Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Jane Clarke on TS Eliot Prize shortlist

In The Irish Times this Saturday, there is an extract from The Persuader, Stephen Walker’s biography of John Hume. Seán Hewitt introduces his new anthology, 300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World, illustrated by Luke Edward Hall. Leon Diop talks to to Filomena Kaguako about Black & Irish: Legends, Trailblazers and Everyday Heroes, the book he co-wrote with Briana Fitzsimons, illustrated by Jessica Louis. Joanna Donnelly, author of From Malin Head to Mizen Head: A Journey Around the Sea Area Forecast, is interviewed by Ronan McGreevy. Edel Coffey talks to Irish authors about the copyright threat posed by AI. There is also a Q&A with poet and author Martina Evans, whose latest work is The Coming Thing.

Reviews are Nicholas Allen on The Letters of Seamus Heaney edited by Christopher Reid; Colum McCann on A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story by Nathan Thrall; Michael Cronin on the best new translations; Stephen Sexton on the Collected Poems of Ciaran Carson, Vols 1& 2; Brigid O’Dea on Raised by the Zoo by Gerry Creighton; Sara Keating on the best new children’s books; Ruth McKee on Adventures of a Wonky-eyed Man by Jason Byrne; Neil Hegarty on The Book at War by Andrew Pettegree; Aimée Walsh on Two Summers by Glenn Patterson; Lucy Sweeney Byrne on Be Mine by Richard Ford; and Kevin Power on Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford.

This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is Grave Expectations by Alice Bell, a comic murder mystery, which you can buy with your newspaper for just €5.99, a €5 saving.

Irish poets Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Jane Clarke have been chosen for the TS Eliot Prize 2023 shortlist by judges Paul Muldoon (chair), Sasha Dugdale and Denise Saul from 186 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers.

The list comprises a former winner and two previously shortlisted poets, as well as two debuts and two second collections.

Muldoon said: “We are confident that all 10 shortlisted titles not only meet the high standards they set themselves but speak most effectively to, and of, their moment. If there’s a single word for that moment it is surely ‘disrupted’, and all these poets properly reflect that disruption. Shot through though they are with images of grief, migration, and conflict, they are nonetheless imbued with energy and joy. The names of some poets will be familiar, others less so; all will find a place in your head and heart.”

The judges added: “We are aware that two of the titles on the list fall short of the 48 pages required. However, both are fully achieved poetry collections that merit their inclusion on the shortlist.”

Katie Farris’s Standing in the Forest of Being Alive and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s The Map of the World were submitted by publishers and put before the judges in error, but when notified of this, the judges declined to exclude them, citing their reason above.

The other shortlisted titles are: Self-Portrait as Othello by Jason Allen-Paisant; More Sky by Joe Carrick-Varty; A Change in the Air by Jane Clarke; The Ink Cloud Reader by Kit Fan; I Think We’re Alone Now by Abigail Parry; School of Instructions by Ishion Hutchinson; Hyena! by Fran Lock; and Balladz by Sharon Olds.

The shortlist readings will take place on January 14th, 2024 at 7pm in the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall as part of its literature programme. The winner will be announced the following day. Last year’s winner was Anthony Joseph for his collection Sonnets for Albert.

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Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann co-hosts Human Rights Under Threat: The Arts Respond for the annual Dublin International Arts and Human Rights festival, on October 14th at 1-2.30pm at the Pearse Street Library Conference Centre.

George Szirtes, award-winning Hungarian writer primarily in the field of poetry, translation and memoir, will be interviewed by Mary Moynihan, writer, director, theatre and filmmaker and Artistic Director of co-hosts Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality. He will discuss migration, human rights and freedom of expression, and the role of poetry in these challenging times. He will also give a short reading from his work. Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann member Csilla Toldy, an award-winning Hungarian poet, novelist, translator and film-maker will join the discussion and read from her work. Tickets are for free but booking is essential here.

The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction has announced its shortlist of six titles in contention for this year’s award: Darling by India Knight; Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham; Mother Hens by Sophie McCartney; and Murder at Crime Manor by Fergus Craig; Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors by Aravind Jayan The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer.

The judges said: “India Knight’s Darling is a delicious update of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love, with Uncle Matthew a curmudgeonly difficult ageing 60′s rockstar living hilariously with his family in deepest Norfolk. Hannaham creates a mesmerising voice and character when, after 20 years in a men’s prison, his protagonist, Carlotta, a trans woman negotiates re-entry into a much-changed Brooklyn. This is savage, shocking humour that plays with tone and texture and tale to make the reader give more of a shit than we’d ever imagined. Mother Hens tells the tale of Cara Carmichael, as she navigates her messy divorce at the hen do of all hen dos. Hold on to your pelvic floor as Sophie McCartney paints a vivid picture of motherhood, friendship and revenge, served up in a margarita glass. What happens in Ibiza…

“Fergus Craig’s detective Roger LeCarre is loveable, funny and absurd. His adventures are self-obsessed but also ridiculously show-offy. This book is Wodehousian in spirit and style. You laugh out loud, and you wonder how it is that in a staged country-house setting, where murder is done, you can still care. And then you realise that you’ve enjoyed it. A fictional romp to savour. Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors is a sharply observed story of family, love in all its myriad forms, rebellion, coming to terms with one’s self and the extraordinary power the internet wields over all this, set in a refreshingly specific modern Indian context and relayed in a startlingly simple, pithy and hilarious voice. Bob Mortimer’s debut novel is one of the funniest and most entertaining books of the last ten years. That rarest of rare creations; a superbly comic book that also tells a blisteringly good page-turning story.”

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On the event of the 169th birthday of the world-renowned Irish wit, playwright and poet, the Oscar Wilde House at 1 Merrion Square North in Dublin will host the very first edition of Oscariana – A Wilde Dublin Festival, from Saturday October 14 to Monday October 16, the inimitable Mr Oscar Wilde’s birthday. Set in the childhood home of Oscar, where the Wilde family lived for 24 years, Oscariana will explore and celebrate the birth, life, and legacy of one of Ireland’s most famous sons, through tours, live performances, music, poetry, theatre, art, children’s stories, and film screenings. oscariana.ie

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