Loose Leaves/Sadbh: Colm Tóibín's novel about Henry James, The Master, this week received major recognition in the US when it won the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
The novel, which has garnered critical plaudits on both sides of the Atlantic, had previously been shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize, as well as the WH Smith Award, the British Book Awards and the Hughes & Hughes/Sunday Independent Novel of the Year. The Los Angeles Times judges' citation described the novel as "an illumination of the very process of writing itself - a compelling, richly rewarding and utterly original work of fiction about family and friendship and art in the Modern Age".
This is the 25th year of the Los Angeles prizes, which this time were awarded in nine categories at an event hosted by journalist and author Harold Evans. He took the opportunity to air his views about the "tyranny of numbers" whereby the book business measures success by sales. "One number every year has to be exceeded every year by another," he said. "Tonight we should celebrate not only the brilliant finalists . . . or the worthy winners. We're celebrating the vessel that brings imagination and thought to us. Indeed, the precious vessel that carries and preserves and enhances our civilisation for generations: the book." Hear, hear.
The $1,000 (€774) prize and citation was presented to Tóibín by writer Alice Sebold. Other contenders for the fiction prize included American novelist and short-story writer Russell Banks (in Dublin a few weeks ago for a reading) for The Darling.
'Lara's theme' revisited?
Not even a year has passed since his last visit to Ireland, but Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko was obviously so delighted with the reception he received that he is returning. This time he is heading for the south west, where he will be one of the participants in this year's Listowel Writers' Week.
Yevtushenko, who received a standing ovation for his performance of song and poetry during last year's Galway Arts Festival, is best known for his poem denouncing anti-Semitism, Babi Yar. He will read on Friday, June 2nd, in Listowel's Seanchaí Literary and Cultural Centre where, perhaps, he might again give his rendition of "Lara's theme" from Dr Zhivago.
But highlight of Listowel this year could well be the reading by one of Britain's leading female poets, Carol Ann Duffy. The festival will host readings by Colm Tóibín, DBC Pierre, Roddy Doyle, Pauline McLynn, Ronan Bennett, Michael Longley and Robert Fisk.
See www.writersweek.ie
Kinsella forthright as usual
Asked about the critical response to his work in the latest issue of Poetry Ireland Review, poet Thomas Kinsella says: "I don't see it as having really begun." The forthright Kinsella, now living in the US, goes on to state that he feels a "sense of the critical responses of the present time dealing in careers more than in the work".
Poet and academic Maurice Harmon is working on a comprehensive study of Kinsella's work, which, hopefully, will lead more readers and critics to take heed of this undervalued poet. Meanwhile, the PIR interview yields fascinating insights into his interest in German literature and music and the information that he is at work on " a poem in thanks to Bach".
This new PIR, edited by Peter Sirr, also carries a new poem from Kinsella, Marcus Aurelius, which will also be published later in the year in Marginal Economy, the next in the series of ongoing Peppercanister publications.
Other contributions to the magazine include an essay by Gerald Dawe on John Berryman's "fatal attraction to self-destruction". A rich trove of poems includes work by Eamon Grennan, John Kinsella, John Montague, Lavinia Greenlaw and Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska.
'Pages' pays off
The literary journal, Irish Pages, reports good news on several fronts as its latest edition - the Earth issue - appears. First, its circulation has reached 1,400 copies, a great achievement for a literary periodical in Ireland. After several applications, it has just received its first grant (€4,000) from the Arts Council in Dublin, while its grant aid from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland has been increased by 250 per cent as part of a package of £51,000 over three years.
Irish Pages editor Chris Agee says the increased funding will "improve the organisational side of the journal, particularly as regards the production process and distribution. We aim to double the circulation of the journal over the next three years". The journal's bid for a £6,000 (€8,871) grant from Belfast City Council was turned down, a decision Agee finds hard to fathom given the development of Irish Pages as "a major part of the Belfast cultural scene, replacing the defunct Honest Ulsterman journal, generating new audiences and considerable critical attention, and helping to change the image of the city from one of parochial introspection to a more cosmopolitan engagement".