Scott FitzGerald film
Doomed literary couples make great fodder for film-makers and now the gilded but tarnished lives of F Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda are scheduled for star treatment in a biopic. Keira Knightly (pictured) is said to be in negotiation to play poor doomed Zelda Sayre, who was herself a writer and the author of the novel Save Me the Waltz.
Taking its title from Scott Fitzgerald's second novel The Beautiful and the Dammed, it's written by Enigma author Hanna Weg with Nick Cassavetes as director. Its production company, the Film Department, describes it as a tale of two "Jazz-Age icons known for living large, soaring high and crashing hard". Shooting is planned for April.
While her husband died in Hollywood in 1940, Zelda, who spent much of her remaining years working on a second novel she never completed, died in 1948 in a fire in Highland Mental Hospital in north Carolina where she was a patient. There's no doubt about it, the material is all there. The question is, how well will it be handled?
Poetry award
Poet Dennis O'Driscoll is one of the judges for the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize. Saskia Hamilton, from the US, and Michael Redhill, from Canada, are his fellow judges.
Having written eight books of poetry, O'Driscoll's next book Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney is scheduled for publication in November. The competition's shortlisted books (four in the international category and three in the Canadian) will be announced on April 7th.
Ode to Connemara
Writers, painters and photographers have always been mesmerised by Connemara. Now, Ballynahinch Castle Hotel has brought some of the place's artistic devotees together in their latest publishing venture Captivating Brightness: Ballynahinch, edited by the hotel's Des Lally.
The title is taken from Ballynahinch Lake by Seamus Heaney, "As a captivating brightness held and opened/And the utter mountain mirrored in the lake".
Lally's aim is to bring the magic of Connemara and Ballynahinch to a wider audience but also to raise funds for Cancer Care West to which profits from this book will be directed.
Writers with work in the book include: Margaret Atwood, Michael Coady, Louis de Paor, Katie Donovan, Peter Fallon, Gerard Fanning, Brian Friel, Eamon Grennan, Michael Longley, Seán Lysaght, Frank McGuinness, W S Merwin and Edna O'Brien.
Voices of Great Blasket
The theme of immigration in Gaelic literature is among the topics for discussion at the Great Blasket Commemoration from October 10th-12th at the Blasket Centre in Dún Chaoin in Kerry. It will be officially opened by Niall O'Dowd, editor of the Irish Voice.
As many of the inhabitants of the Great Blasket emigrated to the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, after the island evacuation in 1953, there will also be a focus on the lives they ultimately made in that New England city.
John Ridge will speak on the New York Gaeltacht in the 19th century and there will be a stage production of the poetry and music of migration.
On December 7th, there will be a commemoration of the most famous of the writers from The Great Blasket, Peig Sayers, marking the 50th anniversary of her death, during which Angela Bourke of UCD will talk about the writer in a modern context. For more visit www.ceiliuradh.com
My Dublin valentine
Poet Paul Durcan and writer Brian Keenan are the participants in Dublin Valentines, the second in a series of twice-yearly public conversations in the Ballymun arts and community centre, Axis, between Dermot Bolger and well-known writers who have a relationship with the city.
Audience participation is central to the event on Monday, October 6th at 8pm. Tickets cost €8. Tel: 01 883 2100.
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