Naoise Dolan talks to Róisín Ingle about her second novel, The Happy Couple, in this Saturday’s Irish Times. Keith Duggan interviews Caroline Elkins, author of Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire, about Britain’s prospects under King Charles. Patsy McGarry hears from Maureen Sullivan about her moving memoir of life in a Magdalene laundry, Girl in a Tunnel. And I have a Q&A with Sarah Gilmartin about her second novel, Service, and what it is like as a regular reviewer to face the critics.
Reviews are Christopher Kissane on Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire by Erik Linstrum; Kevin Power on Broken Irelands: Literary Form in Post-Crash Irish Fiction by Mary M McGlynn; Declan Hughes on the best new crime fiction; Helen Cullen on The Mess We’re In by Annie Macmanus; Lucie Shellie on Thirst for Salt by Madeleine Lucas; Vic Duggan on Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy by Quinn Slobodian; Rosita Boland on Wavewalker: Breaking Free by Suzanne Heywood; Among Others: Andrew Gallix on August Blue by Deborah Levy; Anthony Roche on Friendships and Encounters by Michael Frayn; and Sarah Gilmartin on Remembrance Sunday by Darragh McKeon.
This Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer is the Irish Novel of the Year, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. You can buy it with your paper at any Eason outlet for €4.99, a €6 saving.
Arinze Ifeakandu has been awarded one of the world’s largest literary prizes for young writers – the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize – for his ‘exhilarating’ debut God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, a stunning short fiction collection, whose nine stories simmer with loneliness and love, and depict what it means to be gay in contemporary Nigeria, where he is from.
Described as ‘gorgeous…full of subtlety, wisdom and heart’ by Sarah Waters, ‘quietly transgressive’ by Damon Galgut and awarded the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things has established 28-year-old Ifeakandu as a vital new voice in literary fiction.
Ifeakandu was awarded the prestigious £20,000 Prize for God’s Children Are Little Broken Things (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) at a ceremony held in Swansea this evening, prior to International Dylan Thomas Day on Sunday 14 May, with November marking 70 years since the Welsh poet’s death.
Chair of judges Di Speirs said: ‘We were unanimous in our praise and admiration for this exhilarating collection of nine stories. Arinze Ifeakandu’s debut shines with maturity, the writing bold, refreshing and exacting but never afraid to linger and to allow characters and situations to develop and change, so that the longer stories are almost novels in themselves. A kaleidoscopic reflection of queer life and love in Nigeria, the constraints, the dangers and the humanity, this is a collection that we wanted to press into many readers’ hands around the world and which left us excited to know what Arinze Ifeakandu will write next.’
Awarded for the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under, the prize celebrates the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories, and drama.
The other titles shortlisted for the prize were: Limberlost by Robbie Arnott (Atlantic Books), Seven Steeples by Sara Baume (Tramp Press), I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel (Rough Trade Books/Granta), Send Nudes by Saba Sams (Bloomsbury Publishing), and Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire (Chatto & Windus, Vintage).
My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden has been longlisted for the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature which rewards works of all literary genres, fiction or non-fiction, irrespective of the language. Previous winners include Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk and among this year’s judge sis Jonathsan Coe. The prize is worth 50,000 Swiss francs and the winner is announced in November. Hayden’s first book has already won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the Irish Book of the Year.
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Anthony Anaxagorou has won the £10,000 RSL Ondaatje Prize 2023, for his “fearless, honest and ultimately hopeful” collection Heritage Aesthetics (Granta Poetry), which draws from his family’s migratory histories.
The British-born Cypriot poet and writer’s second collection, After the Formalities (Penned in the Margins) was shortlisted for the 2019 T S Eliot Prize. He is also artistic director of Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night held at London’s Southbank Centre, and publisher of Out-Spoken Press.
Previous recipients have included Ruth Gilligan and Lea Ypi.
