Cora Staunton the first female GAA player to write an autobiography has won an award

The Mayo footballer claimed Sports Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards last night.

Last night saw the 2018 An Post Irish book awards and female authors performed extremely well. Indeed, this year has seen an exceptionally strong calibre of female-written literature in both the fiction and non-fiction categories. Sally Rooney's, Normal People won Novel of the Year, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen's witty sequel, The Importance of Being Aisling claimed Popular Novel of the Year while Newcomer of the Year was nabbed by Emilie Pine with her book, Notes to Self. Lynn Ruane's People Like Me, which centres on the author's troubled youth growing up in Dublin, achieved Non-Fiction Book of the year and GAA All-Star, Cora Staunton won Sports Book of the Year with her first book on the GAA to be penned by a woman.

It's all very surreal!! Never thought I'd be attending a book awards! Extremely humbled thank you @AnPostIBAS Can't thank these incredible ladies enough @mary_white33 @FionaBooks @patriciamcveigh @crazyireland82 enough ? pic.twitter.com/7Ddc2KXvTH

— Cora Staunton (@duckie15) November 28, 2018

Indeed Cora, who has enjoyed great success on the GAA pitch, winning 11 All-Stars to date and becoming the highest-scoring forward in the history of ladies football, has now proven her literary talents with Game Changer. Published by Transworld Ireland, the book promises to explore "the triumphs of her career and the personal struggles that have plagued it" and also touches on the under-resourced world female athletes have to contend with.

Delighted and proud to let you know my autobiography will be out later this year! Game Changer is published 18th of October. Here's the book jacket and you can pre-order your copy here: https://t.co/YFaIR322jd pic.twitter.com/uTlUWcuB0E

— Cora Staunton (@duckie15) June 13, 2018

The thirty-six-year-old sadly lost her mother at just sixteen, which she speaks about in the book. It is an honest account of the highs and lows of her life on and off the pitch. A huge congratulations to Cora on her award!

20x20 is an ambitious two-year long initiative to better promote and champion women in sport.

With the tagline of "if she can't see it, she can't be it," the 20x20 movement has three targets to reach by 2020:

• 20 percent more media coverage of women in sport
• 20 percent more female participation
• 20 percent more attendance at women’s competitions and events

And at Maximum Media, we're proud that Her and SportsJOE is backing the 20X20 movement as official digital media partners.