Words of adviceHow apt that the foreword to this year's anthology from the creative writing course at the University of East Anglia is written by a former student - last year's Man Booker winner, Irish writer Anne Enright
Enright was taught there by Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter but, as she says: "Both my teachers died when I was a baby writer. I didn't miss Angela much when she went, despite the fact that it was her work that had called me to UEA in the first place. I miss her now, though - quite keenly. It came to me quite recently, how the world would be so much better if she were still here."
Enright remembers days of getting up after midday, her friendly fellow-students and events that included gatherings at Bradbury's. "I never worked in the morning. I started at four in the afternoon and went through to 4am. Or I might go from dinner until dawn. I didn't see a lot of daylight." Ultimately, the book she was working on was abandoned and she went home and started writing for real. "I learned all the hard things at UEA - difficulty, incapacity, failure, humility, the importance of working more on the page than in your head. Now when I hear of people taking a year off to write, I worry that a year might not be enough. You must fail as a writer for much longer than that, I think, before you know what failure is and what use you might make of it."
There are introductions to the material anthologised by George Szirtes, Kathryn Hughes, Val Taylor and Giles Foden, whose words of wisdom include: "Achieving technical excellence (or even competence) involves stripping out personality, developing that splinter of ice in the heart of which Graham Greene once spoke. It is a lifelong struggle." The featured work is from the more than 40 students of the MA class of 2007/08, including Irish Times book reviewer Claire Anderson-Wheeler. This is the 20th anthology from the programme, whose alumni includes Ian McEwan, Tracy Chevalier, Kazuo Ishiguro and John Boyne. The UEA Creative Writing Anthology is published by Egg Box Publishing, £9.99.
Tóibín fit to imprint
Colm Tóibín (right) and his literary agent Peter Straus are to edit a new imprint on the publishing scene, Tusker Rock, its name emanating from Tóibín's Co Wexford heartlands. The imprint is being launched by Atlantic Books and will focus mainly on original literary fiction. Explaining the venture's raison d'être, Tóibín said: "Now, more than ever, it is vital for serious readers that books are seen not simply as commodities to be marketed but as things that nourish the culture and enrich the human spirit. This is the basis of our work at Tusker Rock." There will be about six books a year from the new imprint, which grew out of a limited-edition imprint that Tóibín and Straus set up some years ago.
Top reads in Tipp
If you happen to be in Co Tipperary and wonder why everyone there is currently reading the same novel, relax, it's all part of a plan devised by Tipperary Libraries. In an initiative called Tipperary Reads, readers in the county were encouraged to read Tipperary by native son Frank Delaney (above right) this autumn. The novel is set primarily in the south of the county between 1860 and 1930 and features well-known Irish figures, including Oscar Wilde and Charles Stewart Parnell. The next stage of the venture takes place later this month when Delaney will discuss the novel at a number of libraries throughout the county.''
Poetic gathering
Poets Gerald Dawe, Leontia Flynn and Brendan Kennelly will be reading on Wednesday at 7.30pm in County Hall, Dún Laoghaire, Dublin. Tickets are €5, available from any DLR Library Branch or by calling DLR Library HQ on 01-2781788.