Loose leaves:Proven heavyweights Jane Smiley, Margaret Forster and Anne Tyler gave the longlist for the women-only Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction a stately look when announced this week but apparently, in order to get that longlist, a lot of dross was waded through and rejected.
Muriel Gray, chairwoman of the judging panel, painted a dreary picture of "thinly veiled autobiographical things of no consequence" that didn't make the grade. "They are writing small personal takes on what it's like to be a woman," she said.
Among the submitted novels there were many lazy writers who thought it was enough to chronicle something going on in their own lives. "It is mildly depressing," said Gray.
Excluded from this were the 20 longlisted writers, who include last year's Man Booker winner Kiran Desai and Costa (formerly Whitbread) winner Stef Penney. Also on the list is MJ Hyland, born to Irish parents and who has spent much of her life in Australia. Shortlisted for last year's Man Booker prize with Carry Me Down, much of which is set in Wexford and Ballymun, she is giving the prose masterclass at Cúirt in Galway this year on April 25th.
With women now so successful in the mainstream prize league table, the status of a prize solely for women becomes less clear. Still, with £30,000 (€44,253) going from the Orange Prize to the winning writer one would hate to say the prize has run its course and should go. Maybe the answer is that in equity the only fair thing is for some sponsor with deep pockets to finance a men's-only fiction prize. The Orange shortlist will be announced on April 17th and the winner on June 6th. See www.orangeprize.co.uk
In honour of Du Maurier
"Last night I dreamt I went to . . ." the iconic opening words of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca will also be the opening words to five new short stories by Michèle Roberts, Zoe Fairbanks, Michelene Wandor, Justine Picardie and Sally Beauman broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May as part of the station's du Maurier season, marking the writer's centenary. Du Maurier was born on May 13, 1907, in London - though she spent most of her life in Cornwall. BBC Radio 4 will also have serialisations and discussions of her work while BBC 2 television will broadcast a documentary drama called Daphne and a tribute to her work. Also, Virago will publish a guide to the writer and her work with contributions from writers including Antonia Fraser, Margaret Forster, Julie Myerson and Minette Walters. Edited by Helen Taylor, The Daphne du Maurier Companion will include interviews with du Maurier's three children and a rediscovered short story by her. A festival in her honour will take place in Cornwall, May 10th-19th.
Call for Hartnett submissions
Limerick County Council is inviting publishers to submit poetry collections for the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award, now in its eighth year and worth €6,350. The award is quite specific in that it is about supporting a poet in mid-career and the submitted book must be a poet's third or subsequent collection published in the last two years. The award, which alternates each year between Irish and English, is for poets writing in English this year. Poets Michael Coady, Theo Dorgan and Gerard Smyth are the judges and the closing date for submissions is May 17th. The prize will be presented at the opening of Éigse Michael Hartnett on September 20th. For more details, contact Limerick County Council Arts Office, on tel: 061- 496498/300 or see www.lcc.ie.
'Paper heart' between covers
The annual Irish-based Fish Short Story Prize, which has been running for 14 years, has been won for the first time by an Irish writer, Kathleen Murray. Her story A Paper Heart is Beating, A Paper Boat Sets Sail will be published as the title story in the Fish Anthology in Bantry at the conclusion of the West Cork Literary Festival in July.
Murray, a freelance social researcher, took up writing seriously only in 2004 after attending a creative writing course with poet Nuala Ní Dhómhnaill. She was on last year's Fish longlist, but this year A Paper Heart is Beating, A Paper Boat Sets Sail was quite clearly the best of many wonderful entries, according to one of the judges, Michael Collins.
Small houses, big idea
An inaugural Publishers' Book Fair at the Irish Writers' Centre takes place March 30th-April 1st. It's the first in a series and is aimed at giving small and medium-sized publishers a platform to show what they have on offer. Publishers include The Gallery Press, Irish Pages, Seven Towers, Cois Life and Salmon. Among the writers reading will be Kevin Barry, whose debut short story collection was just published by the Stinging Fly Press and Lorcán Ó Treasaigh reading from his book Cnoc na Lobhar. See www.writerscentre.ie