Want to show your local bookshop some love? Check out the ‘An Post bookshop of the year’ award!
Love books? Love your local bookshop? Want to be in with a chance to win a €100 book voucher?
A new initiative by An Post could give you the chance to show your favourite local bookstore some love this year!
A search is officially underway to find the ‘An Post Bookshop of the Year’ for 2021. The category has been added to the upcoming An Post Irish Book Awards, the annual literary event that celebrates and promotes Irish writing.
The new ‘An Post Bookshop of the Year’ category is designed to acknowledge the significant role played by independent bookshops and local book store chain branches right across the country in helping their local communities to find and savour the titles of their choice, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Each year, the An Post Irish Book Awards bring together a vast community passionate about books – readers, authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians – to recognise the very best of new and established Irish writing talent and 2021 will be no different. The ‘An Post Bookshop of the Year’ will now be added to the wide range of other categories already in existence including Novel of the Year, Children’s (Junior and Senior), Cookery, Crime Fiction, Popular Fiction, Nonfiction, Sports, Short Story, Poetry, Teen and Young Adult and Irish Language.
If you want to nominate your beloved bookshop, customers simply have to click onto www.anpost.com/bookshopoftheyear to submit their nomination for their favourite bookshop. They will also have the option to explain the reasons for their choice. Readers can also enter by scanning the QR code in their preferred bookstore and following the instructions. Everyone who votes will be entered into a draw to win a €100 book voucher.
Nominations for the ‘An Post Bookshop of the Year’ will close on 31 August and a shortlist consisting of one shop from each of the five regions (Leinster, Dublin, Munster, Connaught, Ulster) will be identified. The overall winner will be revealed at the An Post Irish Book Awards on 23 November, 2021.
John Treacy, Chairperson of the An Post Irish Book Awards, says the new An Post Bookshop of the Year category is a very welcome addition:
“The past year has been tumultuous for all businesses, but what it has shown is that bookshops really do sit at the heart of their communities’ cultural and social lives. They often function as valuable community hubs that encourage personal connection and create vital local networks that greatly enrich the lives of people they serve.
“In the age of eBooks and podcasts, these bookshops are proving that the print book is still very much in demand. We are therefore really delighted to introduce the ‘Bookshop of the Year’ category to recognise and acknowledge the important role bookshops and booksellers play in the Irish literary industry.”
The shortlist for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2021 will be announced on Thursday 21 October, while the winners will be announced on Tuesday 23 November. A television programme will be broadcast on RTÉ One television in December and will culminate in one of the 2021 winning titles being announced as the ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2021’.
