LooseLeaves: Journalism, with its lowly associations of hackery and Grub Street, isn't every day associated with art, but the school of English and drama at University College Dublin has coupled them in a series of public talks, Journalism into Art.
They take place on Thursday nights at the Belfield campus. Next week, Olivia O'Leary will talk about The Sketch - Putting People in the Picture and Damien Kiberd will talk about Journalists - Enemies of the People? on March 2nd. Devised by Declan Kiberd and Andrew Carpenter, one raison d'etre for the series was to see where the functions of art and journalism may overlap. Organiser Stanley van der Ziel says journalism is largely unexplored territory within university English departments.
Although journalism is now a full-scale subject in its own right at third level, according to van der Ziel it has traditionally been regarded, even frowned upon, as second best to art in some academic circles; "as something not worth the same sort of attention. Yet many great writers, from Swift to Beckett and Joyce, have, in their time, written their share of journalism". They are disciplines that aren't mutually exclusive - as they've traditionally been perceived - and the series is looking at the similarities and limitations of both, says van der Ziel. So if, as critic and author Gabriel Josipovici said recently, artists are the saints of our secular society, who knows, maybe journalists can claim to be a few rungs up that particular ladder too?
The lectures are held in Room J208, John Henry Newman (Arts) Building, UCD, Belfield at 8pm. For further details tel: 01-7168157
Laird's winning streak
Tyrone-born poet Nick Laird's prize-winning streak continued this week when his collection To a Fault (Faber & Faber) won the The Rupert and Eithne Strong First Book Award 2006, for the best first collection published in 2005. The award is run by the Poetry Now (PN06) festival in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, which takes place this year from March 23rd to 26th. He's already won The Rooney Prize, the Aldeburgh Prize and the Ireland Chair of Poetry Prize. For further information, see www.dlrcoco.ie/arts.
Lee on the Booker bench
The composition of the judging panel in the £50,000 (€73,000) Man Booker Prize is often almost as interesting as the shortlist.The group dynamics can sometimes make or break it for an author on judging day. This year's chairwoman is biographer and academic Hermione Lee, who was on the panel 25 years ago when Salman Rushdie won with Midnight's Children. Glad to be back on the bench, she talked this week about how the influence of the Booker remains enormous. "It can change a writer's profile, reward a towering reputation, or introduce a brand new novelist to the world," she said. Sales of last year's winning novel, John Banville's The Sea, out in paperback this April, have now reached almost a quarter of a million and his publisher Picador has seen a sudden increase in his backlist sales.
Best known for her Virginia Woolf biography, Lee is working on a life of Edith Wharton due out in 2007. The identities of her fellow judges have still to be revealed.With two Irish authors, Sebastian Barry and Banville, shortlisted last year, and Banville winning, it's hard to see Ireland having such a triumphant time this year, but former winner Roddy Doyle is among a few Irish novelists including Michael Collins and Keith Ridgway who have novels out that may well figure in a field of 150 novels to be assessed. New books by David Mitchell, Sarah Waters and another past winner, DBC Pierre, should also be in the running. The shortlist will be announced in September. See www.themanbookerprize.com.
Choosing books for children
Ever dithered in the children's section at the bookshop wondering what's right for a particular child? At a free event in The Ark in Dublin's Temple Bar from 11am to 5pm today, Sarah Webb and Joe O'Brien will advise adults on how to choose for five-to-eight year-olds. This event is at 2pm. It's part of Read All Over, organised by Children's Books Ireland and The O'Brien Press featuring Marita Conlon McKenna, Gordon Snell, Oisín McGann, Kevin Kiely and Deirdre Madden (right), whose first book for children came out last year. As well as meeting the authors and hearing them read from their books, children can quiz them on writing.