Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre

Contact Us Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing
School of English
21 Westland Row
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland

+353 1 896 2885

View the contact page for more contact and location information

wilde@tcd.ie

Rooney Prize for Literature Submission Call 2026

Rooney Book Prize

The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature is for an outstanding body of work by an emerging Irish writer under forty years of age. The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature is valued at €10,000. The prize has been awarded annually since 1976, through the generosity of the late Dr Daniel Rooney, and of his wife Patricia. (Dr Rooney served as Ambassador of the United States of America to Ireland.) The Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre is deeply honoured that Dr Peter Rooney, their nephew, is the new benefactor of the Rooney Prize, continuing the Rooney family’s long association with Irish Literature and support for ‘the longest-established literary prize’. Since 1976 the prize has achieved renown as one of the most distinguished of Irish literary awards.

The Prize will be adjudicated by a panel of judges according to the Rooneys’ wishes, and administered by the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre for Creative Writing in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. Ferdia Lennon was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2025, for his debut novel, Glorious Exploits, an ingenious and invigorating narrative of conflict, displacement and comradeship, set in Sicily in the fifth century B.C. during the Peloponnesian War. The prize-winner was selected by a committee drawn from the School of English and the wider Irish literary and critical community. 

The selection committee for the Rooney Prize comprises: Jonathan Williams, Literary Agent (Chair); Vincent Woods, playwright, poet and broadcaster; Martina Devlin, author and newspaper columnist; Carlo Gébler, novelist, prison teacher, Assistant Professor Creative, Writing Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, TCD; Sinéad Mac Aodha, Executive Director of Literature Ireland; and Rita Sakr, Associate Professor  of English Maynooth University.

The selection committee for the Rooney Prize comprises: Jonathan Williams, Literary Agent (Chair); Vincent Woods, playwright, poet and broadcaster; Martina Devlin, author and newspaper columnist; Carlo Gébler, novelist, prison teacher, Assistant Professor, Creative, Writing Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, TCD; Sinéad Mac Aodha, Executive Director of Literature Ireland; and Rita Sakr, Associate Professor of English, Maynooth University.

Criteria

  • The writer must be under 40. If he or she reaches their fortieth birthday during the year of the award, they are eligible.
  • Works of fiction and non-fiction, short-story collections, poetry collections, children’s fiction and plays are all eligible. 
  • The winner must be available in the autumn to accept the prize in person in Trinity College Dublin.

Submission 

  • Submission by the publisher will consist of six copies of every published work that the author has published to date. Proof copies are acceptable, only if the printed book is published before the end of 30 May 2026.
  • Confirmation of the writer’s date of birth. 
  •  Publishers please contact wilde@tcd.ie for submission address, and or further details.

Deadline 
The Committee will meet several times before the deadline so please send the books as soon as is convenient. The final deadline for submissions is 30 May 2026. The winner of the award will be announced in autumn 2027.

Previous Winners of the Rooney Prize