Category: events

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History Festival of Ireland in Duckett’s Grove

For the second year( I think!) running the History Festival has been drawing in the crowds of history buffs, professors, nerds and this year-a Rozzie!

Our friend, Terry, who may or may not be happy for mentioning him decided to go this year. And about time, he is officially one of those people who can call themselves a Historian!

Duckett’s Grove is ruined mansion and gothic revival castle with pleasure gardens to boot. It also has a most tempting Tearooms ran by the lovely Madeleine Forrest who bakes naughty and non naughty treats every Sunday, all day. And quite easily, the best coffee served in a big, hearty mug and a bit of chat from herself!

Fifty leading historians and thinkers from Ireland, the UK and the USA all came along to entertain the packed out crowds over the weekend of 15-16 June and there was a great range of debates, discussions, readings and interviews.

First, we went to the Kavanagh epic one-man poetic play, The Great Hunger. It went down well and Peter Duffy who took on the solo roll was outstanding. Afterwards, we sauntered onto a whole heap of events from a genealogy clinic appointment to a live chat with Nicky Byrne from Westlife and his family who were brought up in tenement Dublin. When I saw his name first, I wasn’t keen as their music wouldn’t be my thing but Turtle Banbury, the curator of the festival kept it lively and history focused and fun! He was aided  by Nicola, Morris, the director of  Timeline Research. Terry went to loads of other “serious history events, like” and he left Carlow a right, little, happy historian.

It was €20 for a day pass which gave you entry to the plays, debates, clinic and films that were being shown all day through. Brilliant value and fabulous setting. We are proud people in Carlow. Don’t miss the next one!

 

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Telemtale Bloomnibus ebook from the Irish Writers’ Centre

Ebook

To celebrate Bloomsday the Irish Writers’ centre asked 18 writers to do some work on Ulysses , to modernise it.

Each writers took an episode and situated the chapter in a present Dublin. It is a lovely, little read and if you want to get your fix of writers like Nuala Ni Chonchuir, Niamh Boyce or Christodoulous Makris then download the kindle ebook edition here. About £2 sterling so you really won’t miss it. My stand out story was one by usually a poet, Colm Keegan. He writes the story without taking away or copying the Ulysses chapter, Nestor. He makes it and brings it on. Really nice, haven’t read prose from him since the Silver Threads of Hope anthology where his story Yes made me feel and tingle.

Hope you had a very happy Bloomsday!

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Festival of Writing and Ideas in Borris House

We are lucky people in Carlow. We have the best literary festival in the best venue with some of the best writers in the world! But, let’s not forget the ideas, this is a festival of writing and ideas.

The setting of Borris House is perfect for lounging, reading, chatting, eating or doing nothing while you wait for the next speaker or reader to come on.

. We arrived on Sunday morning and were ushered into the Sunday Service-a ceremony for a Godless congregation. It was full of songs, happiness, morals and no religion. Although, it was in a church and it has that religious feel about it, I felt unburdened by the “New beginnings” theme. There was much to take from it and we left buzzing!

We had brought a bag of random things for a picnic-tinned tuna and spelt bread and they tasted so good in the sunshine. But, we had to rush them down as Donal Ryan was up next, he was sharing the stage with John Lancaster. Fintan O Toole was doing the interviewing. It was highly enjoyable, they all bonded well and Fintan kept the feel light and interesting. Had a brief hello to Donal afterwards and he was most nice and down to earth. I have yet to meet a non-down to earth author but I am sure I will one day and will be dreadfully upset.

We spent the rest of the day reading and had a walk down through the village of Borris. It is a beautiful village, made even nicer by the sun! We finished up the day with a spot of dinner from the Vendor-BBQed lamb, new potato salad, greens and tomatoes. Divine.

You really have to make it down to the Festival next year, it is going to grow and grow and I predict it booming next year. Well done to Hugo Jellett, the brain child of this.

Have a listen to “What a wonderful world”, one of the songs we sang at the Sunday Ceremony. Tis true.

http://youtu.be/E2VCwBzGdPM

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Carlow Arts Festival 2013-About the town

We always get very excited and proud with the arrival of the Carlow Arts Festival! This year, the Eigse name has been dropped and it is simply called Carlow Arts Festival. Under the umbrella of the Carlow Arts Festival, Hugo Jellett, the Festival Director has created the brilliant Festival of Writing and Ideas and the History Festival. 

I will post separately about the Festival of Writing and Ideas as that deserves its own post and the History Festival is coming this week so it is good!

We went on down to the Visual in the grounds of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We are so fortunate to have this particular area of Carlow. It was a beautiful evening and a bar had been set up outside the steps of Visual. We walked around admiring all the quirky pieces including art from Ben Long- a massive scaffolding sculpture of a horse. I spoke with Ben afterwards and he told that the whole sculpture will be dismantled afterwards and the pieces reused. A son of a scaffolder, he uses his Dad’s expertise to create crazy imaginative pieces. More examples of his work can be seen on his website here.

