In a first for a Canadian publisher, a book by Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa, published in North America by Windsor’s Biblioasis, has been named a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle awards.

A Ghost in the Throat is one of five autobiography finalists for the annual awards, which named 30 finalists across six categories on January 20. The winners will be announced on March 17.

A Ghost in the Throat was first published in Ireland by Tramp Press in 2020. It won the winner of the 2020 Nonfiction Book of the Year from the An Post Irish Book Awards, the 2020 Foyles Nonfiction Book of the Year, and the James Tait Black Biography Prize, in addition to being shortlisted for several other awards. Biblioasis acquired North American rights to the book in July, 2020.

“We’re so very happy to receive this news, and thrilled for Doireann and hope that this will help to bring even more readers to her exceptional A Ghost in the Throat,” Dan Wells, owner and publisher of Biblioasis, said in a release.

The National Book Critics Circle was established in New York City in 1974. Every March, the National Book Critics Circle awards honour books published in the U.S. in six categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Finalists for the awards are determined by the organization’s 24-member board of directors.