Irish Independent promotes Women Writers

The Irish Independent are promoting one book per week for just under a fiver and a token from the newspaper. Some great books, some not so great but kudos for promoting women writers.

September 15th Enda Edna O'Brien In the Forest (Free and too late now)
September 22nd Martina Devlin Venus Reborn (too late now too)
September 29th Sinead Moriarty The Baby Trail (I'd like to read this)
October 6th Anne Enright The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (turgid, unengaging)
October 13th Rose Doyle Shadows will Fall
October 20th Cecelia Ahern Where Rainbows End (does she need any more more - OK jealous)
October 27th Nuala O'Faolain Are you Somebody (bit of a misery memoir and not my cup of tea)
November 3rd Deirdre Purcell Falling for a Dancer (very popular but dreadful)
November 10th Clare Boylan Holy Pictures
November 17th Catherine Dunne In the Beginning
November 24th Christine Dwyer Hickey Tatty
December 1st Karen Gillece Seven Nights in Zaragoza (who?)
December 8th Josephine Hart Damage
December 15th Claire Keegan Antarctica (short stories, supposed to be good. Expect it's gloomy)
December 22nd Jennifer Johnston Christmas Tree (seasonal!)
December 29th Marian Keyes Angels (I love her witty writing)
January 5th 2008 Claire Kilroy All Summer (supposed to be a great writer)
January 12th Sharon Owens The Tea House on Mulberry Street (I'd like to read this)
January 19th Sarah Webb Always the Bridesmaid
January 26th Emma Donoghue Slammerkin (supposed to be good)

Whose missing (possibly for copyright reasons)

Maeve Binchy, Meave Brennan, Eaven Boland (no poetry at all), Mary Lavin, Molly Keane, Paula Meehan, me, Rita Ann Higgins, etc. Any others?

Yet more blogs worth surfing

Crooked House illustrator in Nova Scotia - how global is that! (OK I'll admit it. I'm not sure but that's in Canada, right?)

Amethyst Dragon blogs about poetry in Ireland.

Another Canadian bibliophile booklust

Dedalus Press for poetry in Ireland.

Eyewear A London Review for the digital age. Features a poet every Friday by Todd Swift.

It had better be good is the blog of an Irish writer who has given up her job to write a novel. Good luck!

Literary Rejections on display

My New Notebook musings of an aspiring London author.

Petite Anglaise writing and livingin Paris.

The writer, Philip Casey's blog 'Slimming for the Beach' about writing related stuff, usually Irish based.

The Western Writers Centre are an energetic group of people based in Galway.

Another rejection - poetry this time

After the joy of Cavan Window Publications acceptance, I've just had a rejection from Jan at Envoi magazine. I would really like to break into the UK poetry scene. I feel a lot of my poetry is more English than Irish in outlook. I've only had three poems published outside Ireland
Newfoundland anthology with Irish writers
coffeehouse (Wales - editor the aforementioned Jan)
Abridged - Derry (NI)

On the plus side, my blog is featured on the Poetry Ireland website and weekly newsletter - how cool is that! I wonder how it will affect my viewer stats?

And Do The Write Thing is number 19 in this weeks mass market fiction bestseller list. (That's up from last week!)

Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award

The deadline for the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award has been extended to Friday 19th October. I wonder why? Usually competitions like this get 90% of the submissions in the last week.

This year the Judges again are Paula Meehan and Theo Dorgan.

The winner gets 2,500 Euro. Second and third get 1,000 and 500 respectively.

It costs 20 Euro to enter. More details on the link.

Bits and Pieces

The American writer and film-maker Miranda July won the 2007 Frank O'Connor award for her first collection of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You. The prize was worth 35,000 Euro.

The chairman of the judges, Pat Cotter, who had earlier defended the shortlist as a demonstration of the judges' independence, hailed Miranda July as a worthy winner.
"The award has been won by a book of original genius," he said, "a book which we believe will endure for a long time."

No One Belongs Here More Than You is a collection full of a similar type of fantasy, but underpinned with a new toughness, an awareness of the real world that underlies the characters' rich inner lives. The website she designed to publicise the book apparently became an internet sensation. I never heard of it until now.

And here's an interesting quote about poetry from the New York Times Book Review.

The strength of American poetry depends on the fact that hardly anybody notices it. To emerging poets, eager for an audience, this marginality may seem frustrating, but it is the source of their freedom. Because nothing is at stake except the integrity of their medium, poets may write about anything in any way, from decorously rhymed couplets to sonically driven nonsense.

What's the point then? There must be more to it than that. Surely poetry should be written to be read and listened to? Do we write poetry only for other poets to read? How incestuous is that.

There is a reading for the anthology Do The Write Thing in Eason book shop in Bridgewater Shopping Centre, Arklow, Co. Wicklow on Friday the 5th of October from 6-9pm. Do call in if you are in the area.

And just to note, this blog has now blasted through the 1000th reader (although lots are on for zero second so I'm guessing they are automated, non-human readers)

Bestseller

Do the Write Thing, the fabulous anthlogy (see earlier posts) is number 20 in the Irish books bestseller lists! It's on the best seller shelves in Easons everywhere I've looked so it must be true. Isn't that a thrill!

Cavan Windows Publications

The Cavan Windows Publications has announced the happy selected few for their next 'Introductions' anthology, Series no 7, either 3 or 4 poems or a short story as a representation of the artists' work.

There will be a launch in Cavan on Friday 26th October, and others in Galway, Dublin and possibly Castlebar. Details to follow. Here are the names and disciplines:

James Brady - Cavan Visual Art
Aoife Casby - Galway - Poetry
Tom Conaty - Dublin - Poetry
John Corless - Mayo - Irish Language short story
Kate Dempsey - Kildare - Poetry
Aine Durkin - Donegal - Irish language poetry
Stephen Farren - Derry - Poetry
Martin Gleeson - Clare - Poetry
James Lawless - Kildare - Short story
Jim Maguire - Wexford - Poetry
Peter McKay - Isle of Lewis - Scots gaelic Poetry
Alan McMonagle - Galway - Short story
Mary Medec - Galway - Poetry
Jenni Merideth - Essex - Poetry
Wendy Mooney - Dublin - Poetry
Catriona O'Reilly - Cavan - Short story
Michelle O'Sullivan - Mayo - Poetry
Ginny Sullivan - New Zealand - Poetry
Phil Young - Dublin - Short story

I'm going to Google the names out of pure curiosity.