Deirdre’s book wins top award
Tangleweed and Brine, written by Galway author Deirdre Sullivan and illustrated by Karen Vaughan, won the 28th Children’s Book Ireland Book of the Year Award at a ceremony held in Dublin last week,
It’s a collection of 13 dark, feminist retellings of traditional fairytales that follow in the tradition of Angela Carter. Stories from Cinderella to Rumpelstiltskin as well as tales of mermaids and monsters are given a unique witchy makeover by Deirdre, who is from Knocknacarra in Galway City. Now living and teaching in Dublin, she is one of Ireland’s leading writers of Young Adult fiction and this book was also shortlisted for the Irish Times Book of the Year 2017. The judges described Tangleweed and Brine as “remarkable”, calling it “a significant and timely contribution to Irish young-adult literature and feminist literature for young people”.
They praised Deirdre’s “simultaneously rich, delicate and stark text [which] is powerfully enhanced by Karen Vaughan’s haunting black and white illustrations. Combining the timeless allure of dark fantasy with subversive explorations of female embodiment. . . this incisive, exquisite collection promises an enthralling and unsettling experience,” they declared
The CBI Book of the Year Awards are the leading children’s book awards in Ireland. Previous winners include Sarah Crossan for One, John Boyne for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Sheena Wilkinson for Grounded, Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick for There and Hagwitch and Oliver Jeffers for Once upon an Alphabet.