Lee Dunne to give lecture on May 31:
Controversial author, Lee Dunne, will be giving a talk about his banned novels in the
Central Hotel (Exchequer St), Dublin, Ireland on Wednesday, May 31 at 7pm. The lecture is
being organized by the Dubliners Literary Circle and admission is free.
This week saw the release of Lee's first banned novel Paddy Maguire is Dead
in Ireland. Dunne was so incensed by the banning in 1972 of Paddy Maguire is
Dead that he held a demonstration on Grafton St and dared the Gardai to
arrest him while he handed out 100 free copies of the "banned book" to the
public.
Bizarrely, the theme of the banned book had nothing to do with sex - a
popular reason for banning novels at the time - but rather alcoholism. Paddy
Maguire is Dead is a semi-autobiographical novel about a Dublin writer's
descent into alcoholism and has been described as the most detailed and
horrifying expose of alcoholism ever written in this country.
Amazingly, Dunne (age 72) now holds the honour of being the most banned
author in Europe. Seven of his books, along with two films (Paddy and
Wedding Night) were banned in Ireland.
* * *
Irish novelist Clare Boylan dies:
Award-winning Irish novelist Clare Boylan died yesterday evening after a long illness. She was 58.
The writer and journalist wrote 12 books, including seven novels and three collections of short stories,
during her career.
One of her best known books was 2003's 'Emma Browne', based on an unfinished 19-page
manuscript by Charlotte Brontë.
Her other novels were Holy Pictures (1983), Last Resorts (1984), Black Baby (1988),
Home Rule (1992), Beloved Stranger (1999) and Room for a Single Lady (1997).
Boylan's non-fiction writings include The Agony and the Ego (1994), and The Literary
Companion to Cats (1994).
She wrote introductions to the novels of Kate O'Brien and Molly Keane, adapting and serialising
Keane's 'Good Behaviour' for BBC's R4 in 2004.
A member of Aosdána, Boylan is survived by her husband, Alan Wilkes, a former deputy editor at
the Irish Press.
* * *
Banned Irish Novel Finally Gets Released:
The controversial novel Paddy Maguire is Dead by Lee Dunne
is to be finally released in Ireland
on 18 May 2006--34 years after it was deemed too indecent and obscene for Irish readers. Originally published
in 1972 by Arrow in the UK, the book was banned on its release and never graced the bookshelves in
Ireland. Lee was so incensed by the banning of the book that he hired a young up-and-coming solicitor
named Mary Robinson to represent him, but this attempt to have the ban lifted was unsuccessfully and
it is only now that the book is getting its first release in Ireland. After his appeal was rejected, Lee
held a demonstration on Grafton St and dared the Gardai to arrest him while he handed out 100 free copies
of the "banned book" to the public.
Speaking about the book finally being released in Ireland, Lee said: " In a way I contributed to
this happening when I called the then head of the Censorship Board, a rather nice man called Judge
Conroy, a cretin on national television.”
Amazingly, for a writer so prolific and so relevant it is
hard to find much of Dunne 's back catalogue on the shelves of your local bookshop! Perhaps it's
politics, for Dunne holds the honour of being the most banned author on this island. Seven of his
books, along with two films ('Paddy' and 'Wedding Night') were banned in Ireland:
Paddy Maguire is Dead (1972) was the first book by Lee to be banned and he was unable to get
a new book released in Ireland until the late 80s.
“The banning of Paddy destroyed my writing career. At the time of the banning I had a book at number
one in paperback and a book at number one in hardback, which was unheard of. In fact, I don’t think
an Irish writer has achieved this since. But then Paddy was banned and my next six books also got hit
by the censors,” explained the 72-year-old author. “So for over 16 years I was unable to get a book
published in Ireland. It seemed like everything I wrote was getting banned. Even a Hollywood movie I
did with Milo O’Shea called "Paddy" was banned. It ruined my career.”
