No artistic cosying up to Brand Ireland
The debate about the dangers of monetising culture gets another airing in the summer edition of the Stinging Fly(issue 19, volume two, €7). In an essay called Unhealthy Intersection, the poet Gerald Dawe writes that now the "economic nationalism" of the Celtic Tiger is in tatters, the writer is once again being asked to perform his or her patriotic duty as part of the expectation that the arts in Ireland will, and should, ride to the rescue. Such a rescue, though, would be of "an incompetent State and the exploitative class of bankers and others who squandered the resources of the boom, having first lavishly secured their own futures while bequeathing to the taxpayer the cost of the bailout".
The problem, adds Dawe, is a political one that has nothing to do with writing. “The balm that cultural tourism brings should not be seen as anything other than a diplomatic boost to help things along: it is certainly no substitute for or solution to the abject failures of the economic and political system in Ireland in recent years.”
The tradition of Irish writers, from Wilde to Shaw, from Joyce to O’Casey, is one of artistic defiance and imaginative challenge rather than cultural compliance and orthodoxy, Dawe writes. He agrees with the view he quotes of an unnamed contemporary writer that it’s not healthy for the cultural life of a country when artists cosy up to the political elite and Brand Ireland.
The Stinging Fly also has an extract from Christine Dwyer Hickey's new novel, The Cold Eye of Heaven, which will be published in September by Atlantic Books.
The journal’s next issue, in association with Culture Ireland, will have a New York twist – and will be launched there in October. It is currently commissioning work for this issue – and has a space on its website for people’s New York tales, even if they’ve never been there. See stingingfly.org.
Emma Donoghue is in the room
Roomauthor Emma Donoghue reads in Ireland this month. The novelist, who lives in Canada, will be back on native soil on Wednesday to read at Galway Arts Festival in Hotel Meyrick at 6pm (tickets cost €10). Then, on July 25th at 8pm, she will give a free interview and reading, chaired by Éibhear Walshe, in room G2 of the Kane Building at University College Cork, as part of the Queering Ireland conference.
Forward to a third decade of poetry prizes
Michael Longley's collection A Hundred Doorsis on the shortlist for the £10,000 (€11,350) Forward Prize for best collection, announced this week during the 20th-anniversary celebrations of the Forward poetry prizes. Also up for the award are John Burnside, David Harsent, Geoffrey Hill, D Nurkse and Sean O'Brien.
The Welsh poet Nerys Williams, who lives in Ireland and is a UCD lecturer, is on the shortlist for the £5,000 (€5,700) Felix Dennis Prize for best first collection, for Sound Archive,published this spring. Winners of the prizes will be announced on October 5th.
Poets in their middle years sought for fellowship
Once again the €8,000 Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh fellowship is on offer to Irish poets in their middle years who have published a body of work and need assistance. The closing date for applications, to 3 Selskar Terrace, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, is August 26th; the fellowship will be awarded in October.
Higgins to take literary breaks from the race
Labour Party presidential candidate Michael D Higgins’s other career as a poet will see him take time out from the race for the Áras to give readings this summer. He will appear next Saturday on the opening day of the Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival at Newbridge College, Co Kildare. His wife, the actor Sabina Coyne, will also participate in the festival, which ends on July 29th. Higgins will also read at the Doneraile Literary and Arts Festival, in Co Cork, which runs from August 5th to 7th.