Penguin/ RTE Guide Short Story Competition

This year's RTE guide short story competition is announced. Last year it was won by Geraldine Mills for ‘Pretty Bird, Why You So Sad?’Anyone read it? It doesn't seem to be available online but Geraldine is an accomplished writer.

Rules:

Work for the RTE Guide/Penguin Ireland Short Story competition should be original, unpublished and previously not broadcast.

Short stories in English of 2,000 words or less.

Entrants name and contact details (address, phone and/or email) should be on a separate page.

Deadline: 15th July 2011.

Send your entries  to:

RTE Guide/Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition

PO Box 1480,

RTE Guide,

RTE,

Donnybrook,

Dublin 4.

Revival Submissions

Revival Literary Journal is calling for submissions from local, national and international poets and writers for the next issue which will be published in Limerick, Aug 2011.
Submissions, poetry and short fiction or extracts (500 words) now being sought for the next issue (Aug 2011). Also Review and Criticism pieces.  They are also interested in receiving black and white images/line drawings for inclusion.

Deadline Fri 16th June 2011

Send to: The Editor, Revival, Moravia, Glenmore Ave., Roxboro Rd., Limerick.

Email: revival1@eircom.net
Submission guidelines: www.revivalpress.com

A Scot in London - Free to Enter Poetry Competition

The competition is open to everyone. All styles of poems will be considered as long as they are based on the theme of a Scot in London and what that means to you. You don’t have to be a Scot in London to enter.

The winning entry, chosen by a select judging panel including A. L. Kennedy will receive a £1,000 top prize and 2 tickets to our St Andrew’s Dinner. The top 5 poems will also be put on public display in our new offices as well as being printed in ScotsCare Shout. We hope that you will all get involved in the spirit of Rabbie and our anniversary celebrations.

Deadline: 31st of August

The winners will be announced on St Andrew’s Day.

Send your entry including your full contact details and a short description of your piece either by email to ross@scotscare.com marked ‘Poetry Competition’ or send it to:

FREEPOST License RSLK-KBRR-AGCK

Poetry competition
ScotsCare, Ground Floor
22 City Rd, London
EC1Y 2AJ

For any other information regarding this contact Ross at ross@scotscare.com.

Poetry to Check Out - Paul Yandle

Check out the kinestic words of this poem, Dogs

Bloomsday

Have you ever joined in with the Bloomsday celebrations? Here's one that sounds like fun and not too Joycean (I've never got far into Ulysses. I'd like to listen to an audio version)

"Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount Strand? Crush, crack, crick, crick. Wild sea money."

To celebrate this year's Bloomsday Festival, Sandymount Hotel will be hosting a literary lunch. (That's round the corner from the Aviva Stadium)

Come along and enjoy delicious Irish fayre and a selection of afternoon tea desserts with tea or coffee while being entertained with readings from Ulysses. Afterwards, walk off your lunch with a stroll along Sandymount Strand (featured in Ulysses) which is just down the road.

15 Euro per person.


When: Saturday 11th June between one and three o'clock

Bloomsday Period Dress Optional!

To make a booking call 01 6142000, or come along on the day.

No mention of kidneys. I haven't eaten kidneys in decades.

Patrick Kavanagh Award

Because of the very bad weather and snow in November 2010 it was decided to change the date of the Kavanagh Weekend from the last weekend in November to the end of September. As the presentation of the Award is a key feature of the weekend, this necessitates a change in closing date. Therefore The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is changing its closing date this year to Friday, 22nd July 2011.

Prize: The winner of this year’s award will receive €1,000.
Certificates will be awarded to runners up in the competition. What? No money?

The award is open to poets, born in the island of Ireland, or of Irish nationality, or long term resident in Ireland. Manuscripts accepted for publication shall be eligible ONLY if the resulting collection of poems is NOT published before the judges’ decision is announced.

No previous outright winner shall be eligible to enter again.

