In The Irish Times tomorrow, Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch tells Lauren Murphy about his debut novel, Nobody’s Empire. In his new book, Ghosts of a Family, Edward Burke identifies the man he believes to have been responsible for the brutal killing of a Belfast Catholic family in 1922, and details the repercussions of the massacre. He talks to Mark Hennessy. There is a Q&A with Máire Zepf about her adaptation of her Irish-language children’s series Rita for TG4. Colm Tóibín introduces 80 at 80, a new selection of Paul Durcan’s finest poems, published in celebration of his 80th birthday on October 16th, and edited by Niall McMonagle. The Gate Theatre will host an evening to celebrate Durkan’s poetry on October 21st.
Reviews are Catriona Crowe on Atlas of the Irish Civil War New Perspectives, edited by Hélène O’Keeffe, John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, John Borgonovo and Mike Murphy; Mia Levitin on the Booker-shortlisted Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood; Patricia Craig on Hide Away by Dermot Bolger; Declan Burke on the best new crime fiction; Gemma Tipton on Martin Gayford’s How Painting Happens (and why it matters); Conor Brady on On Duty: Reflections on a Life in the Guards by the late John O’Driscoll and Traces of Truth by Ciaran Prior; Helena Mulkerns on Fire Exit by Morgan Talty; Philip Coleman on 80 at 80 by Paul Durcan; Frank Shovlin on Let’s Dance by Lucy Sweeney Byrne; Sara Keating on children’s fiction; and Sarah Gilmartin on Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst.
Reviews are Catriona Crowe on Atlas of the Irish Civil War: New Perspectives, edited by Hélène O’Keeffe, John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, John Borgonovo and Mike Murphy; Mia Levitin on the Booker-shortlisted Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood; Patricia Craig on Hide Away by Dermot Bolger; Declan Burke on the best new crime fiction; Gemma Tipton on Martin Gayford’s How Painting Happens (and why it matters); Conor Brady on On Duty: Reflections on a Life in the Guards by the late John O’Driscoll and Traces of Truth by Ciaran Prior; Helena Mulkerns on Fire Exit by Morgan Talty; Philip Coleman on 80 at 80 by Paul Durcan; Frank Shovlin on Let’s Dance by Lucy Sweeney Byrne; Sara Keating on children’s fiction; and Sarah Gilmartin on Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst.
This Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer is Geneva by Richard Armitage, just €5.99, a €6 saving.
The Stinging Fly Annual Lecture 2024 will be delivered by the acclaimed novelist, poet and biographer, Anne Haverty. A recipient of the Rooney Prize and a member of Aosdána, Anne has been publishing for more than 25 years. Her lecture, entitled ‘Writing in the Stupid Age’, will speak to the regression of language and culture in our modern times: ‘To explain it, briefly: we are in thrall to a culture processed through the new technology, a technology we are dazzled by. Our capacities are becoming redundant, our individual agency is fading away, our language dwindles into cliche. Essential components of our human intelligence, our human forms of expression, are in the process of being discarded and even suppressed. We seem to be happy, even eager, to allow our freedom, our very capacity to think, to be taken from us.’ The lecture will take place on Wednesday 23rd of October in the United Arts Club, 3 Fitzwiliam Street Upper, Dublin 2. Tickets are available here.
Irish writers Kevin Power and Sarah Webb are among the judges announced this week by Caffè Nero as judges for the 2024 Nero Book Awards.
Last year’s inaugural awards had a distinctly Irish feel. The inaugural winner of the Nero Book Awards Gold Prize was The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. Murray described winning the Nero Gold Prize as “a tremendous honour”. Winning the prize propelled The Bee Sting to a wider audience, with the paperback jumping from #3,724 to #129 in the Amazon book charts the morning after the announcement. Simon Prosser, Hamish Hamilton publishing director, said: “Winning the Fiction Category and Gold Prize was a great extra boost for The Bee Sting as we prepared to launch our paperback edition, and we were delighted when the book went straight into the Top 5 of the Sunday Times paperback fiction bestseller chart.” Belfast author Michael Magee won the debut fiction prize for Close to Home.
The Nero Book Awards 2024 judging panels highlight the importance of author participation in the Awards process. Rhik Samadder, who wrote the memoir I Never Said I Loved You, takes his place on the nonfiction panel while award-winning children’s writers Sarah Webb and Patrice Lawrence representthe author’s voice on the Children’s Fiction panel. Kevin Power, author of Bad Day in Blackrock and White City, joins the Fiction Award panel while Louise Doughty, author of 10 novels, most of which have been adapted for screen including Apple Tree Yard, is one of three Debut Fiction category judges.
The 16-strong shortlist, comprising of four books in each category, will be announced on December 2nd. The category winners will then be announced on January 14th, 2025. The 2024 Nero Gold Prize will be announced on March 5th, when the book of the year will be selected from the four category winners.
The 13th edition of the ISLA Festival, dedicated to Irish, Spanish and Latin American literature, will take place at the Instituto Cervantes in Dublin next week, on October 9th and 10. This diverse and bilingual event seeks to build links, foster understanding and encourage creative collaboration across cultures.
