Patricia Curran, a judge’s daughter, was murdered near Belfast 70 years ago. Freya McClements talks to Eoin McNamee and Kieran Fagan, who have both written books about the case, one fiction, one nonfiction. And there is a Q&A with Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk about his new novel, Nights of Plague, and his life and career.
Reviews are Brian Rowan on The Madness: A Farewell to War by Fergal Keane and Breaking: Trauma in the Newsroom, edited by Leona O’Neill and Chris Lindsay; Mia Levitin on Winter Papers 8, edited by Kevin Barry and Olivia Smith; Declan Burke on the best new crime fiction; Paschal Donohoe on Slouching Towards Utopia by Brad de Long; Martina Evans on two Penguin Classics French short story anthologies; Éilís Ní Dhuibhne on The State of Dark by Judith Mok; Jan Carson on The Last Word by Ian Cochrane; Huda Awan on Novelist as Vocation by Haruki Murakami; Niamh Donnelly on Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom; Lucy Sweeney Byrne on The Book of Phobias & Manias: A History of the World in 99 Obsessions, by Kate Summerscale; and Sarah Gilmartin on Cells by Gavin McCrea.
Breathless by Amy McCulloch is this Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer. You can buy it with your newspaper for €4.99, a €5 saving.
Anne Enright is to receive the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Irish Book Awards ceremony in Dublin on November 23rd.
She joins a host of other distinguished recipients including Sebastian Barry, Colm Tóibín, Thomas Kinsella, Eavan Boland, John Montague, JP Donleavy, Paul Durcan, John Banville, Maeve Binchy, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien, William Trevor, Seamus Heaney and Jennifer Johnston.
Enright, whose literary career has spanned three decades, won the 2007 Booker Prize for The Gathering. She has written seven novels, three collections of short fiction and one non-fiction book, and was the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her latest novel is Actress (Faber, 2020). She is Professor of Creative Writing at UCD.
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Little Island Books has received three nominations for the prestigious children’s/YA book award, the Yoto–Carnegie Medal.
In 2020 the Carnegie was opened to Irish books for the first time, and Little Island had Ireland’s first ever nomination that year (The Gone Book by Helena Close). In 2021 they had another (Savage Her Reply by Deirdre Sullivan). And now, the only Irish publisher to receive a Carnegie nomination has three books on the list: Baby Teeth by Meg Grehan; Things I Know by Helena Close; and The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch.
Publisher Matthew Parkinson-Bennett said: “The Carnegie is an award judged by experts who look only for one thing: excellence. Little Island’s three-year run, culminating in this triple-nomination, demonstrates that when international audiences open their minds to Irish books they discover a trove of great writing that is a match for anything coming out of larger UK houses – and it shows Irish authors that publishing at home need be no impediment to international success. As always we’re grateful for the support of the Arts Council, who allow us to publish the best writers and help them find their audiences in Ireland and internationally.”
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The Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, is seeking submissions to the 2022 John McGahern Annual Book Prize. The prize of £5,000 will be awarded to the best debut work of fiction – either novel or collection of short stories – by an Irish writer, or writer resident in Ireland for more than five years, published this year. The judging panel is Colm Tóibín, Chancellor of the University of Liverpool; Prof Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor; Prof Frank Shovlin, the authorised biographer of McGahern and editor of The Letters of John McGahern (Faber); and Dr Eleanor Lybeck. The deadline is December 16th. All submissions should also be accompanied by a submission form which can be downloaded here.
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Poetry Ireland has announced I bhFad i gCéin- Far Afield, funded by the Arts Council, a programme of international residencies based in five cities across the globe. The programme will provide five Irish poets with a two-to-three-week residency in one of five international locations plus a bursary of €2,000. Taking place in New York, Berlin, Edinburgh, Manchester and Montana, this ambitious programme will offer Irish poets the opportunity to immerse themselves and make contacts in one of five overseas locations in 2023. For queries or further information contact Louise Kane on 087-992 7546 or comms@poetryireland.ie
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The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) - Country Life and Poetry Ireland present a mini-symposium with storytellers from Ireland and further afield, exploring the ancient tradition of storytelling and its continued development and relevance today.
What’s the Scéal? Scéalta agus an Seanchaí/Stories and the Storyteller takes place at 2pm on December 2nd at the NMI - Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
It will be chaired by poet, writer and journalist Theo Dorgan, joined by a panel of storytellers, including Jack Lynch, Liz Weir, Pat Ryan and Oein de Bhairdúin. Tokyo-born storyteller Masako Carey, who has been based in Ireland for more than 20 years, will also speak about the role of storytelling in Japanese culture, as part of a panel discussion on storytelling traditions in Ireland and other world cultures.
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Irish debut novelist Fiona McPhillips has signed a six-figure, two-book deal with Transworld, whose commissioning editor, Imogen Nelson, bought UK, Ireland and Commonwealth rights to Underwater and a second novel from Rachel Neely at Mushens Entertainment. Underwater, which was runner-up for the CWA Debut Dagger Award in 2021, will be a lead debut for Transworld imprint Bantam in early 2024.
Described as a reading-group thriller for fans of Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa and Sarah Vaughan’s Anatomy of a Scandal, Underwater follows 17-year-old Louise Manson, a new student at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. When Lou discovers a dark secret with the school’s swimming team at its centre, she sets out to expose the truth – only to be drawn into a murder investigation.
McPhillips has written features for The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, The Herald, The Huffington Post and other publications. In 2019, she did an MA in Creative Writing at DCU, graduating with first class honours. She lives in Dublin with her husband and three children. McPhillips said: “I am beside myself with excitement to join Imogen and the Transworld team. Imogen’s passion for Underwater was clear from the moment we met and I know we are going to make an incredible book together.”
