Literary awards
The novelist and short story writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne will receive the 2015 Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature on February 20th. The presentation and awards dinner will take place at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. Founded in 1998, the award is for a significant body of work, written and produced over a number of years, and is open to novelists, playwrights, poets, and scriptwriters. Past winners include Frank McGuinness, Edna O'Brien, Maeve Binchy and John McGahern. Ní Dhuibhne published her first story in the New Irish Writing Page in the Irish Press in 1974. Her first book Blood and Water, was published in 1988, and since then she has written 24 books, including novels, collections of short stories, several books for children, plays and non-fiction works. A member of Aosdána, she writes in both Irish and English and her most recent book for adults is a collection of short stories, The Shelter of Neighbours.
Four Irish authors have been shortlisted for the 2015 Romantic Novel Awards. Stephen Burke's debut The Good Italian, set in the Italian colony of Eritrea in 1935, has been nominated in the Best Historical Romance category. Joining him in this category are two other debut authors, Susan Lanigan, for her WWI era novel White Feathers and Hazel Gaynor, whose novel The Girl Who Came Home explores the tragedy of the Titanic. Ciara Geraghty's Now That I've Found You is shortlisted in the Contemporary Romance category. The awards ceremony will take place in the Gladstone Library in London on March 16th.
Galway reading event
In Galway, the Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in the City Library on February 26th from 6.30-8.00pm. The featured readers for the evening are the writer Julian Gough, Dublin-based poet Erin Fornoff and the American non-fiction author Christine Valters Paintner. There will be an open-mic after the readers have finished, with new readers especially welcome. More information at overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com
RIAM and Julliard join forces
Singers, actors and pianists from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Juilliard School in New York will join forces in March for a project led by the celebrated pianist Iain Burnside. Directed by Conor Hanratty, the young artists will perform a dramatic piece devised by Burnside from song and poetry by writers including WB Yeats, Seamus Heaney and Paul Durcan. The cross-disciplinary programme, entitled Ten Thousand Miles Away, will highlight the special relationship between the US and Ireland, and explore issues of emigration and identity. The work will debut at The Lir Theatre on Pearse Street, Dublin 2 from March 13th -14th. It will then be presented at the Juilliard School, New York from March 18th - 19th.
Fans of the Bechdel test should watch out for another RIAM/Lir project in March, which sees Puccini's one-act opera Suor Angelica play at the Abbey's Peacock stage from March 3rd -7th The latest in the RIAM/The Lir Opera Briefs series, the work, with its all-female cast, is considered one of the great one-act operas in the canon. It tells the tale of a woman rejected by her family and forced into life in a convent. This new production is directed by Tom Creed and conducted by Andrew Synnott. Further details at www.riam.ie.
West Cork Literary festival
Tessa Hadley, John Boyne and Dave Lordan are among the writers and poets hosting workshops at the 2015 West Cork Literary Festival. The popular annual event runs from July 13th – 17th, with bookings reported to be even brisker than usual for this year's line-up. One of the big draws is a workshop on investigative reporting by journalist Nick Davies, who uncovered the News International phone-hacking scandal. John Boyne will look at the novel, Carlo Gebler takes on the memoir, poetry and playwriting by Leanne O'Sullivan and Deirdre Kinavan respectively, while the Scottish poet and writer Magi Gibson will give the intriguingly titled 'Wild Women Writing' workshop. The festival's JG Farrell Fiction Award will this year be adjudicated by Mary Morrissy. More information and bookings through www.westcorkliteraryfestival.ie.
New chapter for Dublin lit fest
A new chapter begins for the Dublin Writers Festival this year, with a new name and director for the 2015 programme. The International Festival Literature Dublin runs from May 16th – 24th, celebrating both local and global literature, "and the power of words to change the world." New programme director Martin Colthorpe says he's looking forward to building on the festival's reputation for quality literary events: "We'll be looking to create partnerships to attract new audiences and diversify the programme. I love making cultural festivals and am excited at the prospect of working with the people of Dublin to bring an international programme of events to this great city."
Colthorpe, a freelance literature and cultural programmer, spent a number of years at the Southbank Centre as senior programmer. He launched the London Literature Festival in 2007 and has programmed bespoke festivals including Poetry International and the Imagine Children's Festival. The line-up has yet to be announced, but the festival's Date With An Agent initiative, in collaboration with The Inkwell Group and Writing.ie, will return this year after a successful event in 2014. Closing date for submissions is midnight on March 27th, with application forms on the website www.ILFDublin.com.
Contact sarah.gilmartin@gmail.com with your literary listings