Paddy Maguire is Dead is the continuation of Lee Dunne's bestselling novel Goodbye to the Hill. It
is a semi-autobiographical novel about a Dublin writer's descent into alcoholism and has been described
by the renowned author, John Broderick, as "the most detailed and horrifying exposé of alcoholism ever
written in this country. I have a defence of the book, banned in 1972, from Hibernia Magazine. The
defence of the book is by John Broderick, one of Ireland's best ever novelists and he castigates
the Censorship Board with real gusto, insisting that a book as important as Paddy with its insight
into alcoholism should never have been banned, insisting that if the board members did not know
what alcoholism was they should not have judged the book and that if they did know they ought to
be ashamed for depriving the Irish public of it in a country where almost every family suffers
one way or another from the dreaded disease that is not called The Family Disease for nothing.”
This “defence of the book” by John Broderick is now used as the introduction to the new edition of
Paddy Maguire; while the book is now dedicated to the late John Broderick.
“After John wrote his powerful article for Hibernia, I rang him up to say thanks and we became the
best of mates. Amazingly, three months before this new edition was to be printed, my publisher found a
copy of the Hibernia article inside an old book of mine while browsing in Greene’s Bookstore in Dublin. It felt like
destiny and I had to honour the man by dedicating this book to him--he championed it and demanded
its releases in Ireland. He finally got his wish--34 years later,” added Lee.
Paddy Maguire is Dead is published by Killynon House Books, price €11.99.
and is being launched at Writers Museum, Dublin, Ireland on Thursday May 25 at 6.30pm.
* * *
Five Irish authors on O'Connor longlist:
The longlist for the 2006 cchas been announced, with five Irish authors in the running for the
world's richest short story award.
The prize is worth €35,000. It was established during Cork's year as European
capital of culture in 2005 to honour Cork's renowned short story writer, Frank O'Connor.
The Irish authors that have been longlisted are Nuala Ní ChonChúir, Philip Ó Ceallaigh,
Booker nominee Bernard MacLaverty, Emma Donoghue and William Wall.
The international 29-strong longlist also includes established writers like Rose Tremain, Alan Bennett,
Helen Simpson and Haruki Murakami.
The winner of 2005's inaugural award was Chinese writer Yiyun Li for her debut
collection 'A Thousand Years of Good Prayers'.
The 2006 jury is chaired by Cork-based writer Tom McCarthy, Programme Director of
Cork 2005.
A shortlist will be announced in July and the award will be presented during the Frank O'Connor International
Short Story Festival in September.
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Longlist:
1. 'In Strange Gardens & Other Stories' by Peter Stamm (Swiss German) translated by Michael Hoffmann.
2. 'The Darkness of Wallis Simpson' by Rose Tremain (UK).
3. 'To The World of Men Welcome' by Nuala Ní ChonChúir (Irish).
4. 'The Good Works of Ayela Linde' by Charlotte Forbes (US).
5. 'The Unfinished Novel & Other Stories' by Valerie Martin (UK).
6. 'I Could Ride All Day in My Cool Blue Train' by Peter Hobbs (UK).
7. 'A Life Elsewhere' by Segun Afolabi (Nigerian).
8. 'Notes from A Turkish Whorehouse' by Philip Ó Ceallaigh (Irish).
9. 'Gallatin Canyon' by Thomas McGuane (US).
10. 'Constitutional' by Helen Simpson (UK).
11. 'Joyce's Pupil' by Drago Jancar (Slovenia), translated by Various.
12. 'Matters of Life & Death' by Bernard MacLaverty (Irish).
13. 'Is This the Way You Said' by Adam Thorpe (UK).
14. 'The Magician's Beautiful Assistant and Other Stories' by Rachel Wyatt (Canada).
15. 'The First Hurt' by Rachel Sherman (US).
16. 'Drowning in Gruel' by George Singleton (US).
