The novelist and short story writer William Trevor has won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award at the 33rd Writers' Week in Listowel, Co Kerry.
Trevor, who was in the Listowel Arms Hotel last night to hear the announcement and receive a cheque for €10,000 for his novel, The Story of Lucy Gault, described his win as "a wave back from my own background".
He said: "I like getting this one. I come from Irish provincial towns. I've lived in several. It's a wave back from my own background."
Born in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, in 1928, Trevor lived also in Youghal, Skibbereen, Tipperary, Enniscorthy, Portlaoise and Galway.
He has won several awards, including the Whitbread, for his short stories and novels.
"I'm really a short story writer. If you can write a short story, you can write a novel," Trevor said. The short story suited the modern age, he added.
The judges were Eileen Battersby, Literary Correspondent of The Irish Times, and John F. Deane, writer and publisher of Dedalus press.
Ms Battersby said: "This is a very strong shortlist. It represents the best of Irish writing at its most sophisticated and its most diverse. In William Trevor we have a writer of world-class stature."
Others short-listed were Jennifer Johnston for This is Not a Novel, John Banville for Shroud, Colum McCann for Dancer and Keith Ridgway for his novel, The Parts.
The festival was officially opened by Garry Hynes.