Reviewed by BERNICE HARRISON
Enlightenment and entertainment in Kilkenny
As well as the usual line-up of writers reading from their work, Kilkenny Arts Festival includes a couple of literary events that promise to be as entertaining as they are enlightening.
Remembering John McGahern (Parade Tower, August 11th) sees Colm Tóibín, Denis Sampson, author of Young John McGahern, and Anne Fogarty, professor of James Joyce studies at UCD, exploring the life and legacy of one of our most influential writers.
The following lunchtime, at the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel, Tóibín will be in conversation with Anthony Cronin for a look back on the latter’s life and career. Unusually for a writerly event, there will be music: Dónal Lunny will be on stage with Graham Henderson and Cora Venus Lunny to premiere his musical version of Cronin’s poem RMS Titanic.
Book at kilkennyarts.ie.
Costa serves up short and sweet literary prize
A new short-story prize is putting its faith in the public’s ability to pick a literary winner.
The judging panel of the Costa Short Story Award, announced this week and with a top prize of £3,500 (€4,500), will choose a shortlist of six entries to go to an online public vote. The winner will be announced at the Costa Book Awards next January.
The judges include the writer Victoria Hislop (above) and the agent Simon Trewin. Entries must be no more than 4,000 words, written in English, by an author aged 18 or over. The author's primary residence over the past three years must have been Britain or Ireland. Entries must be in by September 7th. costabookawards.com.
Debbie McCune proves to be hot property
The young-adult fiction writer Debbie McCune, from Northern Ireland, has been signed up for a three-book deal by Hot Key Books for her debut series, Death and Co.
The supernatural trilogy features teenager Adam, described as “a reluctant member of the Lumen: a formidable and powerful section of society who are tasked with transporting souls to their rightful place in the afterlife”.
Her sparky blog about the trials of writing ( debbiemccune.blogspot. ie) is worth a look. On the business of knuckling down to edit your work, she follows the top advice: "Read your book as if it's your worst enemy reading it."
Forward’s thinking poets announced
The shortlists for this year’s Forward prizes for poetry were announced this week, with Oxford professor of poetry Geoffrey Hill shortlisted for the £10,000 prize for best collection for the second consecutive year, this time for his Odi Barbare.
Also on that list is Beverley Bie Brahic (White Sheets), Jorie Graham (Place), Barry Hill (Naked Clay) and Selima Hill (People Who Like Meatballs).
Michael Longley made the shortlist for the £1,000 prize for best single poem for Marigolds, first published in the London Review of Books. The winners will be announced in October.
Ship comes in early for ‘Broken Harbour’
A book can become a bestseller long before it’s even published thanks to Amazon’s preorder system: surely a huge boost for writers waiting nervously for their books to hit the shelves.
Broken Harbour, the new (and superb) crime novel by the Irish author Tana French, hit number 99 on Amazon’s US chart last week thanks to the strength of preorders. It’s not due for publication in the US – without the “u” in Harbour, of course – until next week.
