sadbh@irish-times.ie
There is news this week of the inaugural winner of the Davoren Hanna poetry competition, which was sponsored by the Muse Cafes of Easons Bookshops. Poet Vona Groarke has won the hefty £5,000 first prize, for her poem, 'Imperial Measure'. The competition was set up to commemorate the late Davoren Hanna, and there were over 800 entries, which proves that the standing army of poets still marches on. The other prize-winners were Jeri McCormack from the US and Ayala Kingsley of Britain, who collected £2,000 and £1,000 respectively.
Short story competition time again. If you're going to be on holidays, take your notebook to the beach and get scribbling. However, this is probably not a good idea if you're going to an Irish beach and using ink - the rain will render your work incomprehensible. The Dubliner magazine is still taking entries for its first short story competition. The closing date is August 31st, and the judge is David Marcus, who can spot talent like a diviner finds water. The entry fee is £10, with a maximum length of 4,000 words. The £1,000 prize-winning story will be published in the December issue of the magazine - something to put under the tree for your friends to surprise them. Send entries to the Dubliner, 23 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2.
The Booker longlist was announced this week - the first time that the judges have released such a list in advance of the usual six-book shortlist that's traditionally the highpoint of the autumn literary calendar. Irish writers - and Northeners to boot - Eoin McNamee for The Blue Tango (Faber and Faber), and Ciaran Carson for Shamrock Tea (Granta Books) are among the lucky 24 who have made it thus far. Among the other names on the list are Peter Carey, Nadine Gordimer, Nick Hornby, James Kelman, Ian McEwan, Andrew Miller, V.S.Naipaul, Ali Smith, Manil Suri, and Marina Warner. Beryl Bainbridge is also there for According to Queeney which is reviewed on these pages this week by Anne Haverty, as is another book on the longlist, The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart, which is reviewed by Eileen Battersby.
The Booker shortlist will be announced on September 18th, and the winner on October 17th at the televised dinner. Well now. Is it just Sadbh, or does the recent practice of announcing longlists and then shortlists and then winners - such as Impac already does - amount to overkill? The Booker doesn't carry the prizemoney of the Impac or indeed the Orange but it is seen as the most coveted accolade because of its reputation and history, and also as an endorsement of a writer's work that can last a lifetime. It would seem surprising that the Booker folk would thus feel the need to jump on the publicity bandwagon that arrives once you introduce more key dates into the scheduling of a prize. Anyway it's great to see McNamee and Carson on the list and let's hope they'll still be on it on September 18th.
The bookseller Gemma Barry is interviewed in the latest issue of the Bookseller, to mark the fact that she has just taken up her new job as president of the London-based Booksellers Association. Barry and her husband Kevin run their 11 Dubray bookshops together. She has the distinction of being both the first Irish and first woman president of the association. The Booksellers Association is the umbrella organisation for everyone involved in the trade. It deals with issues ranging from the high-street rents that bookshops have to pay to arguing whether the recommended retail price for a book should be removed or not, thus leading to more competition. Barry plays down the significance of her being a woman, but told the Bookseller: "As for being Irish, it might help Irish members feel that they have more of a voice" .
