'Tis the season to be jolly - and to read lots of new books. Now, there are not many books that you feel like scribbling all over, but one that comes with its own scribble-box on every page is Mary O'Brien's eagerly-awaited The Irish Times Book of New Simplex Crosswords, Number One. Forget television! The many fans of the daily Simplex (including Sadbh) can really indulge this Christmas.
Another book to be scribbled all over is the 35th edition of the indispensible IPA Administration Yearbook & Diary. No matter how much we use computers to plan our schedules, it'll always be a fine thing to have an actual diary of paper and ink on a desk, and this is the best one around. The real meat is in the 400-plus pages of information and contact details for everything from local administrations to social, cultural and political organisations. Basically, it's a comprehensive guide to every organisation of note in the State.
Sadbh hears that Joseph Woods, who had recently moved to Poetry Ireland, has been awarded the 2000 Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. One person to whom the advice "don't give up the day-job" is clearly not relevant! Woods had a book in the offing, which was being considered by Worple Press in Britain. When the publishers heard the news of the Kavanagh win, they told him they would take it on. John O'Donnell and Nigel McLoughlan were the two runners-up. Interesting to see that no women poets made it to the last three this year.
Meanwhile, another Patrick Kavanagh-award winner, Conor O'Callaghan, has been appointed poet-in-residence in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. Facilitating reading groups within the area and organising the Poetry Now Festival 2001 to be held next March will be among the duties of the Newry-born poet, who was writer-in-residence at UCD last year.
Sadbh