LooseLeaves Caroline WalshIt may sound a bit insular, but things are always more exciting when there's an Irish name caught up in the Man Booker bonanza - and there it was when this year's 13 longlisted writers were announced on Tuesday: Anne Enright, nominated for The Gathering.
For Enright, who was abroad when the news broke, it gave an extra fillip to the holliers because, while some decried the advent of a public longlist a few years ago, inclusion has become a feather in the literary cap, particularly for younger writers.
Enright expressed delight on making the list. "For a writer, waiting for the Booker lists is like having the flu - you can get nothing done and you don't know why. Nothing gets written until the uncertainty is over."
Predictably, and almost immediately, William Hill installed former winner Ian McEwan's book, On Chesil Beach, as the 3/1 runaway favourite, offering Enright's The Gathering at 11/1.
While the absence (apart from McEwan) of major literary stars - which has been dubbed the felling of the dragons - was the most startling thing about the list, it did leave scope for the inclusion of four debut novelists. Small literary publishing houses, such as Tindal Street Press and Myrmidon Books, were also thrilled to have authors catapulted into the limelight. When we rang Myrmidon about its longlisted author, Tan Twan Eng, the response was positively breathless: "And you know, we're only trading less than a year."
The judges who decided to bypass the old guard in favour of new writing are Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics; poet Wendy Cope; journalist and novelist Giles Foden; biographer and critic Ruth Scurr; and actor and writer Imogen Stubbs. Another development is that while previous longlists have have been much bigger, this year the judges went for more focus and came up with what they call a "Man Booker Dozen", a baker's dozen of 13 titles. The rules of the prize have now been revised so that the longlist will always be that number. The shortlist will be announced on September 6th and the winner of the £50,000 (€73,740) prize on October 16th.
www.themanbookerprize.com
Romantic atonement
Ian McEwan has a lively season coming up, with the film of his novel, Atonement, starring Keira Knightley, opening the Venice Film Festival on August 29th. It's directed by Joe Wright, whose aim has been to be frank about the second World War that is so much part of the novel.
"We tend to romanticise that war because it was the last just war," he says. "But I wanted to capture the tragedy of everything being destroyed: human life, animals, buildings, possessions."
Less high-profile but still on the literary adaptation track will be director Sarah Gavron's movie, Brick Lane, due in November and based on Monica Ali's novel of a young Bangladeshi woman caught in an unhappy arranged marriage in London. It stars Bollywood actress Satish Kaushik.
Children's writers spread word
This year's Children's Book Festival will run from October 3rd to 26th, with more than 1,000 events taking place nationwide and a line-up that includes Oisín McGann, David Donohue, Mary Arrigan, Judi Curtin, Malachy Doyle, Derek Landy, Peadar Ó Guilín and Jon Berkeley.
In a collaboration with the Goethe-Institut and the Alliance Française, two storytellers from Germany and France will present some well-(and not so well-)known fairytales in their native languages, with a little assistance in English.
It's all about fostering the message that reading is fun, stimulating and inclusive - and the vast majority of events are free, though pre-booking is recommended. The festival website, part of Children's Books Ireland (www.childrensbooksireland.ie), will be going live in September, with a searchable guide listing all events.
For further information, e-mail tom@childrensbooksireland.ie.
MacManus calling
RTÉ Radio 1 is calling for entries to the 2007 short story competition in memory of Francis MacManus, with €6,000 on offer in prizes. Well-known writers who have won in the past include Claire Keegan, Molly McCloskey, Brian Leyden, Vincent McDonnell and Kathy Hayes. More than 500 submitted stories have been broadcast down the years and the airing of all the shortlisted stories by the national broadcaster remains one of the great dividends of being selected. Closing date is Monday, October 29th.
www.rte.ie/radio1/francismacmanus