Literary birthdays
The newly appointed Laureate for Fiction Anne Enright, author John Banville and poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin will be among the literati celebrating Ireland Literature Exchange's birthday at a reception in Iveagh House on February 4th.
All grown up, the organisation celebrates its 21st birthday this year, marking 1,650 Irish books translated into 55 languages to date. Established in 1994 as an initiative of the Arts Council, the Cultural Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge, the organisation has grown from modest beginnings in one room in Parnell Square to become a partner in the Centre for Literary Translation in Trinity College Dublin.
Speaking about the event, director Sinéad Mac Aodha said, "It's a great honour to be able to bring the stories of Ireland around the world. I'm delighted that we've come of age and continue to play this key role in the representation of Ireland abroad." The works the exchange has supported come from a range of genres including Irish fiction, poetry, children's books and drama in translation.
The exchange plays host to literary translators in Ireland, co-ordinates the participation of Irish authors at key events and festivals, and publishes an annual catalogue, New Writing from Ireland. The organisation also provides representation for Irish authors at major world book fairs and manages the national publishing stands at the Frankfurt and London fairs.
Residential writing course
There are still a few places left for a five-day residential writing course in March, run by Story House Ireland in Waterford. The centre's inaugural course on short fiction will be led by the writers Julian Gough and Susie Maguire. The mid-week guest writer will be Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart, The Thing About December), Booker nominee and winner of the Guardian First Book Award.
The course costs €595 and includes full tuition and board, five nights' accommodation, one-to-one sessions to discuss participants' work, a reading and discussion with Ryan, and plenty of time and space for writing. The co-founders of the new centre are Margaret O'Brien and Nollaig Brennan. Story House Ireland is a non-profit organisation modelled on the Arvon Foundation in the UK. For more information, visit thestoryhouseireland.org.
We need to talk about Shakespeare
The fourth annual UCD/Abbey Theatre Shakespeare Public Lectures series gets under way later this month. This year's lectures have a strong Irish interest, and are timed to coincide with the opening of the Abbey Theatre's new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in mid-February.
First up is Acts of Rebellion: Shakespeare and the 1916 Rising, delivered by Prof Andrew Murphy (University of St Andrews) on February 26th in UCD. Shakespeare and Seventeenth-Century Irish Theatre will be presented by Dr Naomi McAreavey, UCD School of English, Drama & Film on March 5th in UCD.
The final lecture takes place in the Abbey on March 18th. Entitled Strong Imaginations, it includes a conversation with Wayne Jordan (director of the Abbey's memorable production of Twelfth Night in 2014), and Pan Pan's Gavin Quinn, director of the forthcoming A Midsummer Night's Dream. All three events are free and open to the public.
