A perusal of the latest literary news
Paul Murray scoops prize at Hay festival
One of the best things about Dublin Writers Festival, which continues over the weekend, is spotting major writers strolling through town. Anthony Beevor, Ian McEwan and David Mitchell are among those who have also been appearing across the water at the Guardian Hay Festival, where on Monday the Irish novelist Paul Murray won Oxfam's Emerging Writer's Prize – a first edition of Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon. "I'm very pleased to win and really glad to get an award from Oxfam, as I greatly admire their work. There are a lot of books published, and in the current climate it's hard to get attention, so to know that people are reading and liking my books is fantastic," said Murray. The sale of five books in an Oxfam shop goes a long way; it's reckoned to be enough to fund an adult literacy class – and 16 vaccinations to protect livestock from disease. Murray takes part in a Dublin Writers Festival event today at Project at 2pm.
Claire Keegan to lead residential fiction course
The short-story writer Claire Keegan, whose next book, Foster, is published by Faber later this year, is directing a residential weekend in August aimed at people who are starting to write fiction. “You don’t even have to have started yet to come along; just having the desire to write is enough. All who have an interest in learning how fiction works and who want to put pen to paper are welcome,” says Keegan. The course runs over the weekend of August 6th-8th at Innisfree International College Convention Centre, on the shores of Lough Gill in Co Sligo. A workshop for more advanced writers takes place later in the year. E-mail ckworkshops@yahoo.co.uk.
Trinity library appeal for Indian connections
An exhibition on the Irish in India, Nabobs, Soldiers Imperial Service: the Irish in India, has opened in the Long Room at Trinity College Dublin and will continue until October 3rd. College librarian Robin Adams is using the occasion to ask anyone who has historical connections with India to get in touch. “The variety and richness of the items in the exhibition demonstrate the close link between Ireland and India over the past two centuries, and we would be delighted to hear from anyone whose family records reveal connections with India, such as those who had relatives working in the Civil Service.” The college is expanding its south-Asia-studies programmes, aimed at developing research in Ireland into the history, literature and culture of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and any memorabilia linked to that would be of interest to it. Featured in the exhibition is India and Ireland by Éamon de Valera, a pamphlet of an address castigating British exploitation of Indian resources, drawing parallels with the Irish experience under British rule, delivered in 1920 in New York.
Dunphy and Cahill talk football at Dalkey festival
Italia ’90 and the role of football and culture are up for discussion by the broadcasters Eamon Dunphy and Des Cahill and the writers Dermot Bolger and Declan Lynch on Friday, June 18th, the opening day of Dalkey Book Festival, in south Co Dublin. The event is at 8.30pm in the Town Hall. Other events during the three-day festival include Ferdia Mac Anna and Lia Mills on writing memoirs; appearances by Maeve Binchy and Gordon Snell; and Declan Hughes and John Connolly on 10 crime novels you should read before you die. dalkeybookfestival.org.
