Lessening the IMPAC

First, a caveat: I don’t understand why the Impac Dublin Literary Award has to longlist so many books. Is there any earthly reason to put out a press release that 132 of the so-called year’s finest (that year being, uh, last year) are in contention? With that many, it all becomes rather meaningless. How hard is it to be like the Booker and whittle it down to, oh, 20, then do a shortlist and a winner?

But nobody asked me, and since other news organizations seem to be following this story around like sheep (mostly because it’s a really lucrative prize) I guess Galleycat can as well. So here’s the Irish Times’ take, what with 6 of the country’s writers making that very longlist. Writers ranging from Colm Toibin to Roddy Doyle to….Cecelia Ahern, that bastion of literary quality.

The shortlist of 10 will be announced in April and the winner in June, meaning that a full 2 years could have elapsed between publication and winning. Timely, that.

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