This free festival offers five sessions featuring conversations with notable writers such as Una Mannion, Andrés Barba and Nuala O’Connor. Highlights include discussions on themes such as the role of writing and reading and the importance of historical memory. The event will end with a film about Pablo Neruda.
Supported by Irish cultural institutions and Hispanic embassies, ISLA aims to bridge diverse literary traditions, fostering new readers and innovative literature. These events assure an engaging experience, celebrating the power of storytelling across cultures. Booking is required to attend, and all sessions will be interpreted in Spanish and English, ensuring accessibility for all attendees.
*
Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival returns for the October Bank Holiday Weekend from Friday, October 25th to Monday 28th.
A discovery of big historical and literary significance about Stoker has been made and will be discussed in detail at a worldwide exclusive public event in the Pillar Room at the Rotunda Hospital with Miriam O’Callaghan interviewing the person who made this discovery, Brian Cleary, as well as Paul Murray (Stoker’s pre-eminent biographer) and visual artist Paul McKinley about Brian’s incredible find, the fascinating and heartwarming story behind it, and what it means for the legacy of Stoker.
At the Supreme Court at the Four Courts there will be a special recording of Newstalk’s Talking History podcast: Talking History – Petty Sessions: Weird and Wonderful Court Cases from Victorian Ireland. Hosted by Dr Patrick Geoghegan, with guests Paul Kelly, President of the District Court, Zoe Reid, Keeper at the National Archives of Ireland, and Professor Jarlath Killeen, Head of the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. The panel will dive into the weird, wonderful and fascinating tales from the Petty Sessions of the 19th century and how they help us understand the Ireland of Bram Stoker’s time as well as the author himself.
Historian Donal Fallon will host The Women of Bram Stoker’s Life: Three Castles Burning Live and explore the lives of Charlotte Stoker, Bram’s mother, who raised him on folklore and stories of her own youth; Speranza (Lady Jane Wilde, the mother of Oscar) a key influence in expanding on his knowledge of Ireland’s folklore and mythology and Florence Balcombe, the woman he would marry and who Oscar Wilde had earlier pursued. Donal will be joined by Marion McGarry, author of the acclaimed book Irish Customs and Rituals and an authority on Jane Wilde and Charlotte Stoker, to discuss some of the women central to Stoker’s life and work. Eva Jane Gaffney will bring their words to life.
History fans are in for a treat at Who Did What Now? Podcast: The Victorians Ruined Everything. Join Katie Charlwood as she explores the mystical and macabre obsessions of the Victorian era in The Victorians Ruined Everything. This entertaining and informative event promises to spill the tea on all things eerie in 19th-century Dublin and is set in the historic Graduate Memorial Building in Trinity College.
An annual favourite, Spooky Stories at Marsh’s Library invites guests to wander the darkened galleries where books of witchcraft and heresy are to be found. This free, eerie experience is sure to send shivers down your spine, just as it did for a young Bram Stoker who visited the library many times.
*
Featuring some of the most well-known and internationally renowned crime-writing stars, Murder One, Ireland’s International Crime Writing Festival, returns to Dublin from October 17th – 20th for its seventh year with a whole host of talks, masterclasses and workshops in Dún Laoghaire’s DLR Lexicon Library & Cultural Centre.
Friday, 18th October kicks off with a practical masterclass with international Irish bestseller Catherine Ryan Howard where budding crime writers can learn how to plot the perfect crime story. Wondering how exactly to make a great first impression with a literary agent or publisher? Then be sure to join top literary agents Simon Trewin and Polly Nolan on Friday afternoon to find out how to capture an agent’s attention.
Day one will finish up on a high with Breda Brown chatting to international bestseller, Peter James, as he discusses his latest novel, One of Us is Dead.
Highlights for Saturday, October 19th include authors Brian McGilloway, Karen Perry, B.A. Paris & Claire McGowan discussing how friendships can take a sinister turn. Andrea Mara & C.L. Taylor will join Sam Blake for a chat about how they develop new book ideas that grip readers from the very beginning and Jo Spain an Jane Casey will chat with John Deane-O’Keeffe about their screen successes.
Sunday, October 20th, features bestselling author of the Eddie Flynn novels, Steve Cavanagh chatting with Edel Coffey about creating one of the greatest characters in crime fiction published today ... followed by a discussion with authors Stuart Neville, Amanda Cassidy and Vaseem Khan on the importance of location in their nail-biting novels. murderone.ie
Mark O’Connell has been appointed as Rooney Writer Fellow at the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Festival.
Author of A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse and To Be a Machine, O’Connell’s creative non-fiction has gained national and international renown. His exploration of transhumanism in his first book To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers was awarded the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize and the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. He was also shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.
From extreme biohacking in Silicon Valley to doomsday ‘preppers’ in New Zealand, Mark draws on the personal to interrogate the collective crises facing humanity. Published at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back was described by Sally Rooney as “the perfect handbook for the end of times” and provides a fascinating insight into the measures being taken around the world to escape the apocalypse.
