Loose Leaves Caroline WalshThe pages of Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's new novel, Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow (Blackstaff), were being thumbed hard and fast at its launch in Dublin on Tuesday night when the author explained that it was a satire on the world of literary Dublin.
It being a novel, with fictional characters and no index, people are going to have to work hard to try and see who might be who, but already the guessing game has begun. It was, said Ní Dhuibhne, a modern take on Anna Karenina, the novel in which Tolstoy trained his eye so astutely on high society in Moscow. Though she hadn't an entreé into high society in Dublin, she did have access to its literati - hence the setting for Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow. And there to help launch the book were plenty of that self-same band, including Harry Clifton, John F Deane, Deirdre Madden, Leo Cullen, Christine Dwyer Hickey and Katy Hayes.
Launching the novel was playwright Frank McGuinness, a friend of the author's from their days studying pure English at UCD in the 1970s, when both were part of a small and rarefied class, always known as Group IV. There were, remembered Ní Dhuibhne, just McGuinness and seven girls in the group. She said it had never occurred to her that it was presumptuous to attempt a modern version of another author's work. As a folklorist - her day job is in the National Library - she knew that was what storytellers did: retell stories.
Also there was her husband, academic Bo Almquist, whom she met while studying for her PhD. "I left with the PhD and the professor - killing two birds with the one stone," she said.
Richard Ford lecture
The first in an annual series of lectures named after Frank O'Connor and taking place in his native Cork will be given by American novelist and short story writer Richard Ford on November 13th. The lecture series is another building block in the city's acknowledgment of O'Connor's importance. As well as the Frank O'Connor Short Story Competition run by the Munster Writers Centre, UCC's Boole Library has created the Frank O'Connor web page which, it is hoped, will become a major focus for correspondence and research about the writer. Now University College Cork is initiating the lecture series. The college's English department has also appointed a Frank O'Connor Post-Doctoral Fellow, Hilary Lennon, to produce and direct research on O'Connor's writing.
The lecture by Ford, author of The Sportswriter, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land - and whose anthology The New Granta Book of the American Short Story is out this autumn - is open to the public.
The Richard Ford lecture will take place in lecture theatre Boole 2, UCC, at 5pm on Nov 13th.
Tell 'em a story
Outlets for short stories aren't in huge supply, so it's welcome news that the Stinging Fly Press is seeking submissions of stories for a new anthology to be published next summer. Last year's one, These Are Our Lives, featured 22 stories. Submissions to
PO Box 6016, Dublin 8 by Friday, December 14th. No e-mail submissions accepted.
"Word count is less important than making the words count," say the organisers, putting it very nicely; but all entries must be unpublished.
Writing to win
Can anyone remember life before longlists? The one for the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year for 2007, announced this week, is dominated by the world of Gaelic games - 11 longlisted titles have a GAA theme.
Here are the contenders: GAA Confidential by Darragh McManus (Hodder Headline); An Independent Man by Eddie Jordan with Maurice Hamilton (Orion); From There to Here by Brendan Fanning (Gill & Macmillan); Kings of September by Michael Foley (O'Brien Press); Keys to the Kingdom by Jack O'Connor (Penguin Ireland); From the Eye of the Hurricane by Alex Higgins (Hodder Headline); Determined by Norman Whiteside with Rob Bagchi (Hodder Headline); Dr Eamonn O'Sullivan by Weeshie Fogarty (Merlin); Every Single Ball by Brian Corcoran with Kieran Shannon (Mainstream); Summertime Blues by Roland Tormey (Mainstream); Heart and Soul by Trevor Brennan with Gerry Thornley (Red Rock Press); Raiders of the Caribbean by Trent Johnston and Gerard Siggins, which follows the Irish cricket team's adventures at the world cup (O'Brien Press); The Dirty Dozen by John Kenny (O'Brien Press); Christy Ring - Hurling's Greatest by Tim Horgan (Collins Press); Princes of Pigskin by Joe O'Muircheartaigh and TJ Flynn (Collins Press); The Gambler by Oisin McConville and Ewan MacKenna (Mainstream); Blessed and Obsessed by Mick O'Dwyer with Martin Brehany (Blackwater Press) and Rebels with a Cause by Bob Honohan (Blackwater Press).
The judges include Eamon Dunphy and George Hook.