Writer John McGahern is to be posthumously honoured by his colleagues and peers at the Irish Book Awards next week for his contribution to Irish literature.
McGahern, who died last March, aged 71, wrote six acclaimed novels including The Barracks (1963), Amongst Women (1990) and That They May Face the Rising Sun (2001). A master of the short story, he also published four collections and has been the recipient of numerous awards and honours worldwide.
The writer's former editor at Faber and Faber, Neil Belton, will accept the "Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award" on behalf of the McGahern family at Trinity College in Dublin next Thursday.
Madeleine McGahern, the writer's widow, will also be in attendance at the ceremony and the award will be presented by Prof Declan Kiberd, chair of Anglo-Irish literature and drama in University College, Dublin and a former pupil of Belgrove Primary School, where he was taught by McGahern.
Irish Book Awards administrator Bert Wright said McGahern was a worthy recipient of the lifetime achievement award.
"John McGahern was the laureate of ordinary lives lived in quiet desperation - and yet he could invest those lives with all the significance of Greek tragedy," he said.
Eight other awards will be given on the same night, including this year's Hughes and Hughes "Irish Novel of the Year", the Argosy "Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year", Galaxy "Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year" and the Eason "Irish-Published Book of the Year".
