David Means. April Ayers Lawson. Denis Johnson. Purchases from the best Waterstones Bookshop in Cork.
Also wandered into Vibes and Scribes. May have bought more books. Posts to follow.
Aumtun Royal-written by Kevin Barry is COMING! Full excitement overload!
A new play by Kevin Barry (Beatlebone and City of Bohane) is a-coming! Here is the story below…..
May and Timothy are looking after the father – the father has long since taken to the bed. Their own lives are curtailed, closed down, and they’re not getting any younger. Should they stay or should they go?
A dark, dark comedy, set on the northside of Cork city, Autumn Royal is a play about life and death, love and hate, hysterical dependency, jealousy, rage, horror, and homicidal notions – or, in other words, it’s a play about a family.
In case you did not know, Kevin Barry is the multi-award winning writer of the novels Beatlebone and City Of Bohane and the story collections Dark Lies The Island and There Are Little Kingdoms. Autumn Royal is his first piece written originally for the stage.
On in the Everyman Theatre, Cork:
DATE AND TIME | MON 30 JAN – SAT 4 FEB, 8PM | PREVIEWS WED 25, THU 26 & SUN 29 JAN
Project Arts Centre, Dublin
07 February 2017-11 February 2017 7.45pm
The Dock, Carrick On Shannon
Thu 23 February, 8:30pm
I am hoping to get there if the M-boy can be cared for nicely by some kind girl or family member.
Get excited, bound to brilliant and dark….
Culture night 2016 in Kenny’s Bookstore, Galway
A fab time was had in Galway city for Culture night 2016. I was reading a story of mine which had been longlisted for the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition and Simon was judging the Poetry Open Mic. Elizabeth Reap was there reading from her debut novel, Red Dirt and Karl Parkinson was reading from his new novel, The Blocks. They are both excellent readers of their work. Karl’s book is hilarious, great stories in there and well-told by Mr. Parkinson.
The next day, we went back to Kenny’s Bookstore to spend my winnings(I came third in the Open Mic Fiction) and Des, the owner took me around the massive bookshop and showed me his top pickings. I will post on these later.
Thanks, Galway, Fun was had, for sure!
A picture of us here that was taken by Dean Kelly, the gallery and event organiser there in Kenny’s. Apparently it will adorn the walls along with Roald Dahl, Edna O’ Brien and thousands more who have visited this very cool bookstore!
Nice!
Over the Edge at Culture night in Galway
Heading to one of the best cities in Ireland on Friday-Galway, of course. This Friday is Culture Night all over Ireland and Galway are celebrating it with one event-The Over the Edge open mic for fiction and poetry readings in Kenny’s Bookshop from 4 p.m.
Simon is reading from his poetry collection there as well as Karl Parkinson and Elizabeth Reapy so it should be a great evening.
I have had a story long-listed and will be reading some of it too at the fiction open mic so it is all fun and games if you want to hear me read.
See you there, maybe.
Belfast Book Festival 2016:We are off!
Simon is reading along with Stephanie Conn for the Doire Press evening in the Crescent Arts Centre at the Belfast Book Festival. It is on the Tuesday, 14th June.
We(Mum, M-boy) are all heading to the city for a few nights. Am hoping to catch something short story related and see some of the city and visit the famous No Alibis Bookshop.
I
Festival of Writing and Ideas in Borris 2016: Best talks to go to on the Sunday
Festival of Writing and Ideas in Borris 2016: Best talks to go to on the Sunday
From the 10-12th June, the amazingly lovely and pretty Festival of Writing and Ideas will be launched on the very pretty town of Borris in Co. Carlow.
I’ve been to many, many lit festivals and Borris is absolutely in the top two to visit in Ireland. (Bantry is the runner-up this year, IMO) The FOWI (Festival of Writing and Ideas) 2016 is in its 5th year. We have been to every single one, the first was small but so nice and this year it is big but absolutely keeping its edge and uniqueness. It is spreading into the town/village this year with some events taking part in pubs and the Step House Hotel. Brilliant move.
I am going to name-check a few events that you really should make an effort to go see if you are in the area of Carlow on the Sunday, 12th of June 2016. I have also a small article on what to see on the Saturday on the blog.
Early start at 11 with the Granta New Irish Writing editors along with Sara Baume, Lucy Caldwell and Donal Ryan in the chapel. I am really enjoying this magazine at the moment so this talk should be good.
