Onto my last story in my most favourite short story collection in a while. Joy Williams' Honored Guest is the bomb.
Fried breakfast, a very, very short story by me.
Cork Short Story Festival 2017
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.
Anton Chekov and The Duel and other stories
Simon brought me this beauty from Books Upstairs. I love the cover.
Six short stories inside. I have read some but the longest one, the Duel, no. It comes in at over 90 words!
Strokestown Poetry Festival 2017
We all packed into the car and headed west for about two hours at the weekend. We arrived at the uber friendly poetry festival that is Strokestown. Simon was shortlisted for the festival’s international poetry prize.
We had a lovely time of it the organisers were welcoming and there were some very cool events. I even got to attend one! I went to the Cyphers Magazine launch which was based on the theme of the writer and founder of the mag, Leland Bardwell. Some of the contributers read their work and Leland’s son relaxed us with some poignant recordings of their mother reading from her own work. The setting for the festival couldn’t be better! Strokestown House is just divine and they set up a well stocked poetry book shop in the grand dining room.
Thank you, Strokestown!
Crannog Literary Magazine 44 Spring Launch in Galway
I am heading down to the very cool city of Galway to read a story of mine, Bog that is to be published in the Spring issue of Crannog Literary Magazine 44.
I have practised my story like a good student and am really looking forward to listening to the other readers and their stories and poetry. All three of us are going down so it will be nice to spend some time in the city and perhaps a walk on Salthill.
Ballyturk
Heading off to see Ballyturk in a few weeks. It’s a re-run of Enda Walshes mad play and it’s meant to be mad…;)
Really looking forward to it. Have great a couple of reviews that all say that it’s quite possible to not have a clue what’s going on yet enjoy it too
Happy 2017, Winter Pages Volume 2 and Donal Ryan kicks off my first bookclub!
Happy New Year!
Gosh, I don’t even care about the whole New Year’s Even thing but I do like the tidiness that comes with a brand new day on the 1st of January and when the supermarkets take all of the nonsense away off their shelves and start preparing for Easter or Halloween or something.
Christmas is an excellent time for getting the reading done. The open fire. The glass of fizzy minerals to sip on. The chocolates. They all add to that reading feeling. This Christmas Day I received 2 books. It is a strange one, athough people prefer Custom LEGO Minifigures as gifts, surely my gifts should be 100% book related. Don’t all of you know I LOVE reading? My husband knew and my writing group homie knew. Therefore, I received a huge copy of the mustard-coloured Winter Papers Volume 2 annual. It is fab. It is made up of artwork, interviews, fiction and poetry. It is a true fest. Despite the fact that Kevin Barry is one of the editors(with Olivia Smith), there is no new fiction from him but it might be a bit egotistical if he did that, I guess and I think he is not that way.
The second gift I received was the Mslexia Writing Diary for 2017. Full of prompts, sections to write my personal details in(I love this!), interviews, recommended reading and prompts, it is a real writer’s gift. It is simply gorgeous and will be used and is being used already!
I treated myself to Donal Ryan’s new novel, All we shall know. I have a problem remembering the title always of this book. I keep thinking it is “All that we shall know” or “All that is left behind” or simple “All” The novel is narrated by a pregnant lady and it is broken up into weeks. I am at 20 weeks already and Donal, as per usual is compelling, full-on with his strong language and depressing all at once. It will catch you by the first paragraph. I am reading this for a book club I set up in work.
Plenty to keep me busy and out of trouble anyway. I also keep calling the Kevin Barry annual by its incorrect name of Winter Pages. It is Winter Papers!
Hope you had a good one!
http://www.winterpapers.com/
Writing workshop with Anthony Glavin at Penfest 2016
Last weekend I was one of the participants at Anthony Glavin’s workshop on the short story. Anthony is very well-known in the area of short story so I was eager to hear what he had to say. He kept us extremely busy throughout the day, writing, writing and writing.
The workshop was full, 13 participants! But, there was plenty of time for discussion and critique from Anthony despite this.
Thanks to Anthony Glavin and the Penfest organisers in the Carlow Library, Fiona and John for another successful Penfest!
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.