17. 'Year of Fire' by David H Lynn (US).
18. 'Touchy Subjects' by Emma Donoghue (Ireland).
19. 'Twilight of the Superheroes' by Deborah Eisenberg (US).
20. 'Untold Stories' by Alan Bennett (UK).
21. 'No Paradiso' by William Wall (Ireland)
22. 'Kafka in Bronteland and other Stories' by Tamar Yellin (UK)
23. 'Invisible Islands' by Angus Peter Campbell (UK)
24. 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman' by Haruki Murakami (Japan), translated by Gabriel & Rubin
25. 'The Young Apollo and Other Stories' by Louis Auchincloss (US)
26. 'The Royal Ghosts' by Samrat Upadhyay (US)
27. 'Between Here and the Yellow Sea' by Nic Pizzolatto (US)
28. 'The Unsettling' by Peter Rock (US)
29. 'Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead' by Alan DeNiro (US)
* * *
Three Irish-born authors on IMPAC shortlist:
Three Irish-born authors have made the shortlist of the
2006 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Ronan Bennett's Havoc,
In Its Third Year, The Master by
Colm Tóibín and Don't Move by Dublin-born resident of Rome Margaret Mazzantini are among the ten books
shortlisted. Set up in 1994, the IMPAC Award is the world's most valuable literary prize.
English novelist Jonathan Coe's satirical novel The Closed Circle will also compete for the prestigious
honour along with Logogryph: A Bibliography of Imaginary Books by Canadian author Thomas Wharton, Nigerian
writer Chris Abani for GraceLand, Breaking the Tongue by Boston-based Malaysian author Vyvyane Loh and
Yasmina Khadra's book The Swallows of Kabul. Completing the shortlist are Pakistani-born Nadeem Aslam's
novel Maps for Lost Lovers and Danish author Jens Christian Grøndahl's An Altered Light.
Three of the books are translations-- An Altered Light was translated from the Danish by Anne Born
while John Cullen translated The Swallows of Kabul from the French and Don't Move from the Italian.
These ten authors have been chosen from a 132-strong longlist which also included Irish authors Roddy Doyle and
Cecilia Ahern with Oh, Play That Thing and PS I Love You, respectively but they, along with
fellow nominee Dan Brown for The Da Vinci Code, did not make the shortlist.
The winner of the 2006 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award will be named on 14 June in Dublin. Last year's winner was Edward P Jones with The Known World.
* * *
Farrell wins Hennessy New Irish Writer award:
The 2005 Hennessy New Irish Writer Award has been awarded to Dublin-born Jennifer Farrell for her
First Fiction short story 'Beached'.
Judges Philip Hensher, Mary O'Donnell and Ciaran Carty presented this year's Hennessy New Irish
Writer Award to Farrell at yesterday's ceremony in the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin.
Her win follows her first-ever nomination in the Literary Awards. 'Beached' also won this year's
Hennessy Literary Award for Best First Fiction Writer.
Other awards presented included Best Emerging Fiction Writer to Owen Dwyer for his short story 'Respite'
and Best Emerging Poetry to Maria Wallace for her poem 'That Hand Painted Plate Behind Glass'.
A total of 17 writers were nominated for this year's awards. Each category winner receives a prize of €1,500,
while the overall winner receives an additional €2,500 and a trophy.
Following an Oscar nomination for the film adaptation of his short story 'Everything in this Country Must',
internationally renowned writer Colum McCann was presented with the prestigious Hall of Fame award.
McCann, who flew in from New York for the awards, joins previous winners Pat McCabe, Joseph O'Connor
and Dermot Bolger.
* * *
RTÉ short story winners announced:
RTÉ Radio 1 announced the winners of the 2005 Francis MacManus Short Story Competition
at an awards ceremony yesterday evening in RTÉ's Radio Centre.
