Bad Day for big screen
A film version of Irish novelist Kevin Power's debut novel Bad Day at Blackrock, inspired by the death of a young man after an attack outside a Dublin nightclub, is in the offing. The book has been sold via agent Marianne Gunn O'Connor to Ed Guiney's Irish-based company Element Pictures which produced the movies Garageand Adam and Pauland co-produced The Wind that Shakes the Barley.
Gunn O’Connor said it was hoped production would start this year, adding that the novel had also been sold for translation in Germany, France, Holland and South America as well as the US and the UK. Reviewing the book (published by Lilliput Press) on these pages last year, novelist John Boyne described it as an excellent novel, raw and passionate, that came from the gut: “A compulsive read which presents an eviscerating portrait of the young men and women who graduate from the supposedly elite schools of southside Dublin.” It wasn’t so much a “whodunit” as a “whydunit” said Boyne, whose own novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas became a hugely successful film.
Mailer fellowship
It’s just over a year since Norman Mailer died (November 2007) but already he has a living, breathing monument. The Norman Mailer Writers’ Colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts, has put out an inaugural call for applications for a month-long writer’s fellowship this July. Fiction and non-fiction writers can apply for the stint at Mailer’s former home, with accommodation and some expenses thrown in.
The vision of the colony is to honour Mailer's contribution to American culture and letters – and help nurture future generations of writers. Seminars, readings, conferences, lectures, awards and exhibitions are all planned and a series of workshops on what Mailer called "the spooky art" – writing – are lined up for this summer. Christopher Ricks is teaching one on Good Poetry and Very Good Prosefrom August 6th-12th. Seven students is the quota; the $2,500 cost includes fees, housing and meals. Other workshops include Writing Techniques of the New Journalismand Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. See www.nmwcolony.com
Joy to star at Éigse
Just what we need – the theme of this year’s Éigse organised by the Munster Literature Centre in Cork is Humour! Irony! Wit. Festival Director Patrick Cotter hopes the festival will induce wry smiles or convulse the stomach muscles of those attending. “We have gathered together a disparate motley crew of literary clowns whose origins include America, Britain, Estonia and Japan, as well as Ireland. We have poets, novelists, essayists and chancers of many genres,” says Cotter. Writers participating include Andres Ehin from Estonia, Yasuhiro Yoshimoto from Japan, John Hartley Williams from the UK and Irish writers Gina Moxley, Gerry Murphy, Julie O’Callaghan, Dennis O’Driscoll and Alan Titley. Events start on Feb 18th and continue through to the 21st. Matthew Sweeney will conduct a Humour in Poetry workshop on the 21st in the Munster Literature Centre on Douglas Street at 2pm. The fee is €30 and it’s limited to ten participants. Otherwise all events take place at the Triskel Arts Centre on Toibin Street and are free. www.munsterlit.ie
Michael Longley double
Two chances to hear Michael Longley read are coming up. The poet will read in the Newman Building, University College Dublin at 7.30pm on Wednesday, Feb 18 and in the Arts Building, Trinity College, Dublin on the 26th Feb at 8pm.
Hart readings
Irish novelist Josephine Hart, whose work includes the novel Damage, made into the Louis Malle movie which starred Juliet Binoche and Jeremy Irons, reads in the County Hall, Dún Laoghaire on Wednesday at 7.30pm. Hart has also edited two poetry collections Catching Life by The Throatand Words That Burn.
Set in Ireland, her new novel The Truth about Loveis reviewed in this Weekend's Book Reviews. Hart, who was born in Mullingar, has lived in London for many years.
Tickets, €5, are available from Dún Laoghaire Rathdown library branches or by calling 01-2781788.