Loose Leaves: When a fine writer dies it can take decades for the spotlight to shine again on his work. That's why the imminent publication of a volume of the work of poet Seán Dunne, who died suddenly 10 years ago at the age of 39, is particularly welcome.
A former literary editor of what was then the Cork Examiner, he also edited a number of poetry anthologies and wrote In My Father's House, a memoir about his childhood. His mother died when she was 33. The new book, called Collected, will be published by Gallery Press on December 8th. As well as poems from his three previous collections, Against the Storm, The Sheltered Nest and Time and the Island (which was published six months after he died), there are previously unpublished and uncollected poems, including a long verse letter, Letter from Ireland, which appeared in the periodical Krino in 1989. Written from 1980s Ireland and addressed to the Australian writer Vincent Buckley, it's partly Dunne's lament for the old values and customs of Ireland. There are translations from the Irish, but also a substantial body of Russian translations, from the work of Anna Akhmatova, never before published, and including her classic work, Requiem. "There was clearly an identification there with her and with her suffering," says Gallery's Peter Fallon, who worked closely with Dunne's partner Trish Edelstein on the forthcoming book, for which Fallon has written an afterword. He always knew they would one day put together a collected work: one reason his early death was so sore a loss, in purely literary terms, was, Fallon says, that Dunne's work was growing purer and stronger. "How good a poet he would have become we can only guess."
Reinventing the library
It's not often Edna O'Brien makes a public appearance in Dublin, but next month she gives a public interview in the National Library on Kildare Street. The event, which is free, is part of a new series of monthly interviews called Library Late, aimed at reinstating the library as a venue for debate on Irish and international writing - but in a social way. Complimentary wine and cheese will be served, music played and there'll be - they promise - "lots of opportunities for socialising". The O'Brien event is on December 12th at 8pm. The interviewer is RTÉ broadcaster Kay Sheehy. The series continues over the coming year. Places are limited and need to be booked in advance at 01-6030244.
Joyce up for Whitbread
William Joyce, aka Lord Haw Haw, is destined for another spin in the limelight, as Nigel Farndale's biography of the Nazi propagandist - born in New York to Irish immigrant parents - made it to the shortlist of the biography section of the Whitbread Book Awards in Britain this week. The three other competing titles are Nature Cure by Richard Mabey, Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters and Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling.
In the novel category only one book from this year's Man Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist made it on to the Whitbread list of four - Ali Smith's The Accidental. It competes with Nicky Hornby's A Long Way Down, Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown and The Ballad of Lee Cotton by Christopher Wilson. Showing that it pays to watch daytime TV, specifically Richard and Judy (the duo have now apparently got in on the act by writing a crime thriller themselves), an aspiring waitress-cum-barmaid who entered their "how to get published" slot has been catapulted on to the Whitbread first novel shortlist. Rachel Zadok, a South African living in London, was picked from 46,000 entries and included in the last five of the Richard and Judy competition, which led to her novel, Gem Squash Tokoloshe, about a girl growing up in apartheid South Africa, being published by Pan Macmillan. In the Whitbread she is up against Tash Aw, Diana Evans and Peter Hobbs. The winners of these and the poetry and children's shortlists will be announced on January 4th, and each will get £5,000 (€7,330). The five category winners will then compete for the £25,000 (€36,648) Whitbread Book of the Year overall prize on January 24th.
The Sea silences sceptics
Initial scepticism in the British bookselling trade about the commercial potential of this year's Man Booker prizewinner, John Banville's The Sea, has been confounded. Sales of this winning dark horse are set to match those of last year's winner, The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, with Nielsen BookScan figures showing
The Sea sold 17,328 hardbacks in the UK by November 5th.