Category: writing

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Penfest Writing Festival Carlow 2013

You need no better reason to visit Carlow. In the town, we have a lively and brilliant writing group, the Carlow Co-op and a most excellent librarian, John Shorthall.

John is responsible for the creation of Penfest Carlow. It is for emerging writers though any type of writer would surely enjoy the buzz about the library and town!

This year, we have drawn in Kevin Barry(Yes, I am over excited-twice in 2 months!), Nuala Ni Chonchuir(brilliant teacher and writing encourager-is this a word?)Theo Dorgan (the poet and other creative jobs which are too long to list here), Christy Neary, Dave Lordan(lovely, lovely man who writes the way we hope to) and Niamh O Connor and Ruby Barnes.

John has pushed the programme this year and my name is down!

I think Nuala’s class is booked out but check the Penfest blog here http://www.carlowlibraries.ie/penfest.html and see if you can get your name down for something!

If you can’t get in, a visit to the Visual Space/GBS Theatre and Mimosa Tapas and Wine Bar are just around the corner from the library so you might just saunter with a glass of wine and bite to eat!

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WOW Awards Judges Announced-with Fiction Judge, the lovely Elizabeth Reapy.

Elizabeth ReapyWOW Writing on the Waves have appointed the judges for the 2013 WOW! Award. www.wordsonthewaves.com

Elizabeth Reapy is the judge for fiction while Knute Skinner is the judge for poetry.

Elizabeth (EM) Reapy is an Irish writer. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Queen’s University, Belfast, edits wordlegs .com and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. In 2012, she was Tyrone Guthrie Exchange Writer in Residence to Varuna, Australia and she performed at NYWF in Sydney. She is the director of Shore Writers’ Festival in Enniscrone. In May 2012, she had a no.1 iTunes Literature Podcast with her short story Getting Better. She compiled and edited 30 under 30: A Selection of Short Fiction by Thirty Young Irish Writers. In 2013, she was awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary and was selected as the Irish representative for PEN International’s New Voices Award, where she made the long-list of 6 writers. She has recently read in Buenos Aires, New York, Listowel Writers’ Week and Belfast Book Festival. www.emreapy.com

Knute Skinner was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but now lives in Co. Clare, Ireland. His collection, Fifty Years: Poems 1957-2007, from Salmon, contained new work along with work taken from thirteen previous books. The Other Shoe won the 2004-2005 Pavement Saw Chapbook Award. A limited edition of his poems, translated into Italian by Roberto Nassi, was published by Damocle Edizioni, Chioggia, Italy, in 2011. A memoir, Help Me to a Getaway, was published by Salmon in March 2010. A new book of poems, Concerned Attentions, was published by Salmon in September 2013.
www.knuteskinner.com

The WOW!Award has €2100 in prize money plus publication.

Stories up to 3000 words. Poems up to 100 lines. Closing date Thursday October 31st 2013
Full details can be found here:
www.wordsonthewaves.com

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Review:Things I don’t want to know by Deborah Levy

I have read and loved Black Vodka by Deborah  Levy and also met her at Bantry this summer. When I saw she was releasing a new essay type book called Things that I don’t want to know, (a response to George Orwell’s Why I Write) I thought I would step away from my normal fiction reading diet.

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I read this beautiful cornflower blue, mini, hardbound book in a few nights. It was delicious, it starts off with a flash of Deborah’s life and her escape to Majorca. It then flicks back to her youth as a South African girl and her family’s retreat to England.

The book is firstly a small memoir of her life, interspersed with South African politics and why she decided to start writing and who inspired her to write. She comes to the conclusion that we should write about things that we want to avoid, the awful things, the things that get us down or the things that might unsettle other people if they knew it about you.

This book is one of my favourites this year. Anyone interested in writing, reading or just wants a pretty nifty book to read, should get it.

Things I don’t want to know by Deborah Levy is available at http://www.nottinghilleditions.com/books

 

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West Cork Literary Festival 2013-Opening Reception

The vibe was holiday abroad as we pulled into the fabness that is the town of Bantry. Last year, we had only stayed for two days but we were dying to return and do a workshop.
Last year, I met and interviewed my literary-crush, Kevin Barry. He is now the whole world’s literary crush and he has won about 1.3 million Awards.
I’m registered for the John Mc Jenna Short Story workshop, it starts at 9 so we took it easy tonight. We headed up to the Official Opening Ceremony in the library where Ruth Paddell’s poem “Mill Wheel at Bantry” was read by herself and the winner of the JG Farrell Fiction Award was announced.
We munched on our dinner of fish in the famous O Connor’s Seafood Restaurant with some friends. It was entirely blissful, we will be back and probably tomorrow.
Life is good in Bantry.

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Lovely interview with Susan Stairs on TV3 Ireland AM

Have a look at this interview with Susan Stairs on TV3 Ireland AM. I love Marc Cagney’s statement about Susan’s book and that she is aiming to be ” a writer whose book is not left behind in a hotel in Marbella”

True but miaow to those authors that do have their books left behind in any hotel, never mind Marbella.

Susan’s book will not be left behind in any hotel!

http://www.tv3.ie/3player/show/184/64120/1/Ireland-AM

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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 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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Carve Magazine and Dan Powell

I enter lots of competitions and finally, I won! I had to describe what a short story was in a simple sentence and post it on Dan Powell’s blog. I won a lovely magazine called Carve. This is an American glossy and beautiful magazine that focuses purely on the short story. You get the title now!

Not only does it feature 3 pretty awesome stories each issue, it also has unique and helpful features for short story writers. Some of these features are:

What we talk about: Very informative chats with the author who wrote the story that is published in that very issue. You read the story first and then read about its themes and how it was made. The best thing that comes before this story each time is the Fast Facts feature. You can see how many drafts this story took, how long it took to write, how many times it was rejected(Ouch) and how long the writer waited until it was published. These are usually things we don’t talk about and these sort of facts really can boost a writer.

The Reject! feature where stories that Carve  passed on but were later published elsewhere are highlighted. There is an conversation with a featured writer about what that rejection meant for them. The Editor from Carve  that rejected it gives their comment, the author gives their feelings to that rejection and goes through any changes they made because of that rejection. A wonderful piece of learning through rejection and very noble of Carve magazine, if I may say so.

The Carve magazine is special and I am going to subscribe straightaway. If you don’t want to subscribe for the print/digital issue, you can read the 3 chosen stories each time on their blog for free price!

Dan Powell won the Esoteric Award for his story Storm in a teacup, which is a magical and very British story about falling in and out of love and life while a storm brews in a teacup! It is very much worth a read and so is his interview but you will have to subscribe for that! Check out Dan on his blog  and his award winning story Storm in a Teacup here.

Dan Powell