Winners Announced!

Every two years, to coincide with the International Flann O’Brien Society conference, the Society awards official prizes to the best book-length publication and best essay-length publication on the writing, life, and reception of Brian O'Nolan published over a 2-year period.

        The 5th Society awards ceremony took place on 27 July 2021 at the closing of the online symposium, 110 Myles: Flann O’Brien at a Distance. Dr Eugenie Theuer read first the nominees (as voted for by the members of the International Flann O’Brien Society) and then the winners (as decided by an impartial judge, appointed ad hoc from outside the Society):

Best Book-Length Publication 2019–20

Nominees

1. Ruben Borg and Paul Fagan (eds), Flann O’Brien: Gallows Humour (Cork: Cork University Press, 2020)
   
2. Fionntán de Brún and Antain Mag Shamhráin (eds), Ón nGruagach Gréagach go Myles na gCopaleen: saol agus Saothar Mhuintir Nualláin (Maigh Nuad: An Sagart, 2019).

Winner

• Ruben Borg and Paul Fagan (eds), Flann O’Brien: Gallows Humour (Cork: Cork University Press, 2020)
  

Best Essay-Length Publication 2019–20

1. Joseph Brooker, ‘Do Bicycles Dream of Atomic Sheep? Forms of the Fantastic in Flann O’Brien and Philip K. Dick,’ The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 4, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 1–23.
   
2. Katherine Ebury, ‘“nothing in the world would save me from the gallows”: O’Nolan and the Death Penalty,’ Flann O’Brien: Gallows Humour, eds. Ruben Borg and Paul Fagan (Cork: Cork University Press, 2020), 34–47. 
3. Paul Fagan, ‘Secret Scriptures: Brendan Behan in the Cruiskeen Lawn,’ in Reading Brendan Behan, ed. John McCourt (Cork: Cork University Press, 2019), 163–184.
   
4. Catherine Flynn, ‘Everybody Here Is under Arrest: Translation and Politics in Cruiskeen Lawn,’ Flann O’Brien: Gallows Humour, eds. Ruben Borg and Paul Fagan (Cork: Cork University Press, 2020), 19–33.
   
5. Tobias Harris, ‘Blather, Razzle and Dada: Contextualizing Brian O'Nolan's Early Journalism,’ Modernist Cultures 14, no. 2 (2019): 151–171.
   
6. Maebh  Long,  ‘Is  It  About  a  Typewriter?  Brian  O’Nolan  and  Technologies of Inscription,’ The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 4, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 1–16.
   
7. W. Michelle Wang, ‘Postmodern Play with Worlds: The Case of At Swim-Two-Birds,’ in Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology, eds. Alice Bell and Marie-Laure Ryan (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), 132–56.
   

Winner

• Catherine Flynn, ‘Everybody Here Is under Arrest: Translation and Politics in Cruiskeen Lawn,’ Flann O’Brien: Gallows Humour, eds. Ruben Borg and Paul Fagan (Cork: Cork University Press, 2020), 19–33.
  
  

Our heartfelt congratulations to Ruben and Paul (who join previous Best Book winners Keith Hopper, Neil Murphy, Maebh Long and Flore Coulouma) and Catherine (who joins past Best Article recipients Jon Day, Jack Fennell, Tobias Harris, and Ronan Crowley). 

The next society awards will be held at the 2023 International Flann O’Brien Conference. Make sure to get your research on Flann O’Brien/Myles na gCopaleen/Brian O'Nolan published to be in with a shout to win - you can submit your articles to The Parish Review here.