Beginnning the Novel

While Ali was having fun at the Bloomsday Festival talk at the Dublin Writers' Museum yesterday, I was taking part in one of the weekend courses at the centre: Beginning the Novel, which was taught by Catherine Dunne. I've been toying with the idea of writing a novel for an embarrassingly long time, so the opportunity to take a course on the subject was too tempting to resist. The course was very well structured, and as it was a small class, there was plenty of opportunity for each person to receive a lot of feedback on their writing. Some of the exercises were a little daunting - attempting to sum up the plot of an as-yet unwritten novel in five sentences is not exactly the easiest thing in the world - but we certainly got a lot of feedback from Catherine, and she provided some genuinely great advice on how to improve what we had already written. A lot of information was packed into a short space of time - it was a very intensive couple of days - and if you're thinking about taking one of these courses in the autumn, I'd highly recommend it.

Bloomsday has kicked off!

It's Day Two of the Bloomsday Festival and we managed to sneak in a quick lunch time lecture on sex and music in James Joyce's Ulysses. The event entitled 'shall i wear a red yes' was taking place next door at the Dublin Writer's Museum.

The great Dublin actor and Joyce enthusiast Barry McGovern greeted a packed room of 50 odd people and enthralled us with a spirited reading complete with musical interludes.

We look forward to attending other events before the festival wraps up. We will definitely attend David Norris's one-man Joycean show 'Do you see what I'm hearing'. We might even make a trip to Sweny's Chemist to gawk at the people dressed in character and purchase a bar of delightfully fragrant lemon soap.

Maurice Harmon: When Love is Not Enough

We're really looking forward to the launch of Maurice Harmon's new collection of poetry, When Love is Not Enough, published by Salmon Poetry. The launch is being hosted in association with Poetry Ireland and takes place in the Unitarian Church in St Stephen's Green, on Tuesday 15th June at 6.30pm. The following day sees a further celebration of Maurice Harmon's work, this time in the Kevin Barry Room of the National Concert Hall. The composer, Derek Bell, has written Of Caílte's Time, a suite for Irish harp inspired by one of Harmon's recent works, to celebrate the poet's eightieth birthday. For more information on both events, visit Poetry Ireland's website.

Halo Life Book Launch

Pop down to the Irish Writers' Centre tomorrow, June 8th at 6.30pm for the launch of Jane Ovbude's Halo Life, a collection of uplifting essays, poetry, romance and thoughts concentrated on the idea of diversity. If the frankly disgusting weather is making the idea of trekking all the way to Parnell Square a bit off-putting, be warned: we're closing for the month of July, so if you want to come to one of our delightful book launches, your time is running out!

May Lonely Voice!

Last week the Irish Writers’ Centre was treated to shaggy dog stories, sadistic narrators, stirring statues and ladies tangled up in webs as the winners of this month’s Lonely Voice Short Story competition gathered to read aloud their various tales. As always we were delighted to see a wide range of styles and a diverse array of topics to tickle our fancy.



Micheal O’Loughlin (author of a short story collection and several poetry collections) selected this month’s winning entries and was on hand to give a few words about this month’s winning entrants. He praised the winners for their attention to style and form and for eschewing the typical route of Irish writers to focus on very detailed, very realistic content.


We were delighted to see a range of ages and backgrounds amongst our writers this month. One of the main aims of this competition has always been to provide a platform for writers at all stages of their careers and with all approaches to their craft so it was really rewarding to see the beginnings of new literary generation coming together.


Particularly gratifying was the large audience that showed up to support the event. It was great to see such a turn-out for emerging writers and even better to see how much they enjoyed the night. From the first word spoken, the audience were on the edge of their seats.


We want to extend big congratulations to all those who took part this month: David Cahill, Pat O ‘Connor, Elizabeth Reapy and Cathy Sweeney. We wish them all the best and hope to have them back again soon.

For our part, all here at the Irish Writers' Centre are looking forward to the next Lonely Voice. The submission deadline for our September event is Friday 27th so get writing!


To read more about the Lonely Voice, visit our main website http://www.writerscentre.ie







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Dedalus Press Book Launch

Tonight sees a double book launch at the Centre, showcasing two new collections of poetry published by the Dedalus Press: Afterlife by Padraig J. Daly, and Drifting Under the Moon by Ger Reidy. Check out the Dedalus Press's excellent website for more information - it's well worth a visit - they even have an audio recording of Padraig Daly reading two of his poems, to get you into the spirit for tonight's event!

The Lonely Voice: May shortlist announced!

Congratulations to this months winners of the Lonely Voice Short Story competition!

Cathy Sweeney - The Web
Cathy Sweeney lives in Bray. In 2008 she was a runner up in the Sean O'Faolain Short Story Competition. In July 2009 she read at the Writers’ Centre as part of the Stinging Fly’s new writers’ season and in October 2009 she won the someblindalleys short story competition.
David Cahill - Until Tomorrow
David Cahill recently received his diploma in Journalism from Dublin Business School and is now studying English at University College Dublin. He is twenty one years old and lives in Swords, Co. Dublin
Pat O'Connor - Don't Start Reading This Story Unless You Are Sitting Down
Pat O'Connor lives near Limerick with his wife and children and has been writing for many years.
Elizabeth Reapey - Moving Statues
E.M. Reapy is a 25-year-old writer from Claremorris. She has recently completed an M.A. in Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast. Her work has been featured in La Bouche Magazine, Flash International and several local publications. In 2009, she was shortlisted for Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Award and she is the founder and current editor of wordlegs online magazine.

The readings will kick off at 7pm on Thursday 27th of May, refreshments will be provided and all are welcome!