021761?aff=oddtdtcreator
- Event website
- Book now
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Join us for the seventh annual John McGahern Book Prize and hear excerpts from the winning entry.
The prize was established by the University’s Institute of Irish Studies to promote new Irish fiction and to celebrate the memory of one of Ireland’s greatest masters of prose fiction, John McGahern (1934-2006). The competition carries an award of £5,000 for the best debut novel or short story collection by an Irish writer or writer resident in Ireland published in 2025. The winner will be selected by Irish novelist and former University of Liverpool Chancellor, Colm Tóibín, later this summer.
The shortlisted authors and their books are:
✒️ Gethan Dick (Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night Tramp Press)
✒️ Seán Farrell (Frogs for Watchdogs New Island Books)
✒️ Liadan Ní Chuinn (Every One Still Here The Stinging Fly)
Professor Frank Shovlin, Professor of Irish Literature at the Institute of Irish Studies and editor of John McGahern's Letters, will chair the reading and host a conversation with the winner.
For more information about the John McGahern Book Prize, including details of previous winners, please see https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/irish-studies/about/john-mcgahern-book-prize/
The prize was established by the University’s Institute of Irish Studies to promote new Irish fiction and to celebrate the memory of one of Ireland’s greatest masters of prose fiction, John McGahern (1934-2006). The competition carries an award of £5,000 for the best debut novel or short story collection by an Irish writer or writer resident in Ireland published in 2025. The winner will be selected by Irish novelist and former University of Liverpool Chancellor, Colm Tóibín, later this summer.
The shortlisted authors and their books are:
✒️ Gethan Dick (Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night Tramp Press)
✒️ Seán Farrell (Frogs for Watchdogs New Island Books)
✒️ Liadan Ní Chuinn (Every One Still Here The Stinging Fly)
Professor Frank Shovlin, Professor of Irish Literature at the Institute of Irish Studies and editor of John McGahern's Letters, will chair the reading and host a conversation with the winner.
For more information about the John McGahern Book Prize, including details of previous winners, please see https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/irish-studies/about/john-mcgahern-book-prize/