The collection of poems in English must be original and consist of 20 poems.
Individual poems should not be more than 40 lines.

The only works eligible are unpublished or magazine published work.

The judge is Brian Lynch www.brianlynch.org. His decision is final.

Patrick Kavanagh Society reserves the right to arrange with the poet a reading from their award winning poetry at the Annual Kavanagh Commemoration at Inniskeen on Friday 30th September 2011.

More here

Steve Kaplan Comedy Feature Writing Workshop

Steve Kaplan Comedy Feature Writing Workshop (starting 01 July 2011)

Duration: 2 days
Venue: Galway
Cost: €150.00


Application Procedure: Please apply online at www.screentrainingireland.ie submitting a current CV by Wednesday the 8th of June.

Screenwriters with feature length comedies in development are invited to apply for a consultation with Steve Kaplan. Steve is a US based consultant and script doctor for comedy writers in the area of Features and TV. He has worked in this area for 15 years and his clients include companies such as DreamWorks, Disney, HBO, Paramount, Touchstone and others. Steve has also taught at UCLA, NYU, Yale and other universities.

The consultations will take place in Galway on Sunday, July 3rd. Three participants will be selected for the consultations based on the merit of their treatment and their writing experience. 

Please note the following in relation to applying for a consultation:
 • A one page treatment will be required. Nothing over this will be considered
 • Also include a logline and a one paragraph synopsis of the feature comedy you are writing
• Nothing will be considered after the deadline date of June 8th
• All treatments for consideration should be emailed to criona.sexton@fas.ie

Participant Profile:
Emerging and experienced screenwriters. Screenwriters who wish to submit a treatment must have a feature lenght comedy in development

Course Profile:
The aim of this workshop is to examine the nuts and bolts of successful comedy writing. The workshop will take the form of lectures and practical exercises. The outline is as follows:
 I. Premise: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF COMEDY 1. Introduction and Overview 2. Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard 3. Comedy Perception Test - Are you seeing 20/20? 4. Funny vs. Comic - The difference 5. The Comedy Equation
II. Set-up: THE SIX HIDDEN TOOLS OF COMEDY 1. Winning 2. Non-Hero 3. Metaphorical Relationships 4. Positive (and Negative) Actions 5. Active Emotion 6. Straight Line/Wavy Line Learn how to use these essential tools in your work.
III. Development: APPLYING THE TOOLS 1. Entire History of Comedy...in 15 minutes. 2. The Commedia Intensive 3. Comedy Structure & Development 4. Comic Premise---The Lie That Tells the Truth 5. Comic Premise Exercises & Analysis 6. The Comedy Paradigm 7. Comedy Writing in Film and Television 8. Jokes and Other Weapons of Mass Distraction 9. Developing Unique Comic Character POVs 10. and Personalities
IV. Payoff: COMEDY PRACTICUM 1. Script Analysis (TV and Film) 2. Clips from classic and current comedy TV 3. Shows and films demonstrating the principles and tools of Comedy 4. Exercises and demonstrations of comedy principles 5. Final Q&A

Call for Writer in Residence in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council invites applications for a writer in residence for the period September 2011 to September 2012.  The writer in residence is a partnership between the Library Service and the Arts Office of the County Council. The residency seeks to support writers in all genres, with the exception of poets as the most recent writer in residence with the Library Service was a poet.

The residency is envisaged as a part-time position which will allow time both for the writer’s own work in addition to engagement and interaction with both the general public and more specifically with those with an interest in writing themselves. The writer in residence will be required to organise a minimum of two high profile public events over the course of the residency.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 12 noon on Wednesday 15 June 2011

A detailed brief is available on www.dlrcoco.ie/library and www.dlrcoco.ie/arts

Raftery Award

This is (not) a new poetry competition.

Update: Note this is postponed until 2012. Any poems already submitted will be held until then. See website here.