Anaxagorou was selected from this year’s five-strong shortlist by judges Samira Ahmed, Roger Robinson and Joelle Taylor. Ahmed, who is chair of the judges, said: “Anthony’s poetry is beautiful, but does not sugarcoat. The arsenic of historical imperial arrogance permeates the Britain he explores in his writing. And the joy of this collection comes from his strength, knowledge, maturity, but also from deeply felt love.”
Robinson said: “With Heritage Aesthetics Anthony Anaxagorou lets the narrative of the poems fracture as if somehow there has been a traumatic event, and that fracture became a form by deconstruction of texts and literatures to make comment not only on them but also on the fact that Cyprus has been shaped by 2,000 years of colonial rule. A colonial rule that has caused multiple fractures in the nation’s identity, problematising the idea of familial identity but also how colonial histories have shaped that identity; a lineage of family but also a lineage of suffering under Empire.
“Most books dealing with the immigrant experience look back at their country of origin with longing, and mythologising their origin country, but Anaxogorou’s book maintains a strong tone, critique and assessment. A welcome addition to the literature canon of place.”
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A new publishing house has opened in the west of Ireland. Mayo Books Press is based in Castlebar, Co Mayo and publishes internationally.
Authors include former Mayo Gaelic football star Andy Moran, Keith Duggan of The Irish Times, former Irish Independent GAA Correspondent Liam Horan, historians Anne Chambers, Ultan Cowley and Noel Campbell, as well as many other talented writers.
Established in 2021, Mayo Books Press is borne out of the family’s experience of owning The Castle Bookshop in Castlebar, learning to identify topics that should be written about and books of Mayo and Irish interest that need to be written and read.
They have published 11 books so far and expect to have grown that number to 20 by the end of 2023 with several titles already planned for 2024.
The company was established by David Brennan of The Castle Bookshop and its managing editor is Edwin McGreal, who was a journalist in the local and national newspaper industry for over 20 years.
“We are very excited about the titles we are bringing out this year which we feel will be popular locally and nationally as our company continues to evolve and develop,” said McGreal.
For more see mayobookspress.com.
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Nightflowers is an immersive new installation at MoLI created by Claire-Louise Bennett, the author of Pond and Checkout 19. Part noir-tinged memory palace, part luscious fever dream, Bennett’s text is performed by the writer herself.
Journeying deep into a haunted interior, Bennett’s Nightflowers is buzzing with vivid, unforgettable images, colours and aromas: baroque tableaus of oranges rotting in the street or candlelit tables filled with resplendent dishes, as well as more mundane flashes of daily life: an irritatingly flimsy shower screen, or cardboard boxes overflowing with unwanted travel brochures.
Bennett’s new commission is set against a backdrop of the precarious and traumatic reality of housing in contemporary Ireland: the protagonist obsesses on having and not having a home, while gently mocking the conventions of domestic space, and how our lives and interactions are shaped by the four walls around us.
Simon O’Connor, director of MoLI, said: “We are excited to collaborate with an international author of such standing as Claire-Louise Bennett, and her willingness to experiment with form is entirely sympathetic with our own approach as a literary institution. By commissioning a piece of writing that you can literally walk into, we hope this installation will attract new and existing readers into Claire-Louise’s singular world.”
Bennett said: “In making this piece I was guided by the dimensions and atmosphere of the exhibition room at MoLI. I love this space. It’s inherently dramatic, the high ceiling creates a plunging verticality that stirs up personal memories of places and scenes. Sometimes when I stand in it I feel ghostly. Rooms are private and contained, yet at the same time unstable and limitless. This piece explores that volatility, and creates an intimate space for the audience’s own phantoms and secrets to enter and briefly unfurl.”
The exhibition opens on Friday, 12 May, and runs until November at MoLI, 86 St Stephen’s Green South, Dublin 2. Book tickets at www.moli.ie
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Christodoulos Makris has been invited by Limerick City and County Council Arts Office to guest edit this year’s Stony Thursday Poetry Book, one of Ireland’s longest-running literary journals, now in its 45th edition.
Limerick Arts Office issued a call for submissions. Submissions may be made through the online portal. Deadline is May 31st.
