and the winner is...

So, last night saw history being made.  For the first time ever, an Irish author has been awarded the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.  Edna O'Brien held off very strong competition to take the prize for her collection Saints and Sinners.  Her delight and amazement was absolutely evident as she took to the stage to receive the award from Frank O'Connor's daughter LIadin.  For an author whose work was originally proscribed in her own country, to finally receive this recognition was clearly quite overwhelming.

Do take a moment to listen to Edna talking a little about the collection here, and shortly we'll be posting an interview I did with Edna yesterday afternoon before we all knew the news.

It was an extraordinary night.  Huge congratulations to Edna!