Update : Cancelled. All submissions should have had their fees returned by now (Sad)

1st Prize € 750
2nd Prize € 500
3rd Prize € 250

There will be 10 shortlisted entrants who will be notified by the end of September 2011. Shortlisted entrants will receive free accommodation plus 50euro expenses.

N.B. It is a condition of entry that all finalists will be available to read their work in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo, on the night of Friday, November 11th, 2011, during which the winners will be announced. In certain circumstances, the Coordinator and judges may consider an alternate reader.

Details:

Title: Journeying

Maximum 80 lines. 1.5 or double spaced on one side of the paper only. All poems should be original work, not published previously in any form/format.

Entry Fee: € 5 per poem

Your name and contact details should be on a separate sheet and must not appear on the same page as the poems.

3 copies of each poem must be provided to

Ms. Louise Lawrence,
33, Rathcluain Village,
Kiltimagh
Co. Mayo

Deadline: August 31, 2011

National Poetry Competition

Now in its 34th year, the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition is one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious poetry competitions. 

The judges this year are Colette Bryce, John Glenday and Jackie Kay. 

Winners include both established and emerging poets and for many the prize has proved an important milestone in their professional careers. Add your name to a roll-call of winners that includes Carol Ann Duffy, Ian Duhig, Philip Gross, Jo Shapcott and Tony Harrison – and have your work published in the Poetry Society’s leading international journal, Poetry Review. 

The prizes are: £5,000 for the overall winner, £2,000 for the second, £1,000 for the third, with seven commendations of £100. 

The deadline is 31^st October. 

Enter online or download an entry form at www.poetrysociety.org.uk.

http://poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/npc/

You can also read past winners there to get an idea of the competition level (high)
They have a useful FAQ that has answers such as:

Do line spaces between stanzas count as part of the 40 line limit? What about titles and dedications?

The forty line limit applies only to the written lines of the poem, not the lines between stanzas. Titles and dedications are not counted as lines either.

Does having a poem on my own blog count as website publication?

Yes.

So no Poetry Bus Poems. Unless you re-title them I suppose.

West Cork Literary Festival

Another lovely sounding week in West Cork here.

The West Cork Literary Festival takes place in Bantry, Co. Cork from July 3rd to 9th.

The Festival, once again supported by RTÉ lyric fm, will host an eclectic range of writers and disciplines. Speakers include Dermot Healy, who will read from his new novel “Long Time No See”; Carlo Gébler will give the writer’s perspective on “How To Keep the Wolf From the Door”, and Paul Murray will read from “Skippy Dies” which was a recent finalist in the US National Book Critics Circle Awards. Another programme highlight will be a special live recording of Sunday Miscellany Live in Bantry, hosted by the programme's producer Clíodhna Ní Anluain, for an inimitable hour of words and music.

Workshops continue to be the centrepiece of the Festival and one of this year’s highlights is Irish novelist John Boyne, whose novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” sold more than five million copies worldwide, tutoring the Fiction workshop. John will also read from his new novel “The Absolutist” at the Festival. Other workshops will be led by such highly respected writers as Hugo Hamilton, Gillian Slovo, Marina Carr, Roisin Boyd, Eoin McNamee, Gerald Dawe, Adrian Tinniswood, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Peter Benson, Lucy Caldwell and publisher Hazel Orme. As well as the Fiction Workshop, there will also be workshops on Poetry, Memoir Writing, Freelance Journalism, Fiction: Getting Started, Publishing: Preparing to Submit, Travel-Writing, Short Story, Half Way Through: Completing your Novel, Making History, Crime Writing, Making History and Writing for the Stage.

See website here

Literary Garden at Bloom Festival

10am-6pm  2nd – 6th June Phoenix Park.

In honour of the UNESCO designation as City of Literature,  the BLOOM festival will have a literary flavour this year. There will be a UNESCO City of Literature-themed show garden designed and installed by staff in Dublin City Council’s Parks Department. Planting will reflect literary connections.

Poets Gabriel Rosenstock, Enda Wyley, Tony Curtis, Anne Leahy and Maighread Medbh will read from the garden at 12noon and 2pm each day.

