John has become the first Irish author to receive Spain’s most coveted literary prize, the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. The award, established in 1981, is conferred on those ‘whose literary work represents an outstanding contribution to universal literature’. The cash prize of €50,000 and a Joan Miró sculpture will be presented in October in Oviedo at a ceremony presided over by the Prince of Asturias. For the foundation’s full citation, see http://www.fpa.es/en/
The first episode of Quirke, the new three-part series based on the novels of Benjamin Black, aired on RTÉ last Sunday. The first episode, ‘Christine Falls’, starring Gabriel Byrne and Michael Gambon, is viewable on the RTÉ Player website for another three weeks at http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10253585/.
Letters 1960-1975 in the latest edition of The New York Review of Books.
Read moreJohn was presented with the ‘Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award’ on 26 November at the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. Past recipients include Maeve Binchy, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien, William Trevor and Seamus Heaney.
To mark the award’s announcement, John was interviewed by Sophie Gorman in the Irish Independent.
John will be making the opening speech at this year’s ISLA (Irish Spanish Latin American) Literary Festival in Dublin’s Instituto Cervantesthis Friday (18 October) at 4pm. Admission is free and open to the public. He will also be participating in two of Saturday’s events. Click here for full programme listings.
John received 2 prizes recently the XIII Premio Leteo , awarded by the city of León in Spain, and the Premio Liber, awarded by the Association of Spanish Publishing Houses.
John is to receive the Leto Prize 2013 on October 1st. Other recipients include Michel Houellebecq, Amelie Nothomb, Martin Amis, Paul Auster and Enrique Vila-Matas
Interview by Alison Wells published online in The Magazine on 25 July 2012.
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