Cork resident Claire Keegan was awarded the first prize of €3,000 and a Waterford Crystal Trophy
for her story 'Dark Horses'. 'Dark Horses' is the story of a man and his lost love. Keegan
is already an established writer and a previous Francis MacManus award winner. She published
her first collection of short stories, 'Antarctica', in 1998.
Speaking about 'Dark Horses', Ana Leddy, Head of RTÉ Radio 1 said, "It has an ending worthy of
a John McGahern or Eugene McCabe. It creates, both in dialogue and description, a wonderful
sense of place and the bleakness of the life of a man who has blown it and knows it."
Michael J Farrell of Creggs, Co Galway received the second prize of €2,000 for 'Pascal's Wager'.
Dubliner Kevin Murphy (whose pen name is Bill Murray) received the third prize of
€1,000 for 'The World of Tides', a story based around the Liffey swim.
Finally, Antain MacLochlainn of Skerries, Co Dublin got a special mention for his story 'Employment'.
Lorelei Harris, Editor of RTÉ Radio Arts, Features and Drama, remarked on the high standard of entries and
said, "As the national broadcaster, one of our duties is to encourage the growth of good writing and to spread
the word by means of the various broadcasting platforms at our disposal that it is alive and well in Ireland."
The adjudication panel, under the chairmanship of Peter Mooney, Senior Producer, RTÉ Radio 1, included novelists
Jennifer Johnston and Brian Lynch and journalist Mary Kenny.
The 2005 competition attracted almost 750 entries from all over Ireland and from Irish people living abroad.
The adjudicators were impressed by the high standard of the entries and selected 20 entries for the shortlist. All
of these stories will be broadcast over the summer, starting with the winning entry.
Writers shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition 2005
(awarded in 2006) listed in alphabetical order:
1. 'Night and Fog' by Fiona Cunnane, Co Mayo
2. 'Saturday's Kiss' by Kate Dempsey, Co Kildare
3. 'Pascal's Wager' by Michael J Farrell, Co Galway
4. 'Hesitation' by Virginia Gilbert, Rathmines, Dublin
5. 'The Summer's Day', by Daniel E Gorman, Co Donegal
6. 'Hunger', Mary Hearne, Co Wexford
7. 'Dark Horses', Claire Keegan, Co Cork
8. 'Employment', Antain MacLochlainn, Skerries, Co Dublin
9. 'Somebody's Mother', Catherine Magee, Cabra, Dublin 7
10. 'The Great Plains of Africa', Patricia McAdoo, Cogalway
11. 'Bibendum', Max McGuinness, Dublin
12. 'Pirates', Judith Mok, Dublin
13. 'Mary Up In Donegal', Jim Mullarkey, Galway
14. 'The World Of Tides', Bill Murray, Dalkey, Co Dublin
15. 'A Life Like Evian Florenze', Sinead Nolan, Shankill, Co Dublin
16. 'Alice', Liz Nugent, Blackrock, Co Dublin
17. 'Bumpwoman', Mary O'donoghue, Boston, USA / Co Clare
18. 'The Happiest Mosquitoes In Breson', Tony O'Leary, Galway
19. 'Seachange', Breda Wall Ryan, Bray, Wicklow
20. 'The Grave Robbers', Nick Wilkinson, Meath
* * *
Glen Dimplex New Writers' Awards:
Author Colm Tóibín launched the Glen Dimplex New Writers'
Awards at the Irish Writers' Centre in Dublin, Ireland on Monday.
The annual awards will have a total prize fund of €45,000 and aim to offer support and
exposure for emerging writers across a range of genres.
Awards will be made to the best first book published in the last year in Ireland and the
UK by an author in each of five categories: Fiction, Poetry, Children's Book,
Biography/Non-fiction and for the best first book published in any genre in the
Irish language.
The Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year 2006 will be
chosen from the five category winners.
Each category winner will receive a prize of €5,000 and there will also be an overall award
for the Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year with a prize of €20,000.
