Chapters and Verse

Some new poets being promoted by Chapters and Verse (including one well known blogger):

SUN SAND AND ICE-CREAM

6.30pm Thursday 14th August 2008

Chapters of Parnell St, Dublin 1

Celeste Augé is the author of two chapbooks of poetry: Tornadoes for the Weathergirl (with the support of Galway County Council) in 2006, and Smoke and Skin (joint collection with Aoife Casby), which was published by Lapwing in Belfast, 2008. Her first full-length collection of poetry will be published by Salmon Poetry in early 2009.

Aoife Casby is originally from Mayo and now lives in Carraroe, Co. Galway where she works as a writer and visual artist. She has published in Poetry Ireland, Cyphers, Orbis, West47, Ropes, The Cork Literary Review, The Cúirt Annual, DIVAS 2 Anthology and others. A selection of her poetry was published (with writer Celeste Augé) by Lapwing in a chapbook Smoke & Skin in 2008.

Catherine Ann Cullen was born in Drogheda, Co Louth. She is a regular contributor to RTE Radio 1's Sunday Miscellany and A Living Word as well as producing current affairs, arts and features. She lives with her partner Harry and daughter Stella in Kimmage, Dublin. Her first collection, A Bone in My Throat, is published by Doghouse.

Ross Hattaway was born in Wellington New Zealand, but has lived in Ireland since 1990. He has had many varied jobs and currently works as a civil servant. His first collection of poetry, The Gentle Art of Rotting was published by Seven Towers in 2006.

Noel Ó Briain was born in Tralee in Kerry, grew up in Dublin and now resides in Camolin, Co Wexford. He has worked as an actor, director, producer and designer and was head of drama in RTE for a period up to 1988. His first collection of poetry Scattering Day, 21 Sonnets and Other Poems was published by Seven Towers in 2007.

Barbara Smith is finishing an MA in Creative Writing at Queen's University Belfast. Her debut collection of poetry, Kairos, is just published by Doghouse Books. She has poetry and essays published widely and lives in Dundalk, with her partner and six children. Other publications include Poetic Stage (1998).

And again:

Wednesday 20 August 1.15 Chapters Bookstore, Parnell St, Dublin 1

With Ross Hattaway and Barbara Smith

Sorry, Barabara, I'll miss both, I'll be galivanting on the continent.

Wordle

Ooo this is lovely. Go play with Wordle. Don't you just love words? Luscious. ubiquitous, ransack, awkward, snipe, wormcast, a capella. I could go on. Flabbergasted, myopic, onomatopoeia, hippopotamus, squelch.

And here's something else. If you put in a story, the main words stand out and you can sometimes see what the theme is. Fabulous. Thanks Barbara.

Dromineer Literary Festival

The Fifth Annual Dromineer Literary Festival.
Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th October.
The winners of the poetry and short story competitions will be announced and works read to the audience at the festival launch on Friday 3rd October.
Competition rules and entry details are available here.

Poetry Competition
Judge: Tony Curtis - the Irish one
Tony will also host a poetry writing workshop for adults on Saturday 4th October at Lough Derg Yacht Club.

Shirt Story Competition
Judge: John Maher.
John will also host a short story writing workshop for adults on Saturday 4th October.

The meet the author session on Saturday night, 4th October will feature James Ryan and Brendan Lynch.

Teenager workshop. Students from from local secondary schools will take part in a workshop with Ré O’Laighleis, whose works are on both the junior & leaving certificate syllabus. Ré will read from his work, while also conducting a workshop on the structure and elements of contemporary writing.

Children's poetry Competition:
Judge: Mary Arrigan
Mary will hold writing and reading workshops on Saturday 4th October.

Our unique Sunday experience is a must when visiting Dromineer. You can’t visit Lough Derg without going afloat. On Sunday afternoon, October 5th on board the passenger vessel The Spirit of Killaloe, an audience will get the opportunity to listen to memoirs read by Diarmuid Brethnach, featuring Hugo Hamilton’s The Speckled People.

