Loose LeavesWhat a brilliant idea of Hugo Hamilton's German publishers, Luchterhand in Munich to get him, 50 years on, to retrace the steps of Heinrich Böll in Ireland which Böll subsequently documented in his book Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal) in 1957.
The idea was for Hamilton to see what remained of the country Böll had known. "Germans have been fascinated by Ireland ever since Irisches Tagebuch. It was a songline that he created for the Germans, bringing them to places of sanctuary and tranquillity, and I wanted to look at Ireland now and see what is left of that - and what has changed," says Hamilton, who spent three months last year in Wesport, Achill, Limerick and Dublin on his quest.
While he felt he saw the real Ireland at the All Ireland hurling final in September, other things were depressing. "I am critical of Ireland in the book. I do describe us a bit as opportunists but there is also a lot that makes us unique - like the gift of talking; of imagining ourselves through stories." Plans are in train for Hamilton's book Die Redselige Insel (The Island of Talking) to come out in English next year, the same year as his new novel Disguise, which is due in the spring.
Hugo Hamilton will read in English from Redselige Insel at the Goethe Institut on Merrion Square on Nov 8th at 8pm.
The Irish investigators
Irish writers did well at the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Awards at the recent Boucheron Convention in Anchorage, Alaska. While Ken Bruen won the best novel award for The Dramatist, novelist and playwright Declan Hughes took the best first novel prize for his debut The Wrong Kind of Blood. On its publication, fellow Irish crime writer John Connolly hailed Hughes's novel with the accolade "Irish crime fiction has come of age". Featuring Ed Loy's return to Dublin from LA after an absence of 20 years, it's as much an exploration of what lurks beneath the new face of the much-changed city as an exercise in crime writing.
Hat-trick of poetry prizes
On Wednesday, Sean O'Brien became the only poet to have won the £10,000 Forward Poetry Prize three times when he took this year's prize for best collection for The Drowned Book (Picador). The 54-year-old poet completed the hat-trick with this, his sixth collection. He previously won for Ghost Train (Oxford University Press) in 1995 and Downriver (Picador) in 2001. O'Brien lives in Newcastle upon Tyne and is professor of creative writing at Newcastle University. Chairman of the judges, Michael Symmons Roberts, described The Drowned Book as both witty and heart-wrenching: "a sustained elegy for lost friends, landscapes and a decaying culture". Among the poets on the shortlist for this award were John Burnside and Eavan Boland.
Daljit Nagra won the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection with Look We Have Coming To Dover! (Faber) for a debut that reflects the lives of British-born Indians. Daljit is the first poet to have gone on to win Best First Collection with a book whose title poem won (in 2004) the Best Single Poem award.
This year, Alice Oswald won the Best Single Poem prize in memory of Michael Donaghy for Dunt (Poetry London), described by the judges as a haunting elegy for a dying river.
Joyce lecture series
A public lecture series on James Joyce kicks off on Wednesday at 7pm in University College Dublin with Anne Fogarty, professor of Joyce studies at UCD, on Joyce and Shakespeare. The hour-long lectures are in J208 of the John Henry Newman Building in Belfield and the series includes playwright Frank McGuinness on Joyce and Ibsen, Oct 17th; Declan Kiberd on Joyce and Homer, Oct 24th; and Diana Pérez García on Joyce and Gabriel García Marquez on Nov 14th. For further details, tel: 01-7168159.
Lucky little 'uns in Laois
Children's author Caroline Barry has been appointed the new writer-in-residence in Co Laois. During her six-month stint, she will give workshops to local writers' groups, helping them tease out plot lines, explore character motivation and develop a voice. There will be two 10-week workshops for children aged nine to 13 and a further series of workshops for teenagers. Barry has edited three anthologies by young writers with a fourth, A Murder of Crows, being published this year.
She is now inviting writers of all ages to submit work - novel extracts, short stories, poetry, memoirs and other pieces - for possible inclusion in the Laois Anthology 2008.
Writers have to be either from, or living, in the county. Send submissions to: Writer-in-residence, The Arts Office, Laois County Council, Áras an Chontae, Portlaoise, Co Laois before Jan 31st. For further details, tel: 0502-74342/74343.