The awards will be judged by a fifteen-strong judging panel
that will include Colm Tóibín.
Shortlists in each category will be announced in September. The category winners and the
overall winner will be announced at a presentation ceremony at the Irish Museum of Modern
Art on Thursday 2 November.
* * *
Orange Prize for Fiction 2006:
The Orange Prize for Fiction 2006 - Announcing the 2006 longlist
for the Orange Prize for Fiction.
We are pleased to announce today the longlist for the 2006
Orange Prize for Fiction. Now in its 11th year, the Orange
Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence, originality and
accessibility in women's writing.
This years longlisted books are:
Minaret by Leila Aboulela (Bloomsbury)
Harbor by Lorraine Adams (Portobello)
Disobedience by Naomi Alderman (Penguin Viking)
Watch Me Disappear by Jill Dawson (Sceptre)
House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore (Penguin Fig Tree)
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory (HarperCollins)
White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenaway (Atlantic)
Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones (Harvill Secker)
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Penguin Viking)
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel (Harper Perennial)
Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller (Bloomsbury)
Rape A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates (Atlantic)
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson(Virago)
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (Picador)
The Accidental by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany (Picador)
Frangipani by Celestine Hitiura Vaite (Hutchinson)
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (Virago)
The Position by Meg Wolitzer (Chatto & Windus)
More info on the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006:
http://as1.emv2.com/I?X=0b1e81e0ddc108bfe3fbcace76466546a01c95e745b5d175
* * *
The 2006 storySouth Million Writers
Award for Fiction: The 2006 storySouth Million Writers Award, which honors
the best online fiction of the year, is now open for nominations. This year's award is
sponsored by Spoiled Ink. As a result of this sponsorship, the award features a
$300 prize for the overall winner and $50 memberships to Spoiled Ink for each of
the authors of the top ten stories of the year.
Nominations are accepted through March 1, 2006. The list
of notable stories of the year will be released on March 15, 2006, with the top ten stories
released on April 1, 2006. Voting on the top story of the year will begin April 1, 2006,
and will end on April 30.
To read the rules and to nominate a story, please go to
Million
Writers. In
addition, if you like what storySouth does with the Million Writers Award
consider supporting storySouth by making a
Donation
to help storySouth offset the costs of running this annual award.
For additional questions or inquiries about the Million Writers Award, contact
storySouth editor
Jason Sanford at
storysouth@yahoo.com.
* * *
Benjamin Kwayke’s The Sun By
Night wins 2006 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award: An international
judging panel, meeting in Kampala, Uganda has awarded the 2006 Commonwealth Writers’
Prize Best Book Award, Africa Region to Benjamin Kwayke’s The Sun By Night. The Best
First Book Award was awarded to Baingana’s Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe. Each
author wins 1000 Pounds.
Both regional winners now enter the final stage of the 20th
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize,
the international award for outstanding fiction, which will be decided by a panel made up
the four regional Chairpersons in Melbourne and announced on 14th March 2006. They join other
regional winners from Canada and the Caribbean; Eurasia;and South East Asia and the South
Pacific. 10,000 Pounds will be awarded to the author of Overall Best First Book.
Established in 1987, the annual Commonwealth Writers' Prize
is open to writers from the 53-nation Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies.
Zadie Smith won the Eurasia group, which is open to writers
from Europe and South Asia for On Beauty, while Canada's Lisa Moore won the Canada
and Caribbean category for Alligator. The South East Asia and South Pacific winner
was Australia's Kate Grenville for The Secret River.
There is also an award of £3,000 for the Best First Book, again chosen from four regional
finalists - Uganda's Doreen Baingana for Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe; Guyana's
Mark McWatt for Suspended Sentences; Britain's Donna Daley-Clarke for Lazy Eye;
and Malaysia's Tash Aw for The Harmony Silk Factory.