His most recent work, A Thread of Violence: A Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder, revisits the crimes of Dublin socialite Malcolm Macarthur. Bestselling author Colm Toíbín describes this work as having been “nourished by a powerful moral intelligence and an enormous curiosity”.
O’Connell was awarded his PhD in English (2011) from Trinity College Dublin and is a former alumnus of the Trinity Long Room Hub where he spent time as an early career research fellow. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and The Guardian. He is also a columnist for The Irish Times.
He said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be given the opportunity to spend time at the Trinity Long Room Hub as Writer Fellow. Having spent a year here in 2011 as a postdoctoral researcher, the Hub was an important place for my development as a writer. It’s wonderful to be back here, and to be part of a community of scholars, whose fascinating research is likely to spark off all kinds of inspiration in my own work”.
Trinity Long Room Hub Director Eve Patten commented: “The Rooney fellowship provides a space for writers to engage with some of the cutting-edge research covered by Trinity’s arts and humanities disciplines. Given the intersection of Mark’s writing with many of our key research areas, this promises to be a fertile collaboration.”
Previous fellows have included author Caitríona Lally, poet and fabulist Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe and Booker-prize nominated author Paul Murray.
*
Novelist and short story writer Ross Raisin has won the 19th BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) for ‘Ghost Kitchen’, a tense, cinematic story narrated by a bicycle courier and inspired by the gig economy and the ‘dark kitchens’ of the restaurant industry. Lucy Caldwell, a previous winner, was shortlisted this year.
*
IMRAM Irish-language literature festival 2024 returns to Dublin from November 7th – 16th, showcasing the rich diversity of modern Irish-language literature through a mix of live performances, author interviews, readings, and multimedia shows, From Taylor Swift as Gaeilge to Sexy Tadgh: the jam-packed programme features live music, author interviews, readings, multimedia shows, and more
Highlights include Sreang Dhofheicthe / Invisible String: The Taylor Swift Project, featuring songs from folklore and evermore translated into Irish and performed by Róisín Seoighe & IMLÉ, and An Craiceann agus a Luach, a retelling of the mermaid myth by storyteller Eithne Ní Ghallchobhair, accompanied by a live score from Steve Cooney. Other events feature acclaimed writers, including Louis de Paor, Catherine Foley, and Art Hughes, and musicians such as Sexy Tadhg and Kíla.
The annual festival works to put Irish-language literature at the heart of Ireland’s public life and aims to bring audiences on a voyage of discovery through the rich diversity of modern Irish-language literature. The 2024 festival celebrates Irish-language creativity across 13 events, offering something for everyone – from new learners to fluent speakers. Visit imram.ie for details.
*
Irish Book Week 2024 is just a few weeks away, running from Saturday, 19th October until Saturday, 26th October, and with the countdown now well under way Bookselling Ireland is delighted to announce details of some of the exciting in-store events already confirmed to take place over the course of the weeklong celebrations including;
Dublin – Chapters Bookshop, Parnell Street, is hosting an evening of Macabre, Magic and Mayhem with author Courtney Smyth and special guests on Wednesday, 23rd October at 6.30pm. Entry is free and are all welcome to attend! Further information is available at www.chaptersbookstore.com
Bookselling Ireland is also delighted to announce that they are teaming up with Discover Irish Children’s Books during Irish Book Week by developing an Irish Children’s Book Challenge. Log on to https://discoveririshkidsbooks.ie/ for further information.
ÁIS (Áisíneacht Dáileacháin Leabhar) has also come on board as a new sponsor for Irish Book Week 2024.
And finally, Books Ireland is partnering with bookshops across Ireland for Irish Book Week 2024 to mark the new and expanded edition of ‘The Irish Writers Handbook 2025′which will hit Irish bookshops from Saturday, 19th October.
*
Publishers for Palestine, a lobby group of more than 500 publishers, has issued an open letter demanding that the Frankfurt Book Fair, which takes place from October 16th to 20th, cut ties with Israel. The coalition, which formed last November, called for the fair organisers to “publicly denounce Israel’s regime of genocide and setter-colonial apartheid against the Palestinian people” among other demands.
The members of Publishers for Palestine are from 50 countries, including Ireland, Britain and the US.
Last year’s fair was held just weeks after Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel. Frankfurt director Juergen Boos said then that the fair “stands with complete solidarity on the side of Israel” and would highlight Israeli voices at that year’s show. A ceremony for Palestinian author Adania Shibli, who was to be awarded the Literaturpreis for her novel Minor Detail, about the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, was cancelled, prompting a several Arab publishers to pull out. This year’s programme includes Occupied, Destroyed, Fought over, in Turmoil: Quo Vadis Palestine?, a conversation with Palestinian novelist and former culture minister Atef Abu Saif moderated by German journalist Kristin Helberg, and a talk from Palestinian author Abdalrahman Alqalaq on writing in exile.
