The Final Round Judges

Martina Devlin has written novels, non-fiction books, short stories and plays. Her most recent novel is Charlotte about Charlotte Brontë’s Irish connections. Others include Edith about Irish R.M. co-author Edith Somerville, and The House Where It Happened about a mass witchcraft trial in Ireland, which led to a plaque to commemorate those wrongly convicted following a campaign she initiated.

Her plays are Call Me Madame about Countess Marcievicz and Curves of Emotion about Nora Barnacle’s influence on James Joyce. Prizes include the Royal Society of Literature’s V.S. Pritchett Prize and a Hennessy Literary Award, and she was shortlisted three times for the Irish Book Awards.

Martina writes a weekly current affairs column for the Irish Independent, for which she was named National Newspapers of Ireland commentator of the year. She holds a PhD in literary practice from Trinity College Dublin, and in 2025 was a judge on the Dublin Literary Award, the world’s most valuable literary prize. Martina also programmes literary and discussion events.

www.martinadevlin.ie

Therese Coen was born and raised in Belgium, on a diet of books, frites and Tintin. She moved to England in her late teens with her family, then stayed in London to do a History degree and Masters at University College London. Having been brought up trilingual, translation rights seemed like the logical next step. She started off in the rights department at Bloomsbury Publishing, before hopping across the square to Ed Victor's agency, and found experiencing both the publishing and agency side of publishing incredibly valuable.

She has been building her own list of authors alongside selling translation rights since early 2016, which she has hugely enjoyed; working with authors right from the book's conception, while also experiencing the thrill of selling her own authors' works in the UK and US as well as in translation to publishers across the globe. She thinks it's the perfect job!

https://www.susannalea.com/team-member/therese-coen/

Karen Sullivan is founder and Publisher of Orenda Books, an independent publisher based in London, England. Orenda Books publishes literary fiction, with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers and upmarket genre fiction, with half of the list in translation.

Karen was a Bookseller Rising Star, and Orenda Books has been shortlisted for the IPG Best Newcomer Award (twice) and Small Press of the Year (twice) in the British Book Awards. They were crowned CWA Crime & Mystery Publisher of the Year in 2020.

Authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir, Lilja Sigurdardottir, Thomas Enger, Johana Gustawsson,Doug Johnstone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Will Carver, Antti Tuomainen, A.J. West and Essie Fox.

https://orendabooks.co.uk/

The final round judges will review the ten category winner entries and decide on one overall winner. The overall winner will be announced at the HNS 2026 Gala Dinner.