Up for debate: how the economy affects writing:"Modern Ireland has Nothing to Inspire Modern Writing" is a pre-budget debate at the Irish Writers' Centre, in Dublin, on December 1st to discuss the potential effects of December 7th on writers and the dwindling number of arts organisations across the country.
The poet Michael O’Loughlin, co-founder of Raven Arts Press, will chair a discussion on how the economic climate is affecting writing. O’Loughlin is the author of a broadside on the need for financial investment in literature in the current Poetry Ireland News. “The unfortunate thing is that the success abroad of some writers born in this geographical area has let the state off the hook. Writers are not expensive . . . And in a sense the Irish state has been lucky in its writers. Partly due to their background, partly due to their temperamental inclination, few of our leading writers can be accused of any critical attitude to the state. No Harold Pinters here.” The line-up for the public event is the arts journalist Nadine O’Regan, the Fighting Words co-founder Sean Love, the playwright Gavin Kostick and the poet Gerard Smyth. Kick-off is at 7pm. writerscentre.ie.
Belfield nostalgia from Stembridge and Dungan
Seventies nostalgia will be the order of the day when Gerry Stembridge, the writer, director and actor (and former auditor of University College Dublin’s Literary and Historical Society), and the broadcaster Myles Dungan return to their alma materfor a Characters in Conversation event on Wednesday (6.30-8pm), during which they’ll reminisce about their student days. Tickets €20 from ucd.ie/alumni/events.
‘Skippy Dies’ makes it on to the Costa shortlist
Great to see Paul Murray's Skippy Diesup for the 2010 Costa Novel Award. Not having progressed from the Man Booker longlist to the shortlist earlier this year, he now features alongside Louise Doughty for Whatever You Love, Nigel Farndale for The Blasphemerand Maggie O'Farrell for The Hand That First Held Mine. They made it from a list of 168 entries – the most ever in the category. "Profound, challenging and shocking – a generous romp with a tender heart. Murray does a tremendous job of penetrating the adolescent psyche," the judges said.
Up for the Costa Biography Award are How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answerby Sarah Bakewell, My Father's Fortune, a memoir by the novelist and playwright Michael Frayn, and The Hare with Amber Eyesby Edmund de Waal, the tale of how a unique collection of 264 miniature wood and ivory carvings – the "netsuke" unlocked for him the world of his forebears. The winners will be announced on January 5th. costabookawards.com.
‘Stinging Fly’ writers to help launch anthology
James Moynihan and Madeleine D'Arcy, two writers from Cork, will read on home turf at the launch of the short-story anthology Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails, edited by Philip Ó Ceallaigh, at the River Lee Hotel on December 16th at 8pm. Presiding will be Declan Meade, editor of the Stinging Fly, whose associated press published the book. Reviewing it in The Irish Timeslast week, the novelist and short-story writer Gerard Donovan pronounced it excellent: "Such quality as this deserves readers and will win them."
