The Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award was previously held in 2004 as part of the Bloomsday Centenary celebrations. Over 1100 entries were received with Anne Enright eventually being declared the winner for her short story 'Honey'. Also featured on the 2004 shortlist were Kevin Barry and Philip O Ceallaigh, who have both since won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for their debut story collections. In making the decision to sponsor the award for a second time, Redmond Doran of Davy Byrnes pointed to the huge success of the competition in 2004 and said that he hoped that the 2009 award would 'seek out and reward writers with a similar level of talent and promise.'

Timeline for 2009 Award:
Open for Entries:
October 1st 2008
Deadline for Entries: Monday Feb 2nd 2009
Shortlist: late May/early June 2009
Winner Announced: June 2009

Richard Ford - Judge's Statement
Organised by The Stinging Fly in association with The Irish Times

'What any good judge wishes I suppose I wish for me-to have a brain that's inquisitive and energetic enough to relish 'the new;' to not just prefer stories that are like my own stories, and yet to not shy away from those, either-in other words to recognise excellence in whatever form, style, length, etc. it comes in. I'd like to be won over, for the choice to be easy, for the chosen short story to dictate all the terms of its own brilliance and for me to be just a helpless celebrant. And ... I'm not interested in the patented Irishness of any story. If an Irish writer writes it, it's Irish enough for me-and even that feels a bit confining. In any case, the reader-the story's charmed intended-can tweeze out what the winning story's 'cultural significance' is, what it's 'saying' about Ireland and history and the future, if indeed it's saying anything at all.'

Richard Ford

Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1944. He is the author of nine volumes of fiction, including three books of stories and six novels.

He is the editor of The Granta Book of the American Short Story Volumes I and II, and is a frequent contributor of The New Yorker magazine in America.

He has won the PEN-Malamud Prize for distinguished contributions to the short story. His trilogy of novels, The Sportswriter, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land are published bv Bloomsbury.