Fiction Category
Judge- Alan Ryan
Alan Ryan is a writer, artist, and former geologist based in Wexford, Ireland. He released his debut novel, Magpie, 30 years after the idea first came to him—back when he was living in a tree in the Australian outback.
In the intervening years, Alan worked as a geologist, became a father, and found success in long-distance triathlon, setting an Irish Ironman record in his forties.
Winning the 2023 Carousel Aware Prize (CAP) for Magpie was a huge honour. It introduced the book to a wider audience, validated years of work, and somewhat silenced the inner critic who insisted his time would be better spent perfecting a foolproof lotto-winning algorithm.
Alan continues to write, paint in oils, and squeeze in the occasional swim, bike, or run. He is delighted to be part of the CAP judging panel this year and to support Aware’s important work.
Sponsor- JM Agency
JM Agency is a boutique publishing and design agency based in Listowel, Co Kerry, Ireland. It was established by Jeremy Murphy in 2018 as a manuscript appraisal service. Jeremy recognised the need for a writer-centred literary consultancy, having struggled to find support for his own work. His vision was to create a comprehensive publishing agency that serves both authors and publishers, and one that embraced new technologies.
Having worked with publishers such as Routledge, Springer, Companhia das Letras (Penguin Brazil) and Orpen Press, as well as a wide range of authors, including bestselling and award-winning self-published authors, the JM Agency team prides itself on being good listeners and is keen to develop close working relationships with clients.
JM Agency’s services include book interior design (both typesetting and editorial design for ‘coffee-table’ books), editing (both developmental and copy-editing), eBook formatting, and author websites. It also offers a comprehensive ‘Book Publishing Package’, which includes premium editing, design, and printing, and assists a select group of authors in finding a trade publisher.
The business’s mission is to ensure that books are published to an exceptional standard, with the client’s needs and requirements prioritised throughout. JM Agency consists of six dedicated professionals who together provide authors and publishers with a diverse range of skills.
For more info please visit www.jm.agency or email Jeremy at info@jm.agency
Non-Fiction Category
Judge- Dr Mary O’Kane
Dr Mary O’Kane is a Lecturer in Psychology, Early Childhood Studies and Education with the Open University. Mary presents the radio show ‘Perfectly Imperfect Parenting’ on Dublin City FM. She is also a regular contributor to the Anton Savage show on Newstalk Radio, Drivetime on RTE Radio 1, and a range of other radio shows discussing a broad range of parenting issues. She gives public talks on topics related to child wellbeing, parenting, and education, and is well known for her humorous down to earth approach. Mary is the author of two books for parents, carers and educators: Perfectly Imperfect Parenting: Connection not Perfection and Anxious Children in an Anxious World: Facing Fears and Finding Brave which reached Number 1 in the Irish Times Bestsellers List. Both are available at: www.drmaryokane.ie. I am just so honoured that Anxious Children in an Anxious World: Facing Fears and Finding Brave won the Award for the Best Non Fiction Book 2024 at the CAP Awards.
This book was an absolute passion project for me. Anxiety is so disempowering for children, and for their parents, so to know that my book is making a difference to the lives of children and their families makes all the hard work worthwhile. I am absolutely over the moon with the Award, to have the book recognised in this way truly means so much to me..
Sponsor- Sile Walsh, Effective Leadership, Inclusive Solutions
Sile Walsh is an award-winning and international best-selling author and
founder of ELIS Advantage (Effective Leadership, Inclusive Solutions). She
lectures for universities, facilitates development worldwide, coaches’ senior
leaders, conducts research and consults with organisations. She is an
accredited professional supervisor who has worked internationally with
over 22,000+ leaders and organisations for over a decade and a PhD
candidate researching inclusive leadership from a psychological
perspective with a professional background in coaching psychology and
organisational development.
As a leadership development specialist, Sile is passionate about cocreating inclusive workplaces where organisations can be competitive and
high-performing, great work gets done, and everyone has the opportunity
to thrive at work.
LinkedIn: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/silewalsh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SileWalsh1
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@silewalsh1
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SileWalsh1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silewalsh1
Senior Children’s Book Category
Judge- Brendan O’ Connell and Fiona Boniwell
Brendan O’Connell and Fiona Boniwell are the writer and artist team behind the CAP Award winning Death’s New Lease on Life and Cerberus’ New Tricks. Brendan has written across a wide variety of mediums. His work has been published in Where’s Me Culture magazine, Zoinks, Village Magazine and The Shiznit. He has written three Screen Ireland funded short films and was a finalist in the Filmmarket Hub TV Pilot contest. Fiona is an artist, originally from London and now based in Cork, who has contributed to a number of exhibitions, artist books, graphic design projects and,
most importantly, comics. She has held residencies in the West Cork Arts Centre and the Triskel in Cork City. She teaches illustration and comic making.
