11^th November 20                                                                   

KERRY GROUP IRISH FICTION AWARD 2012

€15,000 for a work of fiction by an Irish Author

Adjudicated By: Mr John Boland and Ms Rita Ann Higgins

We are now inviting entries for the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award.  This award is for the best work of fiction by an Irish author (i.e. first generation Irish) published between 1^st March 2011 and 1^st March 2012 with a prize of €15,000 for the winning author.  The 2011 Prize-winner was Neil Jordan for his novel, Mistaken.

The award will be presented at the Official Opening Ceremony of Listowel Writers’ Week, on the 30^th May 2012. Our adjudicators this year are Journalist and Critic, John Boland and Poet Rita Ann Higgins.

We will require eight (8) copies of each book to be submitted for this award to Máire Logue, Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, Listowel Writers’ Week, 24 The Square, Listowel, Co Kerry, Ireland.

The Closing Date for receipt of entries is Friday 2^nd March 2012 – there is NO Application Form to complete. 

As our adjudicators have a huge amount of books to read we would really appreciate it if you would please send all eligible books published to date immediately and any future books should be submitted once published.  A short-list of  five (5) will be announced in April 2012.

Máire Logue
maire@writersweek.ie

Congratulations to the winner of our storytelling competition, Fergus Costelloe from Nenagh, County Tipperary.

Tell Your Story Competition Winner from Transmission Arts on Vimeo.

Dedicated to the Memory of famed Storyteller Eamon Kelly, this year’s short-listed finalists performed their winning entries to a live audience, adjudicated by storytellers Pat Speight and Diarmuid O’Drisceoil.

The evening also consisted of a mixture of stories and music and this year was a particularly tough field – so well done Fergus.

Robyn Rowland and Lynn Saoirse performed together, having produced a CD partnership of harp music and poetry, wove together to mimic “an ancient Irish idea”. Following the bardic tradition but, in contrast, giving the words equal prominence, the content and rhythm displayed something deep rooted in Irish tradition; the fact that passion, spirit and history are so close to the land.

The harp and poetry fused perfectly to complement each other, bringing the audience across calm and stormy landscapes, through weariness and hope, famine and love. At once ancient and modern, classical and unique; if you like beauty, romanticism and words that linger, this is for you.
The poems chosen covered a wide range of topics, crossing place and time. “We thought we’d start you on something sweet (Lir’s chocolates) then hit you with the famine and all my lost loves” (Poem 1 – Lir’s Gold Ribbon). Living in Connemara, Robyn says; “the landscape has been powerful in my work, the tension between belonging and leaving has been difficult and I’m about getting to grips with it”.

Robyn also read The Line of Drift – a poem about a lost relationship (to the backdrop of a harp version of the Oscar-winning tune from the film Once) and When You Leave, which she described in the following way; “the job of the parent is to care for the children and the job of the child is to pull away so it’s tough”. Also reading The Famine, which begins with a quote from G.B. Shaw, Robyn admits that it “took a few years to write because of it’s political and social sensitivity and terribleness…it’s set not far from Leenane… and written to support those in famine all over the world.”

Further poems included The Weight of Man and a poem about a lost love while watching a flood from the balcony. After telling a comical story about a gondola ride in high tide, Robyn explains the next poem is about longing and Robyn quips “but you have to forget the funny now and think serious loneliness”… (Venice – For Hugh) “Venice is an old lover still wet with longing...” played to the tune of Hallelujah, finishing with the stunning lines; “This is a city of indulgence, and I’d play the boatman twice, if he’d bring you.”

After an interlude of children playing traditional music and demonstrating traditional Irish dancing, Mary Swander took to the stage with two accompanying readers. Starting with an unexpected (and unexpectedly accomplished) harmonica tune, she then introduced three revealing stories based on her own extended family members who originated in Ireland and ended up on a farm in Iowa.

The stories displayed wit, humility and a key eye for observation and social and cultural traditions. Using additional performers made the characters and situations really come alive, conveying the comedy, realism and grittiness of her stories.

If you’re in Dublin next week, Mary will be performing at the Irish Writers Centre with Joan McBreen and Seamus Cashman and classical guitarist Redmond O’Toole.

It’s been few years since I last saw Jackie Kay so I was delighted to see her on the programme. In that time, Jackie has won a Guardian Prize, had a total of 16 books published and has been awarded an MBE for her services to literature.

Of course, all these accolades are wonderful, but like Lisa Fingleton, who introduced Jackie stated; “the beauty of this writer is that she can make me laugh and cry in the same paragraph”.

Jackie displays a friendliness, warmth and empathy with people and the way that she expresses them to us through the written word is a wonderful gift; as is the bravery with which she addresses personal topics with honesty and comedy.

Jackie began by reading from Red Dust Road (which is nominated for the Scottish Book awards – vote here). The section chosen told of her journey to meet her birth father in 2002. Speaking of how she found her father, she says; “I put my name into Google and up popped pop – he’s a famous tree specialist. I thought it was funny because there I was, chasing my family tree.”