There will be Joycean readings at 1pm each day in association with Bloomsday, (www.jamesjoyce.ie) as well as storytelling for children. www.dublincityofliterature.ie www.bloominthepark.com

Edwin Morgan Poetry Competition

Are you feeling lucky, punk?

This is a high prize money competition so the competition is fierce. Read the winners from last year and see if you think you write the right kind of poems. (I won't be entering)

With a first prize of £5000 and lesser prizes of £1000, £500 and £50 (x 2), this is one of the richest poetry prizes in Britain and last year attracted over 1000 entries. This year's judges are the poets Vicki Feaver and Kona MacPhee.

The closing date is 9am on Friday 10th June 2011.

Maximum of 60 lines per poem

Entrants can submit up to 3 (three) poems, provided the appropriate entry fee is included: the entry fee is £5 per poem

You can enter online. All details here

On Saturday 2nd July the Irish Writers' Centre is hosting a day-long Poetry and Short Stories Publishing Seminar with leading figures across a variety of branches of the publishing industry.

It sounds interesting.

Talks will be given by:

• Ciaran Carty, Editor of New Irish Writing; 
• Declan Meade, Editor of the Stinging Fly; 
• Jessie Lendennie, Managing Director of Salmon Poetry; 
• Kevin Barry, Short Story Writer and Novelist;  
• Kevin Higgins, Poet and Co-organiser of Over The Edge Reading Series.

From 10.30am to 4.30pm. Tickets €60 or €50 for members.

Poetry Divas Ride again - Trim

Yes, the fabulous Poetry Divas ride again, this time down the backroads to Trim, Co Meath.

When: This Thursday 19th May 8pm

Where: in the Coffee Shop in the Knightsbridge Retirement Complex, Longwood road, Trim

Please come along for an enlivening evening's entertainment.

We are a glittery group of poets who've read at lots of cool events - CastlePalooza (main stage,) Electric Picnic, Body and Soul, Festival of Fires, Flat Lake festivals (the list goes on.) Each lineup and show is different, blended to the occasion but we guarantee a deliciously infectious show that's bound to touch a nerve and blur the wobbly boundaries between page and stage.

This week's line up is Barbara Smith (Top Hat Diva), Kate Dempsey (Plastic bead diva), Triona Walsh (Gucci Pucci Diva) and Maeve O'Sullivan (Haiku Diva).

Mill Cove Gallery

One from the stammering poet. Nice to see you at the Poetry Ireland Introductions, Peter and congratulations once again on romping in ahead of the pack at Strokestown.

Mill Cove Gallery in Castletownbere, Co Cork has a competition to write a poem, story, or piece of prose (up to 40 lines) inspired by a painting or sculpture from the gallery or the website. The selection is rather stupendous. This competition is run in conjunction with Hungry Hill Writers from the Beara penisular. Website here where you can find the entry form.

Submit your entry (unlimited number) and €5 entry fee per submission (€3 if aged 16 or younger) by post or in person at the Gallery.

Deadline: 10th June 2011.

You are invited to attend the Gallery on Saturday 31st July 2011, 6-8 pm for the announcement of winners, launch of the publication of short-listed entries and to meet the artists.

Prize: €100 for adults, €50 for children

Judge: Cherry Smyth- Irish poet and art critic

Workshops for Bealtaine

There are interesting workshops in all areas of the arts in all areas of Ireland in the month of May. Have a look at the website for your local area.

Here are some run by Eileen Casey started Monday 16th May

The workshops are all morning and for 1 hour each day.

Monday Tallaght Library,
Tuesday, Lucan Library,
Wednesday, Dominics Community Centre, Tallaght,
Thursday Castletymon Library, Tallaght and
Friday Ballyroan Library.

All the workshops are morning, 11.30 to 12.30 except for Ballyroan which is 11.45 to 12.45.

