LOOSE LEAVES:The shortlist for the 2012 TS Eliot Prize for Poetry was announced on Monday. It includes Simon Armitage for his collection The Death of King Arthur; Sean Borodale for Bee Journey; and Gillian Clarke for her collection Ice.
The prestigious prize goes to what the judges deem the best new collection of poetry published in the UK and Ireland. No Irish poets feature on this year’s shortlist, but one of the judges is among our finest poets, and a previous TS Eliot winner, Michael Longley. Other Irish poets who have taken home “the prize most poets want to win” include Paul Muldoon and Seamus Heaney. This year’s winner, who will pocket £15,000 (€18,500), will be announced on January 14th.
The prize was established in 1993 by the Poetry Book Society to honour Eliot, its founder. It’s the holy grail for many poets, not least because the judging panel is always made up of respected poets. Joining Longley on this year’s panel are David Morley and Britain’s poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy; the trio had to leaf through a record 131 entries. According to Duffy, the judges are “delighted with a shortlist which sparkles with energy, passion and freshness”.
Halloween horrors for budding Brams
If you’re a parent looking for something to thrill the kids for Halloween, there’s nothing spookier than a terrifying tale well told. At 10am today and tomorrow, the Bram Stoker Festival hosts Blood Red Ink, a writing workshop for budding Brams aged 11-14, with the children’s author Celine Kiernan. It’s at the Long Room Hub in Trinity College. At 3pm today, the actors Owen Roe and Donna Dent will read scary stories in Gothic Tales from the Crypt, at the crypt in Christ Church Cathedral. And at 5pm the authors Oisín McGann, Will Hill and Derek Landy will host A Scare at Smock Alley, at Smock Alley Theatre, on Lower Exchange Street.
Landy is the creator of Skulduggery Pleasant, probably the second-best scary creation to come out of Ireland after Dracula. Expect a big turnout for the Skulduggery Pleasant Extravaganza at the National Gallery of Ireland on Wednesday at 1pm. Landy will talk about his anti-hero, along with the book’s illustrator, Tom Percival. Fans are encouraged to dress up as Skulduggery or as any scary character they like.
The event is cohosted by the Ark, which is also hosting the Telling Tall and Tiny Tales Experience in Temple Bar during the midterm break. From Monday to Friday, authors and illustrators will share their storytelling secrets and show you how to make up and illustrate your own stories. There will also be readings of spooky stories each day at 11am, noon, 2pm and 3pm.
Jamie beats JK in Christmas No 1 betting
Jamie Oliver is a choux-in for the top slot in the UK bestseller list this Christmas, according to William Hill bookmaker, which is taking bets on which books are going to fill stockings. Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals is 1/3 favourite to top the Christmas list, and is predicted to pip JK Rowling’s first non-Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy, at 3/1. (Should have written Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Cookbook instead, JK.) Lagging in third place at 4/1 is Camp David, the autobiography of David Walliams, but he’s still ahead of that perennial bestseller Guinness World Records, at 7/1.
In less festive end-of-year news, Neilsen Bookscan has delivered its year-to-date figures for the Irish consumer market, and they make for grim reading. Book sales in the Republic amounted to €82.5 million, down 6.9 per cent on 2011.
Fiction sales have dropped 2.1 per cent to €25.5 million and non-fiction is down 14.1 per cent to €35.6 million, although non-fiction sales are expected to rally for Christmas. One ray of light on this horizon is the news that children’s book sales are up 1.1 per cent, to €21 million. Go, Gruffalo!
