Britain's Queen Elizabeth is to award the Gold Medal for Poetry 2017 to Irish poet Paul Muldoon. He becomes only the second Irish poet to be so honoured in the award's 83-year history, after Michael Longley in 2001.
Carol Ann Duffy, Britain’s poet laureate, and head of the Poetry Medal Committee, said: “Paul Muldoon is widely acclaimed as the most original and influential poet of the past 50 years and is rightly celebrated alongside Seamus Heaney. His poetry displays a restless playful brilliance, forever searching for new ways to channel his ideas and new language to dress them in. He is ambitious, erudite, witty and musical. He can experiment with form and stand tradition on its head, craft a tender elegy or intimate love poem with equal skill. His work is of major significance internationally – poetry of clarity, invention, purpose and importance which has raised the bar of what’s possible in poetry to new heights.”
Muldoon was born in Co Armagh in 1951 and publishedhis first collection of poetry in 1973. He has lived chiefly in the United States for the last 30 years, teaching at Princeton University since 1987 and editing the New Yorker’s poetry section. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003.
Sinéad Gleeson is stepping down as presenter of RTÉ's The Book Show after four years. Her final show is on Christmas Eve. Picador recently announced that it will publish Gleeson's debut collection of essays, Constellations, in 2019.
“I’ve had four wonderful years working on The Book Show, where I got to interview some of the greatest writers working today,” Gleeson said. “I learned a lot about telling stories, discovered so much wonderful writing and got to be part of a brilliant team. I’ll miss it hugely, but am looking forward to having more time for my own writing.”
Zoe Comyns, the programme’s producer, said: “We are of course sad that Sinéad is stepping down. However, we’re delighted she is going to carve out the time she needs to complete her forthcoming book for Picador and develop new work. It’s the right time for her to concentrate on her own writing, having supported so many authors in the past. She has been a pleasure to work with for the past four seasons and she will be greatly missed as part of the team.”
The judges of the 2018 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, have been announced. The panel will be chaired by the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah and consists of crime writer Val McDermid; cultural critic Leo Robson; feminist writer and critic Jacqueline Rose; and artist and graphic novelist Leanne Shapton. Gaby Wood, literary director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said: "This year's judging panel is not only stellar in its distinction, its members have a stunningly broad range of tastes and enthusiasms too. They are all long-standing champions of creative work who will be open to any excellent novel that may come their way, regardless of genre or geography."
Listowel Writers Week have named two awardwinning novelists, Alex Preston from Britain and Canadian Jane Urquhart, as judges of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2018.
Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival 2018 has announced that US activist and author Angela Davis will be speaking at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire on Sunday, March 25th. Davis will talk about women, race and class, her work in human rights and her hopes for the planet in the post-Trump era.