Also, a reading from her new book ‘From Bone to Blossom’, Tallaght Library, Tuesday 17th May at 6.30.

The Story of Plan B

I have been working on an ebook, The Story of Plan B, recently; it's a steep learning curve. Thanks to Catherine Ryan Howard for some pointers from her very successful ebook Mousetrapped.

About my book: It's a full length novel, contemporary women's fiction set in Ireland, England and South West America. As this is supposed to be a teaser, I'll tell you more in my next post so keep watching.

I'll post later about the ebook process, as I said, it's complicated, technically, legally and culturally. But I wanted you all to know that my book, The Story of Plan B is out soon and I'd love it if you bought it, reviewed it, told other people about it, let me know what you think.

Did you know you can read Kindle ebooks on a PC? It's easy. And, if you've a smartphone, on that too? All this is recent news to me too.

I'll post up a special offer too when it's properly available so watch this space.

Dromineer Literary Festival Competitions

The Eighth Annual Dromineer Literary Festival will have a cracking line up (Jennifer Johnston, Dermot Healy and Vincent McDonnell and the one and only, most famous Poetry Divas Collective confirmed so far) but don't forget to enter the competitions.

Poetry Competition:
Poet, novelist and playwright Dermot Healy will judge the poetry competition.
Maximum Number of lines per poem: 40
Fee: 5 euro for first poem plus 3 euro per additional title.

Short Story Competition:
Novelist and Short Story Writer Vincent McDonnell will judge the short story competition.
More a short, short. Maximum Number of words per story: 600
Fee: 10 euro for each entry

Entry Form & Rules here

The prizes are quite generous. 1st. Prize 500.00 Euro, 2nd. Prize 350.00 Euro, 3rd. Prize 150.00 Euro

Deadline: August 19 2011

Entries To:

Deborah Powell,
Secretary,
Dromineer Literary Festival,
Ballycommon,
Nenagh,
Co. Tipperary

The festival is Thursday September 29 ~ Sunday October 2 2011

Poets to Check Out - Amanda Baker

Amanda Baker, there's a depth behind the humour. Shirley Temple Jesus

Mslexia Poetry Competition

Judge: Jo Shapcott

1st Prize: £2,000 plus a week at the idyllic poets' retreat of Cove Park* and a mentoring afternoon with the editor of premier poetry magazine, Poetry Review
2nd Prize: £400
3rd Prize: £200
20 other finalists receive £25 each

All winning poems will appear in issue 51 of Mslexia, published in October 2011

Entry fee: £7 for up to three poems

Deadline: 18 July 2011

You can enter online or snailmail.

Dublin Writers Festival Workshops

Two really interesting sounding workshops

Free Public workshop with Paul Harding

When:Wednesday 25 May 2.30 – 4.00pm
Where: The Lab, Dublin City Council Arts Office, Foley St., Dublin 1

Please contact book@dublinwritersfestival.com (places are limited and will be offered on a first come basis)

See website here (No good for those emerging writers among us who work full time or even if they have to pick the kids up. Bad timing.)

Sky Arts Den at Filmbase, Temple Bar

Join us in the Sky Arts Den where you can relax and enjoy performances in between your festival events. Or learn something new and perhaps unlock a hidden talent with a range of workshops throughout the day. From live jazz to creative writing and a range of art workshops, all activities are free of charge.
The Sky Arts Den will take place from the 21 – 26 May.
Simply turn up on the day and take part.

This one comes with an added bonus:

Sky Arts Get Creative Fund

If you’re over 18 with a creative passion you’d love to pursue, why not let us give you a helping hand? Kick-start your creativity and apply for our Sky Arts Get Creative Fund. The most inspiring entry of the festival will win 1,000 euros towards an artistic course of their choice. To enter visit the Sky Arts Den at Filmbase, Temple Bar.

Rhythm in Poetry - Deviation

So as soon as we know all about rhythm in poetry, we deviate. Of course we do. Not just through sheer bloody mindedness, but to use the effects on the reader.