The whole of Visual is well worth a wander through at any point and not just at the Arts Festival.

The day after, I made my way to Dublin Street, a place that quietly goes about its business during the year but it opened up and alive to the public during the Arts Festival. The Dublin Street Regeneration Project gives us films, wine receptions, art, vintage clothes, and cadbury’s chocolate cake-all these things made me salvate! There is still another week left of all these pop-up shops so again, you really should pay a visit and help businesses and artists out! The Bake shop was visited, I had a quick cup of coffee but did not indulge in anmy of their lovely looking cakes. I was saving myself for the Taste of Carlow event which was open all day in the Town Park. Simon went for a venison burger and I went for a steak one from the BBQ stall that camps out at the Carlow Farmers’ Market every Saturday. This was my chance to indulge and it was really, really good. Topped with herby cheese and caramelised onions, it was thoroughly enjoyed!

The Party in the PArk event was throbbing with hot, hot sun and clowns, comedians, BBQ and ices. Families brought picnics and we just walked and watched.

We couldn’t make the Sharon Shannon gig or the Fireworks but we will next year, that is a a promise. The Arts Festival keeps growing in strength, people and ideas. Long may it enjoy its success!

 

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Carlow Writers’ Launch of first anthology-What champagne was like

We didn’t get to taste what champagne was like but we had plenty chances to sample prosecco!

We kicked off with the Hard Times Duo of music, beautiful folky guitar music went down easily with the crowd.

The launch was opened by Jamie O’ Connell, much loved short story teller on rozz.ie. Jamie wrote a beautifully, insightful foreword for the anthology and on the night, he spoke about the themes of the work. He also read us one of the new stories he is working on and it was a treat to hear something that is unavailable in print. Jamie is a lovely speaker and reader and the story was a powerful one.

Simon Lewis compered the evening and did a fantastic job. We were then treated to a small selection of readings from the anthology. Finally, we had the Editor, Dr. Derek Coyle and he spoke to us about the meaning of a co-operative writing group and thanked everyone who had helped bring this project to its completion.

Then, we mingled and sold books! It was a super late night and much fun was had. Thanks to the Teach Dolmen Bar and all of our sponsors who made this project possible.

We will be in the Carlow Library reading at the Carlow Arts Festival on Tuesday, 11th June at 7:30, looking forward to seeing you there.

 

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What champagne was like:Carlow Writers’ First Anthology is launched by Jamie O Connell Thursday, 6th June

At last, the day is nearly here.

It has been a year’w hard work to get our first anthology launched. The Carlow Writers are launching our first anthology tomorrow evening at 7:30 in the Teach Dolmen Bar, Tullow Street at 7:30. There will be prosecco. There will be Jamie O’ Connell. There will be a Rozzie reading her story. There will be a winning short story read by Phyllis Mahoud. There will be fun, fun, fun!

The Carlow Writers are also reading at the Carlow Arts Festival in the Carlow Library, Tullow Street at 7:30 Tuesday, 11th and there will be a marvelous spread of food and drink.

Come join us to kick the Carlow Arts Festival off tomorrow evening, 6th June at 7:30 in the Teach Bar! It would be terribly bold not to.

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Frank O’ Connor Short Story Shortlist is out and ready for the taking

Unfortunately, we have no Irish authors in the Frank O’ Connor Short Story Prize short list. Though we had 8 Irish ones in the longlist-Celeste Auge, Emma Donoghue, Kitty Fitzgerald, Aideen Henry, Mike Mc Cormack, Alan Mc Gonagle, Micheal O Conghaile and Joyce Russell. So, pretty good really.

Across the water, we have Deborah Levy, Claire Vaye Watkins and David Constantine up against Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Stamm and Tomas Dobozy.

The award is worth €25,000, the world’s best award for a single short-story collection, and has been won by some of the biggest names in literature from Haruki Murakami to Nathan Englander and Edna O’Brien. This year judges chose a shortlist of six titles from 78 titles.

Choosing the final six, said judge and Irish author John Deane, was “no less than an adventure”.

“From an ebb-tide in the short-story form – particularly in Ireland and the UK over the last few decades – to this flood-tide proved a delight and a deep sense of optimism in me for the form,” said Deane. “Overall, among the original 78, there were very few titles that could be dismissed quickly, hence the wealth and excitement of the presentation at our discussion. I have been enlightened, at times even mesmerised, at the variety, the strength, the depth and the numbers of experimental books.”

Imagine how I feel, I’ve got the pleasure of getting down to reading and reviewing them all, before September. Homework was never like this in school! Before that, I’ve got a review of Susan Stair’s new novel The story of before and Joyce Russell’s Bloodlines. I also have many more books that I probably won’t get time to give a detailed review too like Edith Pearlman’s Binocular Vision, Collected stories of Lydia Davis and Ancient Lights. And yes, I know the last one is a year old but I like to take it slow in relationship building.

