Galway writer Catherine Doyle, author of the YA Blood for Blood trilogy, has signed a six-figure deal with Bloomsbury Children's Books for her novel, The Storm Keeper's Island. Doyle said: "Having grown up listening to my grandfather's stories of daring sea rescues and adventures on Arranmore Island, it's wonderful to be able to write a magical island story that has been inspired by them. This is very much the book of my heart and in Bloomsbury I believe it has found the perfect home."
Ed O'Loughlin, the Toronto-born former Irish Times foreign corrrespondent, has been shortlisted for Canada's most prestigious literary award, the Giller Prize, for his polar exploration novel, Minds of Winter, earning him C$10,000 (€6,800). If he wins the prize on November 20th, he will receive C$100,000.
The jury said: "Bright moments from the distant past spring up beside dark moments from the present, things hidden — a death, a gift, a lost clock — come briefly into view and then disappear forever. In Minds of Winter, Ed O'Loughlin's brilliant story of Polar exploration, time itself is an Arctic: a mysterious dimension of sun craze and apparitions, chance encounters and destiny. The mechanism of this novel is fascinating to observe, its implications are deeply human. In O'Loughlin's work, our desire for knowledge, our obsession with the past, our grappling with life itself... all of it is generously, wittily on display."
A Line Made by Walking, the second novel by Sara Baume, has been shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, for fiction at its most novel. The winner of this year's, worth £10,000 and previously won by Eimear McBride and Kevin Barry, will be revealed on November 15th.
Tana French's first two books, In the Woods and The Likeness, are to be adapted by Sarah Phelps for a new BBC TV murder-mystery series. Filming of The Dublin Murders will begin in Dublin and Belfast next year.
The Well Review, whose debut issue included a poem that was then shortlisted for a Forward Prize, is running a crowdfunding campaign on Fund It to help cover the costsof its second issue, which will feature new poems by Leontia Flynn, John Kelly, Matthew Sweeney, Dorianne Laux, Gregory Orr and others. Rewards include a limited edition illustrated broadside of a Doireann Ni Ghríofa poem and signed copies of Maggie Smith's new poetry collection, Good Bones. fundit.ie/project/the-well-review-issue-two
Bernard MacLaverty is in conversation with Eithne Shortall in the Studio Theatre, dlr LexIcon, next Wednesday, October 11th, at 7.30pm., as part of the DLR Library Voices Series. Eventbrite.ie
A one-day seminar to mark the centenary of the death of Francis Ledwidge, organised by Meath County Council and the Francis Ledwidge Museum Committee in collaboration with Gerald Dawe of Trinity College Dublin, takes place in Slane Castle on Saturday, October 14th. Contact the museum on 041-9824544 or info@francisledwidge.com
University College Dublin hosts a two-day conference at the Humanities Institute on October 13th-14th titled Single Lives. Academics will discuss 200 years of independent women across literature, popular culture and media and how this has shaped society, including race, sexuality, class and political movements. The keynote address, at 6.30pm on October 13th in the National Library of Ireland, will be given by Rebecca Traister, author of All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation and Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women. Admission is free, but to book, email singlelives2017@gmail.com
Aidan Gillen is the latest big name to be announced for Belfast's inaugural NOIRELAND International Crime Fiction Festival. The actor, whose credits include The Wire and Peaky Blinders, will discuss crime writing for the screen with Derry crime author Brian McGilloway on Saturday, October 28th. The Irish Times Book Club also heads north that day. Books Editor Martin Doyle will talk to Melbourne-based author Adrian McKinty about his Edgar Award winning thriller, Rain Dogs. The festival takes place in Belfast's Europa Hotel from Friday to Sunday, October 27th to 29th. It is the brainchild of David Torrans, who established the No Alibis Book Store 20 years ago and has been at the forefront of promoting Irish crime fiction. It features the team behind top BBC crime drama, Line of Duty, as well as Robert Crais, Benjamin Black, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Adrian McKinty, Arne Dahl, Liz Nugent and Sophie Hannah.
In a fundraising first, TV's most dysfunctional family from BBC NI's popular comedy Give My Head Peace will gather at the Great Hall, Stormont, on Wednesday, October 11th at 7.30pm to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show's first filming and to raise money for the Linen Hall Library.
