The Hennessy New Irish Writer Award for 1999 has gone to poet Liz McSkene for her works 'Water Lilies, Botanic Gardens' and 'Sculpture, Botanic Gardens'. She also triumphed in the Emerging Poetry Category. Born in Glasgow in 1956, McSkene has lived in Phibsboro, Dublin since 1981 working as a teacher and in broadcasting where her work has included documentaries on Beckett and Shaw.
The Emerging Fiction award for 1999 went to Alys Meiriol for her short story 'Providence'. Meiriol came to Ireland from Wales in 1971 and now lives in Connemara. The winner of the First Fiction category was Fiona O'Connor for 'Empire'. O'Connor trained as a ballet dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and has worked as a dancer, actress and singer in theatre and film.
1999 is the 29th Year of the Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards, making them the longest running awards of their kind. Over nearly three decades they have provided a focus for thousands of writers and real encouragement for hundreds, becoming a valuable and respected part of the Irish literary landscape.
Since they began the awards have become the launching pad from which many leading Irish writers and poets have built their careers. Past winners include Dermot Bolger, Joe O'Connor, Colum McCann, Hugo Hamilton and Patrick McCabe. Over the years the judges have included Roddy Doyle, Fay Weldon, Neil Jordan, Molly Keane, Elizabeth Bowen, Brian Friel and Clare Boylan. This year's judging panel included writers Colm Toibin and Marina Carr.
The Awards were established in 1970 by the late Nigel Beamish of Edward Dillon and Company who were joint sponsors until 1988. The competition was initiated by David Marcus, the then literary Editor of the Irish Press. At the time the Irish Press had a New Irish Writing Page and it was felt that the standard of work submitted should be recognised. Conceived initially as a once-off competition, the response to it was so positive that the event became an annual one, built-on and improved each year. In 1989, the Irish Press went from broadsheet to tabloid and the new format for the paper did not facilitate publishing a New Irish Writing Page. Subsequently the sponsorship moved to the Sunday Tribune.
For any young writer seeking to develop his or her talent, getting published is arguably the most difficult problem to surmount. Many may have the ability to write well but remain frustrated and undiscovered through lack of opportunity. The Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards run in association with the Sunday Tribune seek to give emerging talent the chance to appear in print and to get noticed.
The sole objective of the Hennessy Literary Awards is to give unknown writers an opportunity to be published in the hope that it might launch them on a successful career path. This objective is consistently achieved each year with up to 18 writers' and poets' work being published in the Sunday Tribune throughout the competition's duration. It is estimated that 60% of the Hennessy Literary Award winners have achieved further literary success.
The most notable winner to date is Joe O'Connor, who before his Hennessy Literary Award win in 1989 was struggling to make a name for himself. He has since praised the awards for helping unknown writers to become established: "It's designed to encourage the writer who is just starting out rather than to reward the established writer who really doesn't need the recognition, the kudos or the money," he said. "Most importantly, it's the encouraging clap on the back that winning a Hennessy Award provides, the simple statement of confidence which implies that you are not totally wasting your time trying to write."
Following his win, Joe went on to achieve outstanding literary success with novels such as Cowboys and Indians, Desperadoes and The Secret World of the Irish Male.
The judges for the 1999 Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards were Colm Toibin and Marina Carr. Colm Toibin was born in Wexford in 1955. His first novel The South won the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literature Prize in 1991. The following year The Heather Blazing won the Encore Award for the best second novel. In 1995 Colm Toibin won the EM Foster prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is also the author of three non-fiction works, Bad Blood: A Walk Along The Border, Homage To Barcelona and The Sign of The Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe.
The Modern Writer: The Modern Library which he co-authored with Carmen Callil was published by Picador earlier this year and his fourth novel The Blackwater Lightship dealing with three generations of women, was published this year by Picador and was subsequently shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Marina Carr who won the Hennessy First Fiction Award in 1994, is one of the most exciting lyrical playwrights to emerge in Ireland in the 1990's. Born in 1964 and brought up in Co Offaly, she graduated from UCD in 1987 with a degree in English and Philosophy. She was described by one reviewer as "a playwright to be watched with her debut play Low In The Dark in 1989. In a rare review of The Mai which transferred to the Royal Court in London after opening at the Peacock in 1994, the Observer noted that Marina Carr was "capable of articulating deep-seated woes and resentments in a manner you rarely find outside Eugene O'Neill". The London Independent last year hailed Bog Of Cats as "a great play . . . a great work of poetry . . . the word should soon carry across both sides of The Atlantic." Her collected plays have just been published by Faber in its contemporary classics series. Martina Carr is currently writer in residence at Trinity College.