The winner will be announced in the first week of July, with the award to be presented in September at the culmination of the Cork International Short Story Festival. Again, my life clashes with things like this. 2 weddings lined up that weekend, no where near Cork… I will be there in spirit!

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Colum Mc Cann:Master Class for Dublin Writers’ Festival

I wanted to go to one event, at least for the Dublin Writers’ Festival 2013 and when I saw that Colum Mc Cann was giving a FREE master class in the Writers’ Centre on a sunny evening in my favourite Irish city(Galway comes close) then I got myself all organised and clicked the “Order free tickets” button on the Writers’ festival website.
Simple!
I have not read Colum’s books. Shame on me. In my defence, I am reading, reading,reading and he is on my list. I’m behind that way. I only caught the Sopranos ten years after it aired. Same as Sex and the City. And Solace. I want to be ahead but life takes over.
Now, with that openness clarified, we can both enjoy a little piece on Colum Mc Cann and his master class.
He arrived in, in teacher mode, which I was delighted with. I get very tetchy when writing events turn into to the participants taking over and telling us how they write. Etc. etc. I’m here to hear the best selling author. Quiet down the back, please.
Colum spoke for about half an hour, telling us about his use of multiple narrative voices in his book, Let the great world spin, you may have heard of it. It did okay in America.
I liked Colum’s style of teaching. He gave us a nice bit of lecturing and then encouraged(blatantly targeted and pointed fingers, teacher style) us to ask questions!
I asked him about the short story and the novel and how the narrative voices differ. He was of the opinion that multi voiced narrative doesn’t work, I would agree. The short story is a whisper in the ear so one does not have time to switch perspectives though he recommended using the first person and the third person for the same character. A hard one to pull off, he said but well worth it as it is different.

I had to skip away even though Colum hadn’t finished, to catch the train but I really enjoyed the masterclass and learned loads. Thanking the lovely people in Dublin Writers’ Centre and Dublin Writers’ Festival.

 

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KBC Dalkey Book Festival Four Forty Story Competition 2013 now open

 

 

A very cute competition for children under 13 years of age. I wish I were a little one being given the chance to write flash! Here is the writing competition from the Dalkey Book Festival 2013.

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We love reading. In fact, our appetite is so insatiable that we only stop to catch forty winks or grab the odd sandwich. Unfortunately, DBF Towers is running low on stories.

We urgently need some good stories, so we’re launching a terrific new short story competition in association with KBC. To celebrate 40 years of KBC in Ireland and 4 years of the Dalkey Book Festival, your story must be 440 words or less. If you are 13 or under (the best age for writers, we think) we desperately want you to enter. Please, please, enter as soon as you can; by next week we might be reduced to reading phone books and junk mail.

A prizewinner will be selected in each category (9 and under and 10-13yrs).
Each prizewinner will win book tokens to the value of €250, Dalkey Book Festival tickets, a festival lunch (with a chance to meet some of our children’s authors) and a two night family stay with dinner in the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, Killiney. Get writing!

Children’s Four Forty Story Competition – 2013

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Town and Country Short Story Anthology

I feel like I’ve been waiting forever but the day is nearly here!
I’m waiting on my review copy to arrive, Kevin kindly organized for me to get one before the launch on the 25th May.
The pressure will be on to finish reading it and write a review on it before the launch…
Can I do it? Yes! Absolutely! I take your challenge, Faber!
Bring it.

Stay tuned for my review but in the meantime, here’s a press release sent from Rebecca, Faber Publishing..

“These are Irish short stories and often they come in the shapes that we know and have loved in the form but also they come at a very interesting moment, I believe, when the story is being considered anew and is being pulled in many strange and unexpected new directions. The Irish story is changing and is pulsing with great, mad and rude new energies. Watch it now as it spirals and spins out –” Kevin Barry, introduction to Town & Country

After previous volumes edited by Joseph O’Connor and the late David Marcus, Faber and Faber are delighted to present a fourth collection of all new Irish short stories. Edited by novelist and short story writer Kevin Barry – whose story ‘Beer Trip To Llandudno’ appeared in the 2011 collection and went on to win the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize – this volume once again mixes fresh new voices with established names such as Dermot Healy, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Julian Gough, Patrick McCabe and Paul Murray, and will seek to offer fresh renditions to the Irish story; new angles, new approaches, new modes of attack.

‘This volume proves that one thing we needn’t be ashamed of is the quality of Irish writing.’ Irish Times (on New Irish Short Stories 2011)   ‘This fine anthology offers reassuring proof that whatever the state of the economy, Irish writing is as strong as ever.’ Irish Mail on Sunday  (on New Irish Short Stories 2011)

Kevin Barry is the author of the story collections Dark Lies the Island and There Are Little Kingdoms as well as the novel City Of Bohane. He has been awarded the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and has been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize and the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year award. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker and many other journals and anthologies.

For further information please contact Rebecca Pearson, Publicity Manager, on 020 7927 3886 or rebeccap@faber.co.uk