Caitlin Moran returns to Dublin

International Literature Festival Dublin is hosting an evening with Caitlin Moran at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, on September 7th. Tickets are now on sale at ilfdublin.com Her new novel How to be Famous will be published on June 28th.

Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire, which reworks Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone to tell the story of a British Muslim family’s connection to Islamic State, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction this week, acclaimed by judges as “the story of our times”. John Boyne, reviewing it in The Irish Times, called it “a provocative work which will inspire the admiration of many but may at the same time infuriate readers expecting a more black and white depiction of terrorists versus non-terrorists, Muslims versus non-Muslims, the role of the state versus the rights of the civilian. It takes a brave writer to tackle these subjects in such a nuanced fashion and a fearless one to recognise that there is enough blame for all parties.”

Given how Muslims in Britain have replaced the Irish as a suspect community, it is striking that a key character, the Muslim home secreatry’s son, is called Eamonn – “an Irish spelling to disguise a Muslim name, Ayman… so that people would know the father had integrated”.

Prof Margaret Kelleher is hosting a women writers event as part of the UCD Festival at O’Reilly Hall in Belfield this Saturday, June 9th, at 4pm, with contributions from Lisa Coen of Tramp Press; journalist Madeline Keane on Caoilinn Hughes’ Orchid & the Wasp; poet and creative writing student Amy Gaffney; and UCD academic Emilie Pine, who will be reading from and discussing her new book, Notes to Self. festival.ucd.ie

‘Literature is a safe place to learn about the darker aspects of life’

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Poem of the Week: Changing of the Guard

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Kamila Shamsie wins Women’s Prize for Fiction for ‘story of our times’

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The literary magazine Irish Pages hosts an event, From Begrudgery to Hyperbole: On Recent Irish Fiction, to launch its latest, criticism themed edition, as part of Belfast Book Festival on Saturday, June 16th, at 6.30pm, in Crescent Arts Centre, University Road, Belfast with readings and discussion from Patricia Craig, David Park, Kerry Hardie and Chris Agee.

Craig, a writer and critic, is on the warpath: “Dublin, once famous for begrudgery, has now performed a volte face and opted instead for hyperbole. It’s almost as if a network of support for new creative writing has come into being, involving social media, publicity departments, newspaper reviewers and so forth.”

Bring Your Limericks to Limerick Competition 2018 takes place on Saturday, August 25th in Dolans, Dock Road, Limerick. The winner receives €500, not bad for a five-line poem. Festival director Lisa Gibbons explains, “The delightful simplicity of the limerick verse, with its five lines and an aabba rhyme scheme has given it the moniker of ‘the people’s poetry’. Humour and a sense of the absurd are its defining feature. This and the playful subversiveness of the limerick combine to make it an ideal vehicle for parody and mockery of modern society,” she said. “The hope is to make the competition an integral part of the cultural life of the city. Our ultimate aim is to make Limerick the world centre for this famous verse form.” limericksfest@gmail.com