Irish Book Awards: Social Capital would love your vote
And: why it's so lovely to be nominated.
Interested in how we live on social media now - and how it’s changed since its early days? My debut bestselling non-fiction book Social Capital looks at that, and then some. Order it from your favourite online store - or pick it up in your local bookshop.
I’m taking a few days off social media as we mark the first anniversary of my stepdad Kieran’s death, but I wanted to write a short newsletter about some great news1: Social Capital has been nominated for an An Post Irish Book Award in the Last Word Listener’s Choice category.
Votes are open now (they close 9 November, the ceremony is 22 November) and in the category I’m in, your vote really counts. So if you’d like to vote for Social Capital, please click here. (You’ll also be entered into a draw for one of five €100 book token vouchers.)
It’s a cliché to say that writing a book can feel lonely. It also is a bit strange to say, given that at many points in the book publishing process you’re surrounded by your publishing team, or you meet people when you do media, or you experience the joy that is your book launch. But once the book is out and the the main media campaign is done, it can feel like you’re out in this new world, floating around on your own and occasionally spotting another boat on the horizon. (Inside is an author frantically brainstorming ‘what will I do for book two?!’).
So that was no doubt why at an event for An Post Irish Book Awards nominees last week I felt so excited; it felt real to me that I was part of a gang of people who’d also published this year.
A big part of the excitement was also, of course, because I was nominated. A nomination is in no way guaranteed and some of my favourite books of the year are nominated, but some of them aren’t. I’m really grateful that my book made it in, and I’m really glad the topic of behaviour on social media (which just feels more and more relevant as the months go on) resonated with the judges.
Pic from the book launch by Michelle Hennessy.
After the photoshoot last week for the nomination announcement, I floated home in a happy bubble after meeting friends, authors I know from the internet but had never met in real life, and making new connections. There was a great buzz in the air, high up in the Exo Building next to 3Arena, with the tetris-like docklands spread out below us (docklands development and its positives and negatives feature in Social Capital…).
It was interesting being on the other side of things, too. Usually I’m covering the awards as a journalist, and for the last few years (5 or 6 I think) I’ve been in charge of The Journal’s coverage of their category at the awards, arranging and writing interviews with authors. I’ve even got to present an award to some winners, including Sinéad Gleeson and John Creedon. So to see what happens on the other side of things is quite thrilling. It’s nice, too, to just talk about the book (I’ve found my sense of it has crystallised as the months have gone on) and hopefully encourage new people to read it.
There are 21 categories in this year’s An Post IBAs, an embarrassment of riches. It must be the strongest year I’ve ever seen, and the fact Ireland has four 2023 Booker Prize longlistees and two Booker shortlistees just makes it all the sweeter. Of course, awards aren’t why you write a book and nothing is guaranteed in terms of nomination or winning - but I’m delighted about this nomination and hope that if you’d like to support Social Capital, you’ll give it your vote.
I’ll leave you with this track by Joni Mitchell, featuring Peter Gabriel - I’m really into her latter albums at the moment. This is a stunner from the 1988 album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm that I’ve been listening to on repeat recently.
A big theme of this newsletter since I started it in January has been ‘horrible things and wonderful things always happen at the exact same time’.
Same. x