LooseLeaves: Irish poet Dennis O'Driscoll is among 18 writers who will receive awards in literature this year from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
O'Driscoll, who was born in Thurles, Co Tipperary, in 1954, is the winner of the EM Forster Award worth $15,000 (€11,700) which is specially earmarked for a writer from England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales for a stay in the US. The jury comprised John Guare, Alison Lurie and CK Williams. All the awards will be presented in New York on May 18th. When we caught up with O'Driscoll he was still bemused that he had been preoccupied by the imminent decentralisation of his job (in the international branch of the Irish Customs Service) when he got the happy news. "A transfer to America was more than I had dreamed of," he joked. He can take the US sojourn up any time over the next three years. "The literary side of me wants to do the pilgrim trail, the birthplaces and the death places, and the adventurous side - the raw material side - says go to Alaska."
One of the best parts was that he didn't know he was eligible for the award or that he was even being considered. He simply got a letter in the post one day from Alison Lurie saying it was being offered to him. He is only the fourth Irish person to win this award in 34 years, following Seamus Heaney, Colm Tóibín and Marina Carr.
FT puts up a prize
The book world is coming down with fiction and poetry prizes, not to mention those for travel, sport and other genres. Business books aren't always to the fore when the garlands are being given out, but that changed this week with the announcement that the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs are launching the Business Book of the Year Award. The accolade will go to the business book that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics. Between books about juicy scandals in the international finance world and handbooks about how to run the perfect business, there will be no shortage of entrants for this new literary race. For the inaugural award, entries will be invited from publishers of books in English first published between October 31st, 2004, and November 1st next. The winner will receive £30,000 (€44,000), and each of the shortlisted authors will get £5,000 (€7,300). The deadline for entries is June 30th, 2005; entry forms are available online at www.ft.com/bookaward
Cullen aims for record
Multimillionaire businessman turned bestselling author Bill Cullen will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest book signing when he gets going at 8am in Eason on O'Connell Street, Dublin, today and keeps at it until 7pm. He'll be signing copies of his new book, Golden Apples: 6 Simple Steps to Success (Hodder & Stoughton). Representatives from Guinness World Records will be on hand to ensure that he follows all the complex rules. His plan is to sign a total of 2,005 copies of the book consecutively to secure the title Guinness World Record Holder for the largest number of books signed by a single author in one sitting. The record is currently held by Dave Wolverton, a Californian, who signed 1,817 copies of his novel in July 1999. Cullen, who was born in 1942 in the inner city tenements of Dublin, aims to help people improve their attitude in order to get better results on the career and personal front. Eason will be donating proceeds from the book sales on the day to the Irish Youth Foundation, of which Cullen is president. The total will be matched by the author in the hope of raising €10,000 for charity.
McCullough takes prize
In advance of next week's Cúirt International Festival of Literature (April 19-24th) in Galway, the second annual Cúirt Prize for New Writing was presented in Charlie Byrne's Bookshop, Galway, during the week to Gerry McCullough from Bangor, Co Down. His short story, Primroses, appears in this year's Cúirt Annual, which was launched by its editor, writer Mike McCormack, at the same event.
The annual aims to give a flavour of Cúirt and of Galway Arts Centre's literary online quarterly West47. Contributors to the 2005 edition include Ciaran Carson, Greg Delanty, Desmond Hogan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Nichita Danilov and Paul Muldoon. www.galwayartscentre.ie/cuirt