Swinging into key capital: Derry-born novelist and short story writer Sean O'Reilly is Dublin's new writer-in-residence. Following in the footsteps of writers such as Pat Boran, Catherine Phil McCarthy and Evelyn Conlon, he'll be on the job for 12 months based in Dublin City Council's premises on Foley Street, The Lab.
Though the chief aim of the residency is to support the writer in doing his own creative work, O'Reilly will be free to initiate or be part of other projects if he wishes. Since publication of his short story collection Curfew and Other Stories in 2002 there have been two novels: Love and Sleep and The Swing of Things, published by Faber. Then last year came the short work of prose-poetry Watermark, published in book form by the fledgling Stinging Fly Press and described in these pages by reviewer John Kenny as a moving celebration, beyond mere exoticism, of one woman's bodily appetites; "At the more tame scenes, Molly Bloom would blush."
O'Reilly's work is not for the faint-hearted. The Swing of Things is, among other things, a challenging portrait of netherworld Dublin, the alienated underbelly of the capital of the Celtic Tiger, unhinged, disjointed - and vivid. This makes his appointment as the city's writer- in- residence a particularly imaginative one. It will be a tenure to watch with interest.
Keegan's return
In these days when writers seem to bring out a book a year, a long hiatus between titles - though often to the good of the work - is becoming a rare thing. However, fans of Claire Keegan's debut short story collection, Antarctica, have been waiting since 1998 for a new collection. Now, having won the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition, worth €3,000, for her story Dark Horses, comes the news that not one but two books by her are imminent: a collection of short stories later this year and a novel next year, both from Faber. The collection has no title and the novel has the title Salt - but that may change. "All suggestions for titles welcome," says Keegan, who is currently writer-in-residence at University College Cork and is running workshops at the Munster Literature Centre. This is the writer on whom Declan Kiberd conferred some laurel last year when he said she was "a writer already touched by greatness". Reviewing the Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories, edited by David Marcus, Kiberd singled her out as the true successor of those great contemporary masters of the short story form, Alistair MacLeod and John McGahern. Meanwhile, Dark Horses and the other 19 entries on the Francis MacManus shortlist will be broadcast over the summer.
Recognition for Trevor's tale
Doyen of the Irish short story William Trevor has - not surprisingly - surfaced on the shortlist of the National Short Story Prize in Britain, which attracted more than 1,400 entries and is designed to encourage interest in the short story form. The winner, who will receive £15,000 (€21,400), will be announced on May 15th. Trevor's story, Men of Ireland, is about a homeless man's appeal for help and appeared in the New Yorker last year. The other contenders are Rana Dasgupta, Rose Tremain, James Lasdun and Michael Faber. The stories will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published as a collection.
Sailor in good company
Hugo Hamilton's second work of memoir, The Sailor in the Wardrobe, has made it on to the longlist of the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize. It is the world's best paid non-fiction prize, worth £30,000 (€42,800) to the winner. Also on the list is a blog by an anonymous 26-year-old woman in war-torn Iraq, Baghdad Burning, under the pseudonym Riverbend. Published in book form by publisher Marion Boyars, it's the first time a blog has been in the running for the award.
The other books on what is a very strong list are Untold Stories by Alan Bennett; The Sale of the Late King's Goods by Jerry Brotton; Bad Faith by Carmen Callil; The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer; The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis; Mozart's Women by Jane Glover; The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton by Kathryn Hughes; Post War by Tony Judt; The Great Wall: China Against the World 1000 BC- 2000 AD by Julia Lovell; Ancient Americans by Charles C Mann; Rosebery by Leo McKinstry; Ivan's War by Catherine Merridale; Before the Fall-Out by Diana Preston; The Orientalist by Tom Reiss; 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro; Witnesses of War by Nicholas Stargardt; and After the Victorians by AN Wilson. The winner will be announced on June 14th at an event broadcast live on BBC4.