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Ellen Ryan at Halfway FRI27OCT23
ack at the beginning of April, three Wicklow authors have found themselves part of the An Post 
Book Awards 20th celebrations by making the list of their Top 60 winners over the past two decades.
ack at the beginning of April, three Wicklow authors have found themselves part of the An Post 
Book Awards 20th celebrations by making the list of their Top 60 winners over the past two decades.That the votes have been gathered from leading booksellers across the country make the shortlist a truly grassroots affair.
In among that shortlist were Greystones’ Ellen Ryan and Peter Donnelly along with Clonegal’s Claire Keegan, the three Wicklow writers finding themselves being recognised and celebrated all over again. It was on Sunday the list was whittled down to 20, and young Ellen is on it. Boom!
Ryan won awards aplenty for her 2022 offering, Girls Who Slay Monsters, her second book, Gods Don’t Cry, also garnering accolades, nominations and a whole new slew of young fans.
Another local basking in a second wave of An Post Book Awards glory is author and illustrator Peter Donnelly, The President’s Cat picking up the Children’s Book Of The Year at the 2018 bash. The fourth in the series, The President’s Dog, was released in 2023, 
with the prolific Donnelly also illustrating two fundraising greeting cards this year for Greystones Cancer Support.
with the Hailing from Clonegal on the Wicklow-Wexford border, and growing up in a farming family, Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These was a 2022 An Post Book Awards winner (being also shortlisted for that year’s Booker Prize). A pretty fine film adaptation led by Cillian Murphy was released in February 2024.
Cillian Murphy. Pic: Nick Bradshaw