Junior Children’s Book Category Judge- Caoimhe M Flanagan
Caoimhe M.Flanagan is an award-winning children’s author and illustrator from Co Monaghan. With a deep appreciation for the natural world, Caoimhe finds inspiration in the enchanting beauty that surrounds her and the every day magic of family life. Her first children’s book, Willow Wood Land & The World of Yesterday won the Junior Children’s CAP award and The Golden CAP award 2024. Caoimhe is currently working on her next children’s book due to be released in 2025.
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Sponsor (Children’s Book Categories)- Patricia Gibney
Patricia Gibney is an Irish author of crime fiction who sold 100,000 copies of her first crime thriller as an e-book, and had total sales exceeding 500,000 copies in 2018. By 2019, total book sales had passed one million.
Patricia’s thirteen novels to date feature a main character, Detective Inspector Lottie Parker. The novels are set in the fictional Irish town of Ragmullin, which is an anagram of the real-life town of Mullingar, where Patricia Lives lives
Anthologies Category
Judge- North Star Collective of Authors
North Star: Short Stories and Poems by Female Northern Irish Writers
North Star: An almost unmoving point of light. Find it and you will know your way home.
This collection of short stories and poems captures the unique voices of forty-five Northern Irish female writers.
From mountains to lakes, from country to shore, the words resonate with the literary tradition that cloaks the land and infuses each of our souls.
“My native land grounds me, keeps me in contact
with the rhythm of nature, the sound of the winds,
the call of the wild birds and the dialects of its people”.
Aine MacAodha
No matter where you are reading these poems and stories, North Star will guide you home..
Sponsor- Emu Ink
Emu Ink started out as an independent publishers bridging the gap between self publishing and traditional with a new type of format – Assisted Publishing.
Essentially what we did was assist people to publish. Those looking to take publishing into their own hands but not specifically self-publish, and seeking the professional service you would expect from a traditional company, were our target market.
And we published a lot of books!
During our time in Assisted Publishing we had the opportunity to publish the youngest independent author in Ireland, Joe Prendgergast. At nine years old Joe wrote a trilogy of books – The Great Fragola Brothers – and he donated the proceeds to the Cancer Clinical Research Trust, in memory of his father.
After Joe we published more child authors. We also ran a programme in schools, which our founder, Emer Cleary, delivered personally and after which pupils became real published authors.
The demand increased so much and so quickly for this programme, however, that it was impossible for Emer to reach all of the schools during requested terms. So we developed it online and the Emu Ink Schools’ Publishing Programme was born.
Today we have published thousands of primary school pupils, as well as post-primary school and Youthreach students, across the island of Ireland. We have also published the work of the many contributors to our sports books and will be publishing thousands of English Language School students in the near future!
The Aware Prize for Best Book Cover
Adrian Robb is an artist and writer who also designs book covers and makes illustrations.
In the past year he has worked with Lilliput Press, Dublin, designing a book cover for Mary Morrissy’s short fiction collection ‘Twenty-Twenty Vision’. He has also worked with Merrion Press, Dublin on a non-fiction book cover for Fintan Drury, called Catastrophe.
His art and illustration have featured in the Dublin Inquirer magazine and has featured in Curatory Magazine and Suboart Magazine. He also makes a biannual blog for the Book company Dubray books, which raises awareness of the importance of book design in publishing.
He was the Sub-editor for ‘This is Tomorrow’, an online magazine focusing on international Contemporary Art.
He studied Graphic Art and Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, and Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design.
Adrian Robb was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland in 1971. He has lived in London, Cambridge, Antrim, Harrogate, Lille and is currently living in Dublin, Ireland.
Sponsor- Carousel Creates
Carousel Creates facilitates creative writing courses, writers’ workshops, writing for wellbeing courses, writing retreats, writers’ festivals, book launches, and author readings online and face-to-face in Dublin and Malaga.
Carolann Copland is the founder of Carousel Creates since 2012. She has a degree in English and Drama, an MA in Creative Writing and has written three novels: Summer Triangle, Scarred and Mosaic.
Aware is a non-profit organisation that provides education, support, and information on mental health, particularly depression, bipolar disorder, and positive mental health.
Find out more at www.aware.ie
