LooseLeaves/Sadbh: If you have $1,000 to spare and are free on Tuesday, November 9th, you might fancy a jaunt to New York where Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney will add to his groaning mantelpiece by accepting the 2004 Kenyon Review Award.
Among the guests at the dinner at Manhattan's Daniel Restaurant will be David McCullough, Pulitzer prize-winning biographer of Truman, Joyce Carol Oates, winner of the 2003 Kenyon award and Paul Muldoon, Irish poet. To balance out the literary heavyweights, there will be a little tinsel-town glamour in the shape of actress Blair Brown, whose recent appearances include Dogville and Space Cowboys.
This is the third time the award has been presented by the Kenyon Review, a journal of contemporary American and world literature, with E.L. Doctorow the inaugural recipient in 2002. You might want to bring some spare change because this year's bash will feature auctions of such eclectic goods as a first edition of The Scarlet Letter and a dinner with David McCullough, as well as "exotic travel" - a holiday in Jackson Hole,
Wyoming. Although, considering the evening's guest of honour, surely a trip to Derry would be more appropriate.
How many trivia books?
Almost two years after the runaway success of Schott's Original Miscellany, there are still plenty of trivia-obsessed books hanging on its coat-tails. None of them has had the attention to detail and obvious care that was put in by Ben Schott, and some of them are downright shoddy. Recent books to arrive on Sadbh's desk included Lovebites: A Cornucopia of Love, Desire & Sauce (Chatto & Windus), which is an unashamed derivative of Schott's, and The Secret History of Entertainment (4th Estate), which is a selection of anecdotes that seem to have been thrown at the page and then tossed on to the printer.
Aubrey Malone's Literary Trivia (Prion) is another book of useless facts, but he, at least, has been doing this sort of thing since well before it was fashionable, with books on Dublin pubs and Irish anecdotes. So, if you want to know 15 writers who had trouble with their eyes or "Ten Nobel laureates it's unlikely you've ever read", you'll find them here, although you are urged to ignore a featured quote of Brendan Behan's that states: "journalism is the last refuge of the literary mediocre".
For a small gift, though, you could do worse than Opening Sentences of Famous Novels (Fitway), which gives you quotes but only reveals their identity on the back pages. Although it could do with being a little more challenging at times, see if you can figure this one out: "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins." Here's a clue: it's not Harry Potter.
First editions and rarities
P&B Rowan, the Belfast shop specialising in antiquarian and rare book manuscripts, has published its catalogue, Irish Novels, Stories and Tales 1800-2000, and it makes for a fascinating measure of how much the stock of Irish literature has risen - in strictly monetary terms, of course.
It's no surprise that you would have to spend big bucks on rare editions of work by Samuel Beckett or James Joyce, and that uncorrected proofs of Roddy Doyle's recent works have already increased in value. Can we read anything into the fact that first editions by some fine writers, such as Jennifer Johnston, can be picked up relatively cheaply? However, if you fancied buying yourself a book to put behind glass rather than on the shelf, the catalogue includes a first edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula which would take a bite out of your wallet at £9,000, while a rare first printing of Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent is on offer for £10,000. Remember, it's time to think of those stocking fillers. For a copy of the catalogue, contact 04890 666448.
Livewire seeks sparks
Livewire Publications is the latest independent publishing house to appear on the scene, and the Dublin-based company is seeking out short stories, small novels or "documentary accounts of an unusual nature in an Irish context". It's currently compiling an anthology on sexual abuse in Ireland, but says that, in general, its only objective is to "publish what is excellent in writing today and we are willing to take a chance". There are no guidelines, it adds. If you are interested in contributing to Livewire, it can be contacted at PO Box 9902, Dublin 6.