New Irish Writer 08

At a gala awards ceremony last night author Sally Nicholls was named Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year 2008 for her novel Ways to Live Forever, published by Scholastic Children's Books.

The winner of the Fiction category was Allan Bush for his book Last Bird Singing (Seren); the Biography/Non-fiction book category was won by Nia Wyn for Blue Sky July (Seren) ; the Poetry prize went to Will Stone for Glaciation (Salt Publishing); while the prize for best Irish-language book went to Simon Ó Faoláin for Anam Mhadra (Coiscéim).

Each category winner received a cheque for €5,000, with a further €20,000 going to Sally Nicholls for securing the overall prize.