Join

The Dublin Literary Award, 2026 winner

Gliff

by Ali Smith

In a near-future Britain where people are sorted, tagged and watched, two children, Briar and Rose, are left to fend for themselves after being separated from their mother. Living on the margins, they come to care for a horse they name Gliff, and Rose’s bond with the animal becomes a quiet act of defiance. Told by Briar years later, the novel is fascinated by words — what naming does to people, and what slips free of it — and balances menace with Smith’s characteristic playfulness.

Book detailsAbout Ali Smith

About the prize

Sponsored by Dublin City Council and run by Dublin City Libraries, the award has been given every year since 1996; until 2015 it was the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Public libraries in cities around the world put novels forward, an international panel narrows them to a longlist and then a shortlist, and the winner is announced in Dublin in May. When the winning novel is a translation, the prize money is shared between the author and the translator.

First given
1996
Based in
Ireland

Winners, year by year

31 winning books since 1996, newest first.

2020s

  1. 2026Gliff by Ali Smith
  2. 2025The Adversary by Michael Crummey
  3. 2024Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter
  4. 2023Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp, translated by Jo Heinrich
  5. 2022The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter, translated by Frank Wynne
  6. 2021Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
  7. 2020Milkman by Anna Burns

2010s

  1. 2019Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
  2. 2018Solar Bones by Mike McCormack
  3. 2017A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn
  4. 2016Family Life by Akhil Sharma
  5. 2015Harvest by Jim Crace
  6. 2014The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean
  7. 2013City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
  8. 2012Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor
  9. 2011Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
  10. 2010The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker, translated by David Colmer

2000s

  1. 2009Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas
  2. 2008De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage
  3. 2007Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated by Anne Born
  4. 2006The Master by Colm Tóibín
  5. 2005The Known World by Edward P. Jones
  6. 2004This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun, translated by Linda Coverdale
  7. 2003My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Erdağ Göknar
  8. 2002Atomised by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Frank Wynne
  9. 2001No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
  10. 2000Wide Open by Nicola Barker

1990s

  1. 1999Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
  2. 1998The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller, translated by Michael Hofmann
  3. 1997A Heart So White by Javier Marías, translated by Margaret Jull Costa
  4. 1996Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

2026 shortlist

Winner announced on 21 May 2026.

Facts checked on 12 October 2026 against en.wikipedia.org, query.wikidata.org, dublinliteraryaward.ie, dublincity.ie, nytimes.com, openlibrary.org. The words on this page are Read2Reason’s own.