CAROLINE WALSHon Sebastian Barry's all-male literary race, some Frank speaking and Kavanagh's fellowship with a modern Sligo poet
Surprised by the Costa
Irish novelist Sebastian Barry and Irish poet Ciaran Carson have been shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Book Awards. Having been a bookies' favourite for the recent Man Booker Prize, for which his novel, The Secret Scripture (Faber), was also shortlisted, Barry (right) is now in a major race yet again on what the Costa organisers call their All-Male Novel category shortlist. Why they took the unusual step of stressing the single-gender nature of the list, we don't know.
Barry's fellow contenders are Chris Cleave for The Other Hand(Sceptre), Louis de Bernières for A Partisan's Daughter(Harvill Secker) and Patrick McGrath for Trauma(Bloomsbury). The judges in this category (one of whom is Irish actress and author Pauline McLynn) described The Secret Scriptureas "a heartbreaking and lyrical tale of loss, betrayal and redemption".
Barry's response on being once more into the fray? "Very surprised as always, and really pleased."
Carson is on the poetry shortlist with For All We Know(Gallery Press), alongside Adam Foulds for The Broken Word(Cape), Kathryn Simmonds for Sunday at the Skin Launderette(Seren) and Greta Stoddart for Salvation Jane(Anvil Press). Of Carson's collection, the judges said : "The voices in this film noirpoem - confident, seductive and hyponotic - draw the reader into a tragic , complex and dream-like love story." Carson is also up for this year's TS Eliot Poetry Prize.
These prizes, once the Whitbread awards, are for the most enjoyable books published in the past year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. The other three categories are First Novel, Biography and Children's. The winner in each category will get £5,000 (€5,980), to be announced on January 6th, and will then be up for the overall Costa Book of the Year prize, worth £25,000 (€29,900) and presented on January 27th. Last year, AL Kennedy won the overall prize for her novel, Day. One of the books on the Biography shortlist this year is Jackie Wullschlager's Chagall: Love and Exile, reviewed on the books pages today. See also www.costabookawards.com.
Frank speaker
Prof Michael Steinman of Nassau Community College, New York, will give the annual Frank O'Connor Lecture in University College Cork next week. His lecture, Frank O'Connor: The Majesty of Love, will focus on stories where O'Connor celebrates the surprising ways that love reveals itself.
The author of Frank O'Connor at Workand A Frank O'Connor Reader, Steinman was involved with the UCC's Boole Library in the creation of the Frank O'Connor webpage last year. His lecture will be in Theatre Two of the library at 5pm on Tuesday.
Sligo poet's fellowship
Mary Branley has been awarded the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in poetry for 2008. This is funded from the royalties of Patrick Kavanagh's work and is given in support of Irish poets in their middle years.
Born in Sligo, Branley's first book of poems, A Foot on the Tide, was published in 2002 by Summer Palace Press. A second, The Plain of Eve, is due next year. A teacher for 25 years, including seven as visiting teacher for Travellers in Sligo, she works with children in a creative project, Kids' Own, involving teachers and visual artists.
Writer Leland Bardwell has said: "Mary Branley is a poet rooted in the west of Ireland and especially in her native Sligo. The poems are about crossing boundaries, physical as well as political
. . . about the tearing of roots and the subsequent readjusting to the threshold of loss."