* * *
Hilary Spurling's Matisse
the Master wins Whitbread: Hilary Spurling's Matisse the Master has won the £25,000 Whitbread Book of the
Year award. Spurling, who spent 15 years writing and researching her two-part biography
of the French Impressionist, was chosen over the four other Whitbread winners.
The winner of the annual prize was revealed at a ceremony
at The Brewery in London on Tuesday evening, where Spurling picked up her cheque.
Matisse the Master is the fifth biography to take
the overall Whitbread prize. Claire Tomalin was the last biographer to take the prize in
2002 for Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self. Spurling, 65, faced competition from Smith,
first-time novelist Tash Aw, poet Christopher Logue and children's author Kate Thompson.
The awards, which attracted a record 476 entries this year,
were established in 1971 and are open to authors based in the UK or Ireland.
* * *
Irish Novel of the Year
Shortlist: Brian Lynch's The Winner of Sorrow has been
shortlisted for the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year at the inaugural
Irish Book Awards 2006.
Other nominees for this year's award include John
Banville's The Sea, William Wall's This is the Country, Nothing
Simple by Lia Mills, Utterly Monkey by Nick Laird and
Notes from a Coma by Mike McCormack.
Interestingly, Brian Lynch's The Winner of Sorrow
and John Banville's The Sea are two of the Dublin Quarterly's four highly
recommended novels. See our latest Book
Reviews.
The winner of the Irish Novel of the Year will be
announced at a gala awards ceremony on March 1st 2006 in the Royal Yacht Club,
Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.
* * *
Her Story,
migrating stories of African women in Ireland) is written by: Olutoyin Pamela Akinjobi.
For a lot of women who seek refuge in other countries, it is often a personal and emotional
struggle. Their stories and circumstances are different but they are all linked by one
thing - leaving their countries, homes and often their families because of fear of persecution
they have had.
From Cameroon Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia and other African countries, come touching
true-life experiences of 10 women in Her story, a book based on the migrating stories of
African women in Ireland.
DATE: 25TH JANUARY 2006.
VENUE: Ripley Court Hotel, Talbot street, Dublin 1, Ireland.
SEMINAR: 10AM - 'Challenging the invisibility of black & ethnic
minority women in Ireland'
BOOK LAUNCH: 3PM - HER STORY
KEY SPEAKER: Mutale Nyoni -Director of BAWSO
AUTHOR: OLUTOYIN PAMELA AKINJOBI - Journalist/Bilingual
secretary. For many years Pamela has dedicated herself to promoting multiculturalism through
her various write-ups and activities. Pamela, from Nigeria, works with the Immigrant council
of Ireland and is a freelance reporter for Metro Eireann Newspaper.
CONTACTS: SALOME 0874150906 or Nobuhle 0879256565
Book publication funded by 'Ireland funds'
* * *
Tatty takes Publishers Book of Year Award.:
Christine Dwyer Hickey's novel, Tatty, was named Publishers' Book of the Year at
the CLÉ Industry Book Awards this week.
Dwyer Hickey's powerful and evocative story also won the Best Publicity Campaign award
for her publisher, Joseph Hoban of New Island.
The award for Best Illustrated Book went to Corrina Askin and Alan Clarke for
Something Beginning with P: New Poems from Irish Poets from O'Brien Press
and the production team for that book - Emma Byrne, Ivan O'Brien, Natasha
Mac a'Bháird - took the award for Best Overall Production.
Earlier this year, Something Beginning with P also won The Bisto Merit Award
for Illustration. Cork University Press' The Hook Peninsula was the winner of the Best
Cover Design award.
In 2005 CLÉ, the trade association for Irish book publishers, established the Industry
Book Awards. The Awards were instituted as an initiative to promote excellence in the
industry and are aimed at the technical and creative aspects of book publishing.
Irish publishers submitted books for consideration in five categories and the shortlist
was selected by a committee which included Maria Dickenson from Easons, editor and
author Niall MacMonagle and Colm Ennis of Hughes & Hughes.
