Dublin-Impac Award Announces Longlist: Ishiguro Garners Most Nominations for World's Richest Prize

Michelle Pauli in the Guardian Unlimited

The 2007 Impac Dublin Award accepts nominations from libraries all over the world for a prize of 100,000 Euros($128,000) . The favorite Kazuo Isiguro's novel about human cloning and alienation, Never Let Me Go(18 nominations), followed closely by Ian McEwan's Saturday,(12 nominations) a day in the life of a surgeon.. Not as well publicized as the National Book Awards or the Booker, the Impac-Dublin represents a collaboration of librarians all over the world. The United States has several participating libraries. Their nominees are:

1. The Boston Public Library: The Dream Life of Sukhanov (Olga Grushkin), Kafka on the Shore(Haruki Muramaki), On Beauty (Zadie Smith)
2. Chicago Public Library: Anansi Boys(Neil Gaiman),Friendly Fire(Patrick Gale), Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
3. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County: Lord Byron's Novel (John Crowley), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer), March (E.L. Doctorow)
4. Cleveland Public Library: The Bright Forever (Lee Martin), Beasts of No Nation (Uzodinma Iweala), No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy)
5. Pikes Peak Library District: The Geographer's Library (Jon Fasman), The Cigar Roller (Pablo Medina), Freshwater Road (Denise Nicholas)
   
6. Richland County Public Library: Empire Rising (Thomas Kelley)
7. New Hampshire State Library: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer), Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro), Kafka on the Shore(Haruki Muramaki)
8. Denver Public Library: Twins (Marcy Dermansky), Pocketful of Names (Joe Coomer)
9. Hartford Public Library: Dancing in the Dark (Caryl Phillips), Lost in the Forest (Sue Miller), Minaret (Leila Aboulela)
10. Houston Public Library: Let it Rain Coffee (Angie Cruz), The Sea (John Banville), Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Muramaki)
11. Jacksonville Public Library: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer), Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Muramaki), March (E.L. Doctorow), Sky Bridge (Laura Prichett)
12. Kansas City Public Library: Truth and Consequences (Alison Lurie), The People's Act of Love (James Meek),
    
13. Lincoln City Libraries: No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy), On Beauty (Zadie Smith)
14. Miami-Dade Public Library System: Beasts of No Nation (Uzodinma Iweala), The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)
15. Milwaukee Public Library: Veronica (Mary Gaitskill), The Sea (John Banville), 1972 (Morgan Llywelyn)
16. Minneapolis Public Library: The Painted Drum (Louise Erdrich), March (E.L. Doctorow), Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Muramaki)
17. The New York Public Library: Beasts of No Nation (Uzodinma Iweala), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer), Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
18. Free Library of Philadelphia: A Long Long Way ( Sebastian Barry), The History of Love (Nicole Krauss), Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
19. Richmond Public Library: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer), The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova), On Beauty (Zadie Smith)
20. San Diego Public Library: 26A (Diana Evans), It's All Right Now (Charles Chadwick)
21. San Francisco Public Library: The Hummingbird's Daughter: (Luis Alberto Urrea), The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)
22. San Jose Public Library: The Hummingbird's Daughter: (Luis Alberto Urrea), The History of Love (Nicole Krauss) , Saturday (Ian McEwan)
    
23. Lincoln Library: March (E.L. Doctorow), Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro), Saturday (Ian McEwan)
24. LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library: An Outline of the Republic (Siddhartha Deb), Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman), Saturday (Ian McEwan)

The Impac-Dublin Award began as initiative of the Dublin City Council and represents a partnership between the the Dublin City Council, the Municipal Government of Dublin City, and IMPAC, an international productivity improvement firm. The Award is administered by the Dublin City Public Libraries. As is clear from the list above, U.S. libraries participate enthusiastically in the nominating process, and the diverse group of works cited here constitute a substantial reading list. The Imapac- Dublin Award is one of the best examples of public- private cooperation in the literary world, and several of the nominated books will be reviewed in the coming month on publicreadings,org.

The short list will be announced on April 4th, 2007, and the winner on June 14th, 2007. Six judges are participating in the 2007 awards. Five are distinguished writers, and the other (nonvoting) member is a well known American jurist. Hanya Al-Shaykh's most recent novel, Only in London, was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Carmen Callil's latest work is Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family and Fatherland, and is controversial enough to have earned her a snub from the French Embassy. Gerald Dawe, a Belfast-born poet, has published six collections of poetry, most recently The Morning Train and Lake Geneva. Almeda Faira has won many literary prizes, and published his first novel at the age of nineteen. Lillian Fashinger's Magdelena the Sinner has been translated into fifteen languages. Eugene R. Sullivan, the panel's nonvoting member, is a former Chief judge of a U.S. Court of Appeals. His first novel, The Majority Rules, was published in 2005.