Pauses

Poems are presented as lines on a page. (We're talking about reading here, not performing. That for another day.) And the very fact that there are lines with and ending, lead the reader towards wanting to pause at the end of each line. Maybe for a breath, maybe just because the phrase naturally ends at the end of the line.

As I was going to St Ives

These are called end-stopped lines, as apposed to

As I was wandering along the road towards

with the second  line, you keep on reading to the next line. (Where is the poet going?)

End-stopped lines encourage the reader to pause and consider the words or feelings or images just raised.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

So what about the second version? Lines which are not naturally end-stopped are called run on lines or enjambment. Why would a poet use this technique? To speed up a reader, to generate a sense of hurry.
"Enjambment" comes from a French word meaning to put one's leg across, or to step over, so think of it as getting your leg over.

Wikipedia gives the example of one of my favourite poets for uses of enjambment, e e cummings.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

There's all sorts of double meanings and a sense of ugency to read on. Beautiful.
Lastly for now, caesura. Cool name. All it means is a pause within a line, a hiccup if you will. It can be used to break the monotomy of a metre or perhaps to emphasize a word or a phrase.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

 Or another of my favourite poems. Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden.

Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him

 The caesura in the last line of the stanza. Gets you right in the gut.

Writing without Borders Summer School

The second Creative Writing Summer School, Writing Without Borders, takes place at the John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies, UCD Belfield, Dublin from 30th August to 1st September 2011.

The summer school will comprise of morning and afternoon creative writing classes and master-classes and is aimed at writers at all levels.

PROGRAMME

Tuesday 30th August, 11am – 1pm – Creative Writing with Nessa O’Mahony

2.30pm-4.30pm – Master Class with Dermot Bolger.

Wednesday 31st August, 11am-1pm – Master Class with Theo Dorgan

2.30pm – 4.30pm, Master Class with Tess Gallagher

Thursday 1st September, 11am – 1pm, Master Class with Peter Sirr

2.30pm – 4.30pm, Master Class with Claire Keegan.

DELEGATE FEE

Workshops will be kept to a maximum of 25 participants, and delegates will be charged a fee of €300, to cover costs of tuition and lunch (catered for in UCD). Accommodation in UCD is available on request.

Link here

Bruntwood Prize for playwriting

The Bruntwood Prize is the biggest national competition for playwriting. It is a search for great plays and great writers. We are looking for scripts that are original and unperformed, by writers of any experience. You can find out about what you might win below.

Deadline: 6th June 2011 at 6pm

Enter online. Link here

The competition is open to anyone resident in the UK and Ireland.
One entry per person
The play must be an original, unperformed and unproduced piece of work, in theatre and in any medium. Amateur performances do not apply. Unproduced means the play cannot have received a production in any form, anywhere in the world, apart from one rehearsed reading only.
The play must be an hour long or more.
The submitted play must be available for production and unattached to any other theatre or company. Any scripts that have been professionally optioned, produced or published will be disqualified.
We do accept plays co-authored by more than one writer.

Prizes
All scripts awarded prizes are automatically under option to the Royal Exchange for a period of eighteen months after the announcement of the awards.
If a winning script is produced by the Royal Exchange, the prize money will replace all first production or development fees. However, the standard percentage of box office receipts and rehearsal attendance fees will still be paid to the writer.

* A First Prize of £16,000 – with the offer of a year-long attachment with the Royal Exchange Theatre

* Three Judges’ Awards of £8,000 each.

(That's big money!)

All four winners will have the opportunity to develop their play at the Royal Exchange with a view to production. In addition, leading publisher Nick Hern Books will publish those plays that go on to receive a production at the Exchange.

Entry is FREE.

Poets to Check Out - Billy Collins

"The Lanyard" by Billy Collins

I think I may have put Billy Collins up before but this is a thing of joy.

