FOUR West Cork book shops are among 23 independent stores across 14 counties to receive funding from Books at One as part of its community prize fund scheme.

Antiquity Bookstore, Skibbereen, Bantry Books, Worm Books, Schull, and Prim’s, Kinsale all benefit from the initiative along with one other independent Cork book stores - Leaf and Bower (Ballincollig).

Each selected store will receive a grant of up to €5,000 in support of developing new and engaging activities for the benefit of their local community.

Among the entries and successful applicants are recently opened stores as well as those who also received funding in 2025, allowing them to expand and grow on last year’s activity, or embark on a new creative venture.

The fund was created in 2025 for Books at One via the One Foundation as a new avenue of support for both independent stores and their surrounding communities. Now in its second year, the fund builds on a strong first outing. Last summer, 21 independent bookshops received grants to deliver projects from storytelling events to creative workshops that reimagined their stores as unique cultural and social hubs.

Eoghan Stack, chairperson of The One Foundation, said: ‘When the Books at One community prize fund launched in 2025, we hoped it would give booksellers an opportunity to try new avenues to creatively engage with their local community and it’s proven to be a huge success.

‘The power of a good indie book shop is not just about what’s on the shelves alone but about those who work there and those who visit on the regular, making it an important fixture of communities.’