To close the festival the committee has invited the Nenagh Players to perform Scotts Letters on Sunday 5th October.

More blogs

More blogs worth a browse:

Eimear writes at 12 stories, 12 months. She has a story in the July Sunday Tribune.

David Halpert writes about A Writers Life in Toronto.

The Anti-Room blogs about living the life in Dublin.

Cherryl Floyd-Miller is a US poet.

Dreaming Arm comments on the world from his blog.

Elizabeth Baines writes fiction.

Faoiseamh blogs Irish tales from tulipland.

Vanessa has lovely drawings at A Fanciful Twist.

The poet Ailbhe Darcy blogs at glumphoboo (why the name?)

Liz Shine: Writer in the US.

Movies.ie has articles on movies including some freebies.

Liz blogs about poetry and life in Spain on Musings.

New Pages reviews literary magazines in the US and has a good blog.

On a Small Island blogs on writing and living on a small island on the edge of Europe.

Pete's Seriouser Poems and check out his many other blogs too.

Positive Boredom does a little bit of ranting here.

Rana Dasgupta who is judging this year's Willesden Herald short story competition.

She is Too Fond of Books blogs about reading and has some book reviews.

Rosie posts about Dublin in Spanish Exposition.

Steven Waling discusses any things related to poetry.

Three Beautiful Things records 3 beautiful, inspiring things every post.

Welcome to Talksville - population one where Fionnula blogs from Surrey.

Where the Hell is Matt?

An amazing video, guaranteed to make you smile and ignite your wanderlust. Thanks to the Willesden Herald for finding it.

And if you search on YouTube you can see some other earlier ones as well as outtakes. See what happens at the Parthenon.

Talks at the National Library

The National Library, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, in co-operation with Ireland Literature Exchange will host a small showcase of Irish literature in translation during July and August. The exhibition will display a small selection of Irish classics, contemporary fiction and children’s literature, donated by ILE over the years, in the room adjoining the entrance lobby.

They also have a series of author-translator events to coincide with the display:

Wednesday, 6 August, 7.00p.m.
Translating John Mc Gahern.
Declan Kiberd in conversation with Gerardo Gambolini (Spanish language translator of Kiberd’s Inventing Ireland and John Mc Gahern’s Collected Stories).

Wednesday, 13 August,7.00p.m.
Walking the Blue Fields in Slovenia with Claire Keegan and Maja Novak. Slovene translator Maja Novak talks about her recent translation of Claire Keegan’s latest collection of short stories, Walk the Blue Fields, followed by a reading by Claire Keegan.

Wednesday, 27 August, 7.00p.m.
Shamrock Tea, A Polish Brew. Ciaran Carson in conversation with the Polish translator of Shamrock Tea, Maciej Świerkocki, and the publisher, Piotr Mielcarek, with music by Deirdre and Ciaran Carson.

Moloch Showcase night

Moloch is an online journal of new art and writing. I'm never too sure of the benefit of online journals. Is there any editorial process at all? Who reads them? There's never any money involved but is there any other benefit?

Anyway, they're hosting a showcase night in Dublin on Thursday 31st July in the Winding Stair on Ormonde Quay starting at 19:00; admission free.

They have a blog.

We're going to show off just a few of our lovely talented crew, including Kevin Higgins, Alan Jude Moore, Stephen Kelly and The Perfect Consonants. Moloch was founded in December 2006 by Ailbhe Darcy and Clodagh Moynan. Tying different art forms together in new and refreshing ways, Moloch aspires to allow
artists and writers to find inspiration in each other and, in doing so, add new dimensions to each others work.
For the showcase night, Kevin Higgins will be joining us from Galway. We'll also have poetry read by Dubliner Alan Jude Moore and Poet and songwriter Stephen Kelly. Plus there'll be music from The Perfect Consonants, sometimes known as the Darran-Mark-and-Aoife Quartet.

I tell you what though, I admire this group for getting their act together, getting out there and doing there thing in public. Instead of sitting at home and whining about it (like me.)