Our Impact

This year we have continued bringing readers together through citywide reading initiatives and literary events.

John Banville's Christine Falls was selected as the One Dublin One Book title. So far, the book has been borrowed 3,473 times from Dublin's public libraries, including 1,626 print loans, 1,289 eBook loans and 558 eAudiobook loans. The programme has featured 21 events across the city, attracting more than 1,500 attendees.

The Dublin Literary Award continued to celebrate outstanding international fiction. The 2026 award received 69 nominations from 80 libraries across 36 countries, with Gliff by Ali Smith (Scotland) announced as the winning title.

In 2025, we celebrated major milestones, marking 20 years of One Dublin One Book, 30 years of the Dublin Literary Award and 15 years of Dublin's designation as a UNESCO City of Literature.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of One Dublin One Book, we commissioned the anthology Dublin, Written in Our Hearts, edited by Declan Meade and published by The Stinging Fly Press. The programme featured 24 events across the city, attracting more than 1,700 attendees, while the anthology was borrowed 1,556 times from Dublin's public libraries.

The 30th Dublin Literary Award celebrated three decades of international literary excellence. A special outdoor library in Wolfe Tone Square showcased every nominated title from the award's history. The 2025 award received 71 nominations from 83 libraries across 34 countries, with The Adversary by Michael Crummey winning the prize.

To mark 15 years of Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature, we launched Dublin, One City, Many Stories, a video series created by the Irish Writers Centre and funded by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature. The series celebrates Dublin's literary heritage while highlighting the Irish Writers Centre's role in supporting writers at every stage of their careers.

Following Dublin's 2024 Slamovision victory, the 2025 Slamovision Final was hosted in Dublin as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin and organised by Rising Tide.

In 2024, We brought readers, writers and communities together through a vibrant year of literary events and initiatives.

Louise Nealon's Snowflake was selected as the One Dublin One Book title, with 5,451 people borrowing the book from Dublin's public libraries. The programme featured 25 events across the city, attracting more than 1,385 attendees.

Poetry flourished through our partnership with Rising Tide, with Dublin representative Cormac Fitzpatrick going on to win the national heats before taking the Slamovision title in Manchester.

Citywide Read engaged with secondary schools for the first time, with Transition Year students across Dublin reading Heléne Close's The Gone Book and taking part in writing workshops with the author.

The Dublin Literary Award continued to showcase the city's international literary connections. 70 books were nominated by 80 Libraries from 35 countries. Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter, won the 2024 award and was borrowed 400 times from Dublin's public libraries. 2,084 people attended the award ceremony and a further 2,412 attended the winner's in-conversation event.

We also facilitated 13 literary events including panel discussions, talks and poetry evenings. that attracted over 674 readers.