Birr's Shannon Bergin nominated for third Irish Book Award

Birr native illustrator Shannon Bergin has been nominated for her third Irish Book Award, for her most recent work on children's book 'Run Home, Little Fox'.

A past pupil of St Brendan’s Community School, Birr and Moate Business College where she completed her portfolio, Shannon graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design in 2018 with a BA (Hons) in Animation and Motion Design.

As a kid, she wandered around the countryside making up stories and drawing on any available surface. As a grown-up, she basically does the same thing, but now it’s for books, galleries and other cool things. Shannon began working on illustrating children's books in 2020.

"Growing up in Birr, I suppose, was really important in developing a career as an artist," she said. "We have a lot of people who work really hard to develop the art community here, and as a teenager myself and friends were always really encouraged to pursue our desire to create things."

Shannon has won several awards for her illustrative pieces. Her previous books, Evie’s Christmas Wishes, written by Siobhán Parkinson, and Over the Red-Brick Chimney, written by Una Leavy, were both shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards. Speaking to the Offaly Independent about receiving her third nomination at the Irish Book Awards, Shannon said: "It's really good to be nominated because the book gets recognition among usually six in the category, out of all of the Irish books that have been published by Irish authors.

"To be one of the few selected is really great. You but a lot of hard work into them, so it is nice to see that work recognised."

'Run Home, Little Fox' was a collaborative effort between Shannon, and authors Tom McCaughren and Erika McGann. Altogether, the book took about seven months to complete.

"It was a bit of a tight deadline this time around," said Shannon. "It is a lot less collaborative than people might think, I never actually met or talked to the authors until the book was finished.

"The publisher comes to me and they have the story and then I work with their art director and develop the illustrations, we send them back and forth. I do the sketches, send them on, they approve them or disapprove them and I have to redo them. The author does have some say on it, but I never hear their opinion."

The Birr woman said she finally meets her collaborators once the book is one the shelves, and nominations come in for events such as the Irish Book Awards.

"We meet once all is said and done, and it's lovely to hear the stuff that they really like about the book, because it might be different to what I liked about it.

"Usually it comes after a good while of a wait between sending off all the files, and then the book is a real thing. So, it is nice to just see that finished thing after all the time and have it in your hands."

To see more of Shannon's work, go to: https://www.shannonbergin.com/