You will have about half an hour to breathe, drink coffee, eat sweet things and then saunter over to the Book Tent where Tom Morris has a curated reading hour with Claire-Louise Bennett, Gavin Corbett, Lisa Mc Inerney, Deborah Levy and Rivka Gachen. Lisa has just won the Bailey Prize and Deborah Levy just rocks along with Tom’s wonderful short story collection, this is going to be most excellent. Get in there and buy some books after!
Don’t leave the Book tent though as there is a @Two poets@ event with Simon Lewis reading from his just launched poetry collection, Jewtown and American poet, Rachael Mennes will respond. Should be interesting. Both of these events are free.
At 1:50, in the Bookshop there is a reading from the guys at the Long Gaze Back anthology with Sinead Gleason.
Throughout the day, you will have lots of book signings in the Book Tent so it is the place to gaze at authors from afar trying not to look like a stalker!
At 3:30, Donal Ryan will talk to Vincent Woods about his craft and the boundaries between traveller and mainstream society. I’ve read a short piece of Donal’s upcoming novel and it is going to be great.
These are my tips for the Sunday. You can choose to ignore me and just sit in the grass and frolic and saunter around Borris House. I’m easy like that.
Cork International Short Story Festival 2015
I am so excited! I missed last year’s Short Story festival in Cork due to a little baby boy being only 3 weeks old! But, this year, he is bigger and I am getting sleep, we have a routine and my husband is very kind.
I am off to Cork for a day and a night. I am meeting up with Madeleine D’Arcy to chat to her about writing and stuff. Going to get to Deirdre Brennan’s reading, Danielle Mac Laughlin and Tom Morris and I will spend obscene amounts of money on short fiction. There will also be a dinner of tapas at some stage with an old friend who also loves short stories.
Life is the best, you know.
Carlow Arts Festival-“Have your say” forum
The general public was invited into the Carlow Arts Festival Offices yesterday for a chat, tea, food etc. There were lots of people with lots of things to say!
Cornelia Mc Carthy, the Chair of the Board of the Festival facilitated a lively and encouraging debate on where the Festival needs to improve. As with all open forums, things can get bogged down in what needs to improve and I hope the Board can remember the positive things that were said as well.
I am very much looking forward to helping, discussing and attending the 2016 Carlow Arts Festival. You should too.
The mission statement of the festival is that:
aspires to foster culture in all its forms and to promote the growth of visual art, drama, entertainment, literature, music and dance and to advance education in the arts; to reimagine a Carlow which appeals to domestic and international cultural visitors, to offer a diverse range of artistic experiences and activities in both town and county, and to produce work that is not replicated elsewhere.
I am focussing on the words culture in all forms, advance education in the arts, reimagine Carlow, domestic and international cultural visitors, diverse range of experiences& activities in the town and the country and without replication elsewhere.
These are HUGE aims! We need to keep these in mind so much so that they should be printed out at the front of the office and left there as a reminder for all of what the festival aspires to.
Blog Awards Ireland 2014-party on like it’s the 80s!
It is that time of year again-the judging process has begun for the Blog Awards Ireland! I love this event, it is always fun and glam and rozz.ie has been nominated again!
Whatever happens, I hope to there all glammed up 80 style as that is the theme. Never a big fan of 80s fashion but sure, we will give it a go! Nuala Ni Chonchuir and her blog Women Rule Writer alongside The Bohemyth magazine are both in the running so fingers crossed at least one lit blog gets through to the next round!
You can buy early bird tickets for €30 and after a certain date, they will cost you €50 so get in!
Happy voting and happy judging!
Carlow Co-operative on The Write Show, KCLR FM and Carlow Arts Festival 2014
The Write Show will be performed live from Carlow Central Library, and broadcast on KCLR on Monday June 9th at 6pm. Tickets are free.
After releasing its first anthology in 2013, What Champagne Was Like, The Carlow Writers’ Co-operative have turned their attention to writing for broadcast.
Working for six months with one of Ireland leading radio writer-producers, John McKenna (whose credits while at RTE include numerous contributions to Sunday Miscellany and his award-winning documentary series on Leonard Cohen), this ambitious collective have assembled an eclectic programme of material for performance in front of a live audience (you) for broadcast by KCLR a few days later.
Contributors include Phelim Kavanagh, Bev Carbery, Rozz Lewis, Simon Lewis, Pauric Brennan, Derek Coyle, Maressa Sheehan, Clifton Redmond, Jonathan O’Brien, Brigid Johnson, Betty Ryan O’Gorman.
Expect drama, storytelling, music and poetry from a beguiling and hugely talented group, the occasional stumbled line, and some performances of chaotic humour and engrossing pertinence.
This initiative is funded by Carlow Arts Office in partnership with Carlow County Library Service, KCLR and Carlow Arts Festival.