Hibernians in a Hindi habitatWriters Derek Mahon, Gerard Donovan, Anthony Cronin, Claire Kilroy, John Boyne, Glenn Patterson, Anne Haverty, Oisín McGann, Conor Kostick and Mícheál Ó Conghaile are in New Delhi for "Irish Writing in India", a month-long event organised by Ireland Literature Exchange and the Irish Embassy in New Delhi and funded by Culture Ireland.
The idea of the festival, at the Habitat India Centre, is to showcase a cross-section of the best of contemporary Irish writing and to encourage Indian people to read works by Irish authors. Several new Irish books are being published in Hindi in the coming weeks, including Snakes' Elbowsby Deirdre Madden, Temptationby Dermot Bolger and A Long Long Wayby Sebastian Barry. There are also plans to publish a selection of Frank O'Connor's short stories in Hindi this year.
The literary programme is being complemented by a concert of songs from James Joyce's era, Molly Bloom Says Noby the singer Judith Mok, and a multimedia presentation by John Minihan, whose portfolio includes famous photographs of Beckett.
A Pen for Kilroy
Playwright and novelist Thomas Kilroy is this year's recipient of the Irish PEN/ AT Cross Literary Award for a lifetime's achievement, which will be presented on Friday night at a dinner in the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
One of Kilroy's early successes was with his novel The Big Chapel, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won both the GuardianFiction Prize and the Heinemann Award. Better known since then for his plays, including The O'Neill, Talbot's Box, Tea and Sex and Shakespeareand The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde, he has also interpreted classics by Chekhov, Ibsen and Pirandello. He is now working on a screenplay, The Colleen and the Cowboy, for Irish producer Paul Donovan of Grand Pictures and the Irish Film Board, planned for next year.
Jennifer Johnston will present the award, previous recipients of which include John Banville, Neil Jordan and the late John McGahern.
In a first for the awards, a presentation will also be made to David Marcus, legendary literary editor of the late Irish Press, to acknowledge the huge role that he has played in helping to launch the careers of so many Irish writers who feel indebted to him. Novelist, short story writer and poet William Wall will make the presentation.
Academy award for Heaney
The Royal Irish Academy will next week present its premier award, the Cunningham Medal, to poet, Nobel laureate and academy member Seamus Heaney in recognition of his "exceptional literary and scholarly distinction and achievement". The medal was established in 1789 in the name of barrister Timothy Cunningham to recognise outstanding contributions to scholarship and the objectives of the academy by a member. Previous recipients include William Rowan Hamilton, George Petrie, Sir William R Wilde and Maurice Craig. Heaney has said he realises that on this occasion the academy is recognising that poetry has a special contribution to make to "the improvement of natural knowledge", and for that reason he is doubly grateful.
Blessed be the bookshop
If fishing ports can have a Blessing of the Boats ceremony, why can't there be a Blessing of the Bookshop? Longtime veteran of the bookselling business, John McNamee, had not one but two clergy present when he opened his Eason franchise last Saturday on Coliseum Lane in Portlaoise. McNamee is the president of the European Booksellers' Federation and a number of colleagues and friends had flown in for the launch of the new three-storey shop, which is graced with a cafe at the top with views over Lyster Square. And, this being Eason, more than 880 magazines can now be bought here - including, for literary afficionados, the New Yorkerand the TLS. For more than 20 years, McNamee has run an independent bookshop in Portlaoise. Upbeat about his new incarnation, he says: "Unless independent booksellers can create strategic alliances for the future, life will become increasingly difficult."
Happy blooming birthday
James Joyce's birthday will be celebrated in Dublin next Saturday at the Teachers' Club, where Joyce took singing lessons in 1904. The Balloonatics theatre company will put on Begins and Ends, a selection of readings by Paul O'Hanrahan from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Manand Finnegans Wake. The event, says Balloonatics, has the rare distinction of being authorised by the Joyce Estate and the selection of pieces includes one specially requested by Joyce's grandson, Stephen Joyce.
Begins and Endsstarts at 8pm at the Teachers' Club, 36 Parnell Square West, Dublin. Admission is €10.