* * *
The Big Launch: 40th anniversary edition
of Goodbye to the Hill!:
Lee Dunne wrote his bestselling semi-autobiographical novel,
Goodbye to the Hill 40 years ago. To celebrate, a 40th anniversary edition
of the book was launched on October 5
in the Mansion House, Dublin, Ireland by the Lord Mayor, Catherine Byrne. The book is about Lee's
experience of growing up in Dublin's south inner city slums of the 1940/50s. The
critically aclaimed book was made into a film in the 1970s but was banned!
Speaking at the launch, Lee said he was over the moon with joy to see his first novel
republished 40 years--to the day--since it first hit the book shops.
Speaking about the book, Lee said the 'hill' was the name he gave the block of flats he
grow up in beside Rathmines. He said: "The Hill was a scab, a sort of dry sore on the
face of Dublin. " In fact, it was a disgusting group of flat blocks with concrete stairs and iron hand
rails - garbage bin, open, in the general hallway, the top two floors above the open
entrance had vertical iron bars instead of windows, so there was no shortage of air
conditioning especially in winter. "There were too many kids being born to people who could not feed themselves - it was a
terrible place to live in," he added.
Goodbye to the Hill was made into a film in 1969 called Paddy, starring Des Cave and
Milo O'Shea. But it never made it to Irish screens as it was banned in 1970 by the Irish
Film Censorship Office. Later it ran as a play for three years (six nights a week) in the Regency
Hotel. Since then Lee has written over 20 books--out of which seven were banned--and three
Hollywood movies.
For further information or to arrange an author interview, please contact:
Emma Walsh on 01 806 3825 or
emmawalsh@poolbeg.com
* * *
Goodbye to the Hill: 40th
birthday edition Launch!: The 40th birthday edition of Lee Dunne's
Goodbye to the Hill will be launched by the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House,
Dublin, Ireland on Tuesday Oct 4 2005 (3.30pm).
Goodbye To The Hill was first published in 1965. Hutchinson (London) first published it
in hardback, Arrow buying the paperback rights. The US Rights went to Houghton Mifflin of New
York, and Boston, the paperback rights going to Ballantyne. The novel sold over one million copies.
This special hardback fortieth edition is republished by Poolbeg, Ireland.
Lee Dunne is Ireland’s most banned writer and also one of its most popular authors. See his most
recent
Exclusive Interview in the Dublin Quarterly.
* * *
The Irish Times Poetry Now Award
2006: The Poetry Now festival in association with The Irish Times proudly introduced a new annual
literary award to coincide with the celebration of 10 years of the Poetry Now Festival in 2005:
The Irish Times Poetry Now Award will be presented to the author of the best single volumes of
poems published by an Irish poet, or by Irish publisher annually. The award was launched at
this year's festival. Shortlists for this year's award will be announced on 1 February
2006, and the award presented on the opening night of the 2006 Poetry Now festival
weekend. This is the only award of its kind, which recognises and rewards new work by Irish
poets.
Eligibility and Entries
Volumes published in English by Irish presses or by Irish writers in the calendar year
2005 will be eligible. Translations and anthologies are not eligible. Only single volumes
(and not selected poems or collected poems) will be eligible. Self-published collections, or
editions of deceased poets, will not be accepted. Each press (but not individual poets) will
submit five copies of each title eligible for the award, in book, proof or galley form (which
will not be returned) before December 1st 2005.
The shortlist of 5 titles will be announced on 31 January 2005.
The judges for The Irish Times Award are Prof. Patrick Crotty, Gerard Fanning and Fiona Sampson.
Poetry Now will co-ordinate the shortlisting, and the prize awarding will be discussed and
announced at the 2006 Festival. The decision of the judges will be final. The winner will also
be invited to read at the 2007 festival. The prizewinner will receive €5000.
