Cork's Cónal Creedon makes cut in US Indie Book Awards

CELEBRATIONS are in the air for Cork writer Cónal Creedon, who made it to the final six of the USA’s Next Generation Book Awards 2022, also known as the Indie Book Awards.

Next Generation Book Awards USA is the largest international awards programme for independent publishers worldwide. It is now in its 16th year and it was established to honour the most exceptional independently published books for the year.

“The Next Generation Book Awards is such a huge honour for all the people who come together to bring my books from manuscript page to book shop shelf,” Cónal said. 

“This little collection is the book that just keeps on giving.”

The award is presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group, in co-operation with Marilyn Allen of Allen Literary Agency, who has worked with authors such as Stephen King, Ken Follet and Mary Higgins Clark.

Cónal’s richly layered and textured writing has gained him many accolades in his native city of Cork, including being honoured by Cork City Library and Waterstones Cork, who chose his collection of short stories Pancho and Lefty Ride Again as the One City One Book of 2022. This is an initiative aimed to encourage people to read by choosing the same book to read at the same time, and to discuss it afterwards in group settings such as workplaces and book clubs.

However, it is not only Corkonians who have an appreciation of his work, and even though the dialogue in the book is steeped in musical Cork cadences as high as Patrick’s Hill, and his characters inhabit a world where all the agonies and ecstasies of their lives are played out alongside the banks of the River Lee, all of Cónal’s books have universal appeal and have been translated into Chinese, Bulgarian, Italian, and German.

Over the years his short stories have received recognition such as the RTÉ Francis Mc Manus Awards, the BBC Wales One Voice Monologue, the Irish Examiner Life Extra Short Story Awards, The George A Birmingham Awards and the RTÉ PJ O’Connor Award in adaptation.

He is delighted to be able to attend public events in person again, and enjoys nothing better than to do readings in front of a live audience.

“Covid brought the whole world of performance to a standstill, and I didn’t realise how much I would miss standing up to a microphone and letting rip,” he said.

Since Pancho and Lefty Ride Again was named as One City One Book, it’s become a rollercoaster of readings and public engagements for Cónal.

“I’m so grateful to the various individuals and festivals who continue to invite me along to read and perform, it’s such a privilege, particularly in the aftermath of the societal isolation of Covid.”

It’s been a busy few months for Cónal, following the success of his Angelus to Angelus performance at Crane Lane Theatre, where he was joined on stage by Small Birds to perform a mammoth six hour long cover-to-cover reading of Pancho and Lefty Ride Again.

He was invited to host a series of hugely popular writing master classes at Cork City Central Library, and more recently he performed at Crosstown Drift during Cork Midsummer festival.

Cónal’s next public event will be at the Joy in the Park Festival at Fitzgerald’s park in Cork on Sunday, July 17.