sadbh@irish-times.ie
Details of the Dublin Writers Festival, organised by Dublin Corporation in association with the Arts Council , were announced at a bash on Tuesday night in City Hall. The festival will run from June 14th to 17th, so Bloomsday comes in the middle as an extra word fest. Sadbh expects that offal and gorgonzola sandwiches will be available for the nourishment of all punters on that day.
Bloomsday is also the day the £100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize will be presented to Alistair MacLeod at a gala dinner in Dublin Castle. Gorgonzola sandwiches might not feature on that particular menu . . . Among the writers assembling in the capital for the Writer's Festival will be German novelist Bernhard Schlink, who'll be in conversation with Colm Toibin, while Irish novelist John McGahern is paired with Trinidad-born V. S. Naipaul.
Other participants include Nigerian novelist Buchi Emecheta; Jill Paton Walsh, who writes for both children and adults; Scottish writer A. L. Kennedy; Irish novelist James Ryan; short-story writer Claire Keegan; Canadian poet and novelist Jane Urquhart; Indian novelist Amit Chaudhuri, who was one of the judges of this year's IMPAC prize; and poets Billy Collins, Michael Longley, Thomas Lynch, John Kinsella, John Burnside, Simon Armitage, Mary O'Malley, Medbh McGuckian, Paula Meehan, Maire Mhac an tSaoi and Theo Dorgan. There will also be a panel discussion on the subject "Booting the Book; Poetry in the Internet Era", chaired by Dennis O'Driscoll. Several of the co-authors of Yeats is Dead, a novel with 15 contributors, will be reading from the bizarrely-titled book - Joseph O'Connor, Anthony Cronin, Marian Keyes and Frank McCourt among them. Jostein Gaarder, the bestselling author of Sophie's World, will also be in conversation with Eilis Ni Dhuibhne .
Dublin's Lord Mayor Alderman Maurice Ahern wasn't exaggerating when he said that, over the three years of its existence, the festival had grown from a modest celebration of contemporary Irish writing into a full-fledged festival of literature with international participants - as well as Irish writers in both Irish and English. Hats off to programme director Pat Boran.
There are a variety of venues for the festival, including the Project, the National Gallery, Andrew's Lane Theatre, St Ann's Church and the Irish Writers' Centre. More information on the programme from 01-8783877 or www.dublinwritersfestival.com
Children's authors from far and wide will be deliberating long and hard in Dublin this weekend at Once Upon a Summertime, the children's literature summer school 2001 running at the Writer's Museum on Parnell Square until tomorrow afternoon. Not surprisingly, given the turbulent times we live in, thorny issues and how children's literature should treat them are high on the agenda. Malorie Blackman, whose recent Noughts & Crosses turned preconceived ideas of racial prejudice upside down, will give a talk entitled "Don't Go There: Controversial Issues in Children's Storytelling", while Malachy Doyle's will speak on "Giving Voice to the Voiceless", addressing the topic of the countless maligned, misunderstood children in society today who survive despite the odds. Margaret Mahy, Kevin Crossley-Holland and Elizabeth Laird are among those who travelled here for the summer school.
Meanwhile, Children's Books Ireland announced that it is now offering a studio for children's writers and illustrators in Dublin. Based at the Irish Writers Centre, it will be available for a six-month period from July of this year. Complete with phone, computer, printer and email/ Internet access, the lucky recipient will have no excuses when installed; wonderful work will no doubt be produced there. Details from Claire Ranson at 01-8725854 or e-mail: childrensbooksire@eircom.net
The summer issue of Children's Books in Ireland - the first issue by new joint editors Siobhan Parkinson and Valerie Coghlan - came out during the week. As always, it is invaluable for anyone interested in this area, but particularly for those guiding young readers towards books they'll enjoy. In this issue Siobhan Parkinson cautions about threats to the native children's writing and publishing scene, wondering why writers like June Considine, John Quinn and others don't seem to be writing for children anymore. She also draws attention to the diminishing amount of children's titles being published by Irish houses. "Without a healthy native Irish children's publishing industry providing a wide range of reading choice for Irish children, we are very likely to be pushed back into the situation we adults remember from our childhood when we were offered `nothing but Enid Blyton'. " Sadbh has only the fondest memories of Enid Blyton but Parkinson's warning is a timely one.
`The Politics of Literary Translation' is the title of a one-day seminar in Trinity College Dublin, which will be held on Friday . It's being organised by the English and Italian departments. The topics include: translation and language politics, translating children's books, Irish writers and Italian publishers, the work of the Irish Literature Exchange and Irish writing - what gets translated? For more information, contact the Irish Translators' Association at the Irish Writers' Centre, 01-8721302.