For further details about the award, contact:
Poetry Now, The Arts Office, Marine Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Tel: 00 353 1 205 4873. Email:
arts@dlrcoco.ie (ref: The Irish Times Poetry Now Award).
* * *
Banville and Barry Make Booker
Shortlist: Irish authors, John Banville and Julian Barnes, have made the
shortlist for this year's Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Also nominated on the shortlist for
the prize are Sebastian Barry, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ali Smith and Zadie Smith.
The shortlist was announced at a press conference in London
today, with the 17 authors on the longlist being whittled down to six. The shortlisted books
are John Banville's The Sea (Picador), Julian Barnes' Arthur & George (Jonathan
Cape), Sebastian Barry's A Long Long Way (Faber & Faber), Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let
Me Go (Faber & Faber), Ali Smith's The Accidental (Hamish Hamilton) and Zadie Smith's
On Beauty (Hamish Hamilton).
John Sutherland, chairperson of the judges, said: "The selection
of a shortlist, the judges felt, was an unusually difficult process this year. There was
sufficient quality for two distinguished lists. This shortlist, we believe, witnesses to the
remarkable quality of the current state of fiction. We look forward to the final round," he
said.
The winner of the prize, due to be announced on 10 October in
London, will receive £50,000.
* * *
RTÉ RADIO (Ireland) SHORT STORY
COMPETITION 2005: €6,000 IN PRIZES AND YOUR STORY ON AIR! The annual
RTÉ RADIO 1 competition for original short
stories for radio is this year celebrating twenty years on air. The competition commemorates
the life and work of Francis Mac Manus, (1909 - 1965), Writer and Head of Talks and Features
in Radio Eireann, who was a major figure in encouraging Irish writers and developing radio
as a medium for the expression of ideas and the promotion of new writing.
The 2005 competition offers prizes of €3,000 and a commemorative trophy for the overall winner
with €2,000 and €1,000 for the second and third prize-winning stories. The three prize-winners
plus a selection from the shortlisted stories will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 in 2006.
The closing date for entries is Friday 7th October 2005.
For rules and regulations and for an entry form
Click here
* * *
Michael Spring's second book of poetry,
Mudsong (Pygmy Forest Press), is now available. To order a copy send $12 (or $10 each
for multiple copies), plus a couple dollars for shipping
expenses, to: Michael Spring PO Box 692, O’Brien, OR 97534.
A selection from Mudsong won the 2004 Robert Graves
Award (Imago Poetry/UK).
Check out the following website for more info, blurbs,
etc. (with links to sample poems from the book):
http://ourworld.cs.com/bluecrow04/myhomepage/favorite.html
http://ourworld.cs.com/mudsongpoetry/myhomepage/favorite.html
About the author
Michael Spring lives in O'Brien, OR. He is a martial arts
instructor, poetry editor,
visual artist, and natural builder (particularly with cob). For the past 20 years Michael
has dedicated himself to publishing, promoting and coordinating literary events for such
venues as the da Vinci Days Festival (Corvallis, OR); and most recently for The Blue Moon
Cafe (Cave Junction, OR).
He currently edits RIVEN Poetry Journal (with poet Eric Dickey),
and The Blue Moon
Café Review. In 2000, he was the writer-in-residence for Fishtrap in Wallowa County, OR.
His poems have appeared in numerous publications; including: Atlanta Review, Chiron Review,
Dublin Quarterly, The Midwest Quarterly, NEO, The New Imagist, Paris/Atlantic, and The
Pedestal Magazine.
His first book, blue crow, was published by Lit Pot Press,
Inc., 2003. blue crow has
recently been translated into Portuguese and is being prepared to appear as a bilingual
edition by The University of the Azores and Brown University. blue crow was nominated for
several awards, including The Norma Farber First Book Award. Michael has been awarded several
prizes for poetry, including The 2004 Robert Graves Award (Imago Poetry/UK).
* * *
^Back to Top
|
|
