Sadbh: The Ireland Literature Exchange (ILE) will be 10 years old this autumn and, apart from a big bash it's promising for later this year, it is celebrating with a number of projects, including a sequence of residential translation bursaries.
Three literary translators from European accession states will be assisted in visiting Ireland. Dr Dora Podor, a fluent Irish speaker from Hungary, plans to complete work on a Hungarian translation of a collection of Irish short stories by Liam O'Flaithearta, Dara Ó Conaola and Micheál Ó Conghaile, and to spend time in the Connemara Gaeltacht. Ugne Vitkute, a translator from Lithuania, will come to Dublin to finalise her translation of Joseph O'Connor's novel, Cowboys and Indians, while Doris Kareva, a poet and translator from Estonia, will finish her translation of work by Irish poets, including Eavan Boland, Paula Meehan and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.
ILE will also be involved in imminent book fairs in eastern Europe. Liam Ó Muirthile, Eíléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Siobhán Parkinson, Anne Enright (right) and Gerard Donovan will attend the fair in Budapest, while Peter Fallon, Moya Cannon, Justin Quinn, Hugo Hamilton and Keith Ridgway (right) will travel to Prague.
So far ILE has assisted with the translation of more than 700 titles into about 40 languages.
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An epic link to 'Ulysses'
The umbrella of ReJoyce is obviously a wide one. March 4th sees publication of a door-stopping novel called Dublin: Foundation by Edward Rutherfurd, published by Century. An epic running from prehistory through the high kings of Tara and the Viking invasion to the 16th century, its publicity material bears the logo of the Bloomsday Centenary Committee, prompting the question: what could this possibly have to do with the author of Ulysses? Laura Weldon, the committee's national co-ordinator, says the link is ReJoyce's wish to be supportive of terrific literature.
And is Dublin: Foundation terrific literature? Though not a genre normally to her taste, Weldon says the epic is awfully good: a novel in the Michener vein that is a celebration of Dublin.
"I couldn't put it down - it's a seriously good read," she says.
ReJoyce was just giving the book support.
"We were looking outside the literal box of ReJoyce and Joyce," says Weldon. "We're not making any comparisons. It's more about promoting Dublin as a world-class city."
Rutherfurd, who has lived in Ireland for a decade and has centred previous blockbusters on Russia and London, sets out to overturn various notions of Ireland's past. Pinpointing a few, his publishers list that the Romans did land in Ireland; that the Irish once invaded England, and that Patrick wasn't a name the Irish used until modern times. It's all a long way from Joyce, Nora and Bloomsday.
World Book Day
Derry-born novelist and short-story writer Sean O'Reilly (below), fresh from the success of his latest novel, The Swing of Things, is to give the prose masterclass at Cúirt International Festival of Literature, which runs from April 20th to 25th. The masterclass takes place on April 22nd from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Galway Arts Centre and the fee is €20.
At the same time and place a poetry masterclass will be given by Turkish Cypriot poet Alev Adil, who now lives in London. Application deadline is March 29th, with O'Reilly and Adil each selecting the 10 individuals they'll take on board.
Details from 091-565886.
Paperback to school
Temple Street Children's Hospital Primary School is one of the more unusual locations for one of the many events planned for World Book Day (now in its seventh year), on Thursday. Authors Sarah Webb and Gabriel FitzMaurice and other writers and celebrities will visit pupils at the hospital, while children's author Marita Conlon-McKenna will be in the Hughes and Hughes Junior shop in St Stephen's Green Centre, both in Dublin.
Other events are taking place throughout the country, and book tokens worth €1.5 million will be given away to children.