You do sometimes spot critics at the Irish Film Centre in Dublin, but they are usually there to review the movies being shown. Last Tuesday it was another story: an entirely different breed of critic gathered in the hot late afternoon at the IFC for the launch of New Voices in Irish Criticism - the literary critic. The book, published by Four Courts Press, is a collection of the essays and papers given at the inaugural Young Critics Conference in Dublin last year. Declan Kiberd of UCD, who wrote the foreword, points out that the era of the short-term contract in the academic world has created a situation where doctorates are not completed as quickly as they used to be, where young academics must move constantly with the pillars and posts of shifting jobs and hence have less time for research and criticism. Sinead Mac Aodha, literature officer of the Arts Council, spoke and gave the collection a resounding endorsement. P.J. Matthews of Trinity, who edited the book, had so many people to thank that he told us "here comes the Gwyneth Paltrow bit." He did, however, refrain from tears. New Voices in Irish Criticism, to which some 30 young academics still in a pre-doctoral stage have contributed, has given voice to a rising generation: Among those who have contributed are: Kathy Cremin (York) "Satisfaction guaranteed? Reading Irish women's popular fiction"; John Kenny (NUI, Galway) "No such genre; tradition and the contemporary Irish novel"; Selina Guinness (Oxford) "The year of the undead: 1898"; and Robert B. Tobin (Oxford) with "Did the Nuncio wear slippers? Hubert Butler and Protestant Dissent in 50s Ireland". A second conference was held earlier this year at Queen's University in Belfast and the venue for next year is NUI Galway. If this first collection of papers and essays sells well, it's hoped that the papers from each conference will be published annually, thereby introducing several fresh new voices and ideas to the wider audience they deserve.
A copy of Northern Narratives, edited by Bill Lazenbatt, and published by the University of Ulster, also arrived on Sadbh's desk this week. This is a fat collection of short fiction, poetry, and critical essays by a combination of established and younger academics. The focus in this book is on Ulster's writers. Among those interviewed or who are the subject of essays are Brian Moore, Seamus Deane, Deirdre Madden, Eoin McNamee, Jennifer Johnston, Sam Hanna Bell, and Glenn Patterson.
FROM Edinburgh, Sadbh hears from journalist and writer Hayden Murphy that the annual Edinburgh International Book Festival, which runs this year from August 12th to 28th, will have free entry to its base in Charlotte Square. Among the international writers lined up already are Norman Mailer, Carol Shields, John Pilger, and Anita Desai. Among the British contingent are A.L. Kennedy - whose darkly compelling reading last week in Cuirt was one of the hits of the festival - Ian Rankin, and Marina Warner. The Irish who will be travelling are Dermot Healy, Dermot Bolger, Marian Keyes, Pauline McLynn, Fergal Keane, and Pat McCabe.
The Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters' Guild (IPSG) is having a debate today on the topic of "Developing new drama in Irish writing" at 2.30 p.m. in the Irish Writer's Centre. The speakers are Tanya Nash, a producer of BBC radio drama; Pat Nolan, director of the Blackbox; Kathy McArdle, director of the Project Arts Centre, and Loughlin Deegan, Rough Magic's manager. The chairman is Sean Moffat of the IPSG. On the agenda is also a discussion on the "lack of literary management in Ireland in the context of the prodigious amount of new writing being produced." Entrance is a fiver, but seats are limited, so get on the phone fast. 01-8721302.
The Irish Literature Exchange (ILE) is running a competition for young readers between 15 and 20. They are looking for creative responses to books the reader has enjoyed, and they don't mean nice tidy reviews composed of a block of finely-tuned prose. They want entries to be either visual, such as a drawing, painting or computer graphic; or to be in the form of a poem, a short story or a very short essay. Each European country is looking for submissions, and there will be three eventual winners from each country, with a 500-euro voucher for each one. You can spend the next five minutes of your Saturday working out how many punts that is. The winning entries will be published in a special edition at a later stage. Further entrance details from ILE, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, or ilew@indigo.ie
The winner of the £3,000 Strokestown Poetry Prize this year is Sheila O'Hagan. The prizes were presented on Saturday night. Second prize went to Carol Davis, and third to Susan Connolly. The Irish language prize went to Michael Davitt. The man with the money in the brown envelope, who won the prize for the best political satire, was Paddy Bushe. On the shortlist for the major poetry prize, explains organiser Merrily Harpur, there were 10 women and one man. On the shortlist for the political satires, there were 10 men and one women. Now what does that say about us? You can read the winning poems on their new website, www.strokestownpoetryprize.com
Sadbh