How to get published

Bunclody Public Library invites you to: How to get published
Where: Bunclody Library
When: Saturday May 21st 2011 11am – 3.00pm

Fee – €15.00 includes lunch

Places are limited to the first twenty applicants, strictly on a first come first served basis.

A unique opportunity to meet with both an author, Tyler Keevil, and an editor, Lucy LLewellyn, to get the inside track on getting your work published.

They have other interesting events around Bealtaine festival. Check it out.

Website here

Kilkenny Writers Weekend

This is aimed at local writers but we can stretch the meaning of local, right? Curated by Grace Wells.

An evening of Verse – Kerry Hardie & local poets Friday 13th May Butler House 7.30pm (if you would like to take part please contact email below)

How to get your poetry published - Pat Boran Saturday 14th May Butler House 11.00am

Poetry workshop - Pat Boran Saturday 14th May Butler House 2.30pm

Creative Writing for Teenagers – Claire Hennessy Saturday 14th May Loughboy Library, 11.00am & 2.00pm (free event but booking necessary)

‘An Evening with Great Irish Writers’ – Neil O’Shea City Library, John’s Quay 8.00pm (free event- no booking necessary)

The Writer and Self Promotion – Nuala Ní Chonchúir Sunday 15th May Butler House 11.00am

Writing Fiction - Nuala Ní Chonchúir Sunday 15th May Butler House 2.00pm

Booking essential for most events - for full details collect a programme from Kilkenny Arts Office or any library or visit www.kilkennylibrary.ie www.kilkennycoco.ie/eng/Services/Arts/ or contact southeastartsprogramme@gmail.com

Waterford Bursary

Haven't seen this elsewhere so Waterford artists, get cracking.

Regional Arts Bursary 2011 Call for applications

This prestigious award will enable the chosen artist to spend two weeks at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, the artists’ workplace in County Monaghan during 2011. It covers all board and lodging expenses plus the use of a studio if required.

Deadline: Thursday 12th May 2011.

Website here.

Whiskey

Hello lovely readers. So we're over the royal wedding, through two long weekends back to back and out in the sunshine and the bad man is dead. So let's turn to whiskey.

The Irish Times on Saturday had a competition to write, basically, copy for Powers Whiskey in the form of a very short story, between 400-500 words. Based on an ad campaign in the 1980's.

- an invitation to hark back to a more mellow time

(I'm guessing that's pre recession and maybe even pre celtic tiger)

- reflect a warmer time

(It's warm out now)

- on the topic of 'celebrating what really matters'

(there's a big black hole to look into)

Prize: €10,000 and seeing your story illustrated and printed in The Irish Times.

online here or you can use snailmail.

Deadline: Friday 3rd June 2011 at 5pm.

I can't find a link to examples of the 1980's stories but they're quite witty and warm.


I think they should have 10 prizes of €1,000. They'd get the same level of entry.

Books I've been Reading

Part II in an irregular series.
Books I've read recently and books I forgot to mention last time or the time before.
Click on the links to buy at Amazon (and support a starving writer)
And if anyone wants me to review a book, do get in touch.


Solar by Ian McEwan

Ian's take on global warming, wonderfully grumpy main character and lots of science-y stuff. Underlyingly sad though.


City of Bohane by Kevin Barry.

I loved Kevin's short stories, There are Little Kingdoms. Not so enamoured of his first novel. The writing's brilliant,super dialogue and the characters are mad but he doesn't do much with them. He may be trying too hard to be Irvine Walsh or maybe Anthony Burgess crossed with China Melville (below) and maybe Jamie Hernandez with a soupcon of Pat McCabe. He should be Kevin Barry and have more plot.


The City and The City by China Mieville.

What a mind blowing book.Twists and allegories and brilliance. Characters may be a little wooden.


Tomorrow by Graham Swift

Finding this hard going. Too much introspection, not enough action. Plus I don't really care about the main character. Why is that?


Rain by Don Paterson

Read this again after seeing him at Poetry Now Festival. Lovely, clever perfectly worded poems.