Loose Leaves: Roddy Doyle, who yesterday presented novelist and playwright Jennifer Johnston with the Irish Pen/AT Cross Award 2006 for a lifetime of literary achievement, will be in the spotlight in September when his new new novel comes out.
Called Paula Spencer, it will bring back to life one of his most memorable characters. It's 10 years since Paula featured in The Woman Who Walked into Doors. We meet her again on the eve of her 48th birthday, off the booze for four months and five days. Though she's still a cleaner, a lot has changed around her; all the others now seem to come from Eastern Europe and the checkout girls in the supermarket are Nigerian. You can get a cappuccino in the cafe, and her sister, Carmel, is thinking of buying a holiday home in Bulgaria. She has four grandchildren, including one called Sapphire. Reviewing The Woman Who Walked into Doors, writer Mary Gordon said one of its achievements was showing the inner life of Paula, a battered house-cleaner, to be the same stuff as that of the heroes of the great novels of Europe. Doyle's take on the new multicultural Dublin will also be worth watching for.
Big names for writers' week
One of the excitements of January is news of all the literary figures that will be gracing our shores in the coming months, and Listowel Writers' Week, from May 31st to June 4th, has a particularly strong line-up this year. Writers Jung Chang, JM Coetzee and Jane Urquhart feature on a bill that at times reads like a roll call of last year's prizewinners, including Man Booker Prize winner John Banville, and 2005 Orange Prize winner Lionel Shriver. This year there will be more than €25,000 in awards, including the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, worth €10,000.
"We have spread our wings upward and outward this year with two exciting additions to our literary awards, The Writers' Week One-Act Play and The Eamon Kelly Adult Seanchaí/ Storytelling competitions," says chairwoman Joanna Keane O'Flynn. The workshop programme of novel, creative writing, poetry, theatre, songwriting, crime and screen also has three new areas - memoir, comic writing and freelance journalism. (068-21074), writersweek@eircom.net, www.writersweek.ie
Apply now for Poetry Now
The Poetry Now festival in Dún Laoghaire March 23rd-26th will also feature lots of luminaries, including Jean Valentine, winner of the 2004 National Book Award in the US; Pulitzer Prize winner, Yusef Komunyakaa; the first New Zealand Poet Laureate Bill Manhire; British poets Robin Robertson and Alice Oswald; Polish poet Adam Zagajewski; and Chinese poet Yang Lian. Irish poets will include Medbh McGuckian, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Vona Groarke and Dennis O'Driscoll. Valentine, Groarke and Manhire will also facilitate the festival's series of masterclasses, aimed at poets who are building toward a first collection, but places are limited and applications must be in by March 6th. Festival details from poetry@dlrcoco.ie (01-2054719).
Culture of youth
For one who died so young, the poet Seán Dunne left quite a legacy (see review by John Montague of his Collected on W10). The closing date for the 10th Seán Dunne Young Writers' Awards for creative work in the Irish or English language is next Tuesday. The awards are split into three sections, with an under-13 national award, €150: an under-21 local award, €600, and the under-30 national Seán Dunne Young Writer award worth €1,500. The awards are Waterford City Council's long-term commemoration to Dunne, who died in 1995 aged 39. Last year's competition had the largest catchment so far, with entries from as far as Dubai. The award ceremony takes place during the Seán Dunne Writers' Festival, April 3rd to 9th, in Waterford. Further information from the Arts Office, Waterford City Council, City Hall, The Mall, Waterford, arts@waterfordcity.ie.
The world of books
In this era of dumbing down, it's great to hear of extended book coverage in any outlet, and this week the International Herald Tribune announced a new weekly section called , interestingly, "Books & Ideas", which starts today. They say it will have everything readers need to keep up with what they call the ongoing global conversation, and is geared towards readers who want to find out more about "the great intellectual, philosophical and political issues of the world" . An extended version will be available online at iht.com/culture.