Her first meeting with her birth father took place in a hotel bar in Nigeria – his religious performance, where he welcomed her to Africa with an elaborate dance and song, trying to convert her to Christianity through a 2.5 hour sermon in her hotel room which culminated in her thinking; “Christ almighty, my dad is barking mad.” But despite the humour, there’s a serious undertone as her birth father sees her as the embodiment of his past sin; I suggest you read the book to get the full impact of both the humour and the sadness.

Another section Jackie read addressed her lesbianism; after pushing to find out about her love life and continually pushing the religious element, Jackie says (laughing) “at this point I think what the hell – bring it on!” After explaining her sexual preferences, rather than being shocked and disapproving, her new-found biological father instead pushes for the gritty details. Jackie adds “after having met both my birth parents I feel even more blessed to have been brought up by my parents – the ones that adopted me.”

Other snippets included the realisation (as a seven year old) that her skin colour is different to her mum’s and fond reminiscences of family holidays. “The soundtrack to our holidays was my dad singing and my mum joining in – we sang all over Scotland”. But again, this feeling shifts as Jackie reveals a fear of future time – dreading her parent’s death, trying to live in the moment but fighting against time.

But perhaps this isn’t the end? Jackie says; “Even after the end of that book, lots of things have happened and it’s like extra chapters are writing themselves. You become interested in your late twenties, early thirties, or when you’re about to become a parent. When you’re adopted and you go tracing, you have to go careful; there are so many toes you can tread on.”

Jackie also read several poems from her poetry book, Fiere – The Returning about her son’s epileptic fit at the age of four, Granite which looks at her childhood imaginings about birth parents and the title poem, Fiere, celebrating friendship.

Alive with Scottish countryside, sibling relationships, highland songs, Burn’s references, reversal of behaviours, games, discoveries and journeys, this was a lively, highly hilarious and brutally honest of Jackie’s life, and a colourful display of the very reason why Jackie has gained such accolades.

You can vote for Jackie’s latest book by going to www.scottishbookawards.com/vote

During the last six weeks in the run up to Writers’ Week, students from St. Michael’s College and the Presentation Secondary School Listowel, have been busy collaborating on a creative animation project.

Organised by The Happy Artist as part of a residency programme for Listowel Writer’s Week, this is a unique experience which once again shows the diversity and versatility of Writers’ Week and its dedication to fostering new talent in people of all ages.

Lisa Fingleton, the coordinator of The Happy Artist project and Louise Lyons from the Xistance Youth Café worked with the students to develop ideas for animated films. “The idea was to encourage teenagers to engage with books and reading through film, animation and new technology”. According to Louise; “It was amazing to see how the group were able to bring literature to life through film and animation.”

The boys developed a short animation about the life cycle of a book while the girls based their animation on an interview with Mary Keane and a poem written for her by her late husband John B Keane.

The end result was spectacular; if you don’t believe me, you can see for yourself by clicking on the links below.

Life Cycle of a Book / Interview with Mary Keane

I’m certain that David Sedaris doesn’t need any introduction as a master of satire and one of the most important writers addressing the social condition today. He has over 9 million books in print, published in 25 languages, and has three grammy award nominations. So having David “Live for your listening pleasure” (pardon the pun) was a real treat.

David’s stage presence and delivery is as colourful and hilarious as his writing. It’s impossible to capture the atmosphere; think oodles of satire and non PC observances, a packed hall full of wet-eyed audience members holding their stomachs and huge rounds of applause. The audience were treated to:

‘The Cat and the Baboon’ – a satire on relationships with a baboon groomer trying hard to establish a relationship with a cat client to secure a tip. (“The baboon nodded and smiled, the way one has to in the service industry…”) This story was from the short story collection ‘Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk’ – “At first I was calling it fables but they have morals and I don’t always have them.” A fan of audiobooks, it was a badly written and executed folklore audiobook that inspired David to start this project.

‘Standing By’ – a story published in the New Yorker about flying (“You don’t ever want to hear the phrase Pray from a flight attendant.” On a beaded corn-row hairstyle on a young white male resembling a Dr Seuss character; “Stevie Wonder wore his hair like that in the 1980s but he’s black…and blind. Also, Stevie Wonder didn’t have acne…” Believe me – the delivery was brilliant!)

A story written for radio show, This American Life, on the theme of Innocence Abroad- “I wrote this story about an aspect of living in another country which didn’t make it onto the show. It’s a story that doesn’t really work on paper…what I’m saying is they were stupid not to take it.” (The story looked at pronunciation of words while living in foreign countries – you think that wouldn’t be funny? It is when David adopts the idea).

A language essay due to be in the New Yorker in a few weeks – discussing the limitations of learning new languages; the rote memory approach and limited topics which stunts your conversations. (“I can count to 999 in Japanese and when I buy something and I’m given change, I can say – You are now giving me change.” On learning Mandarin through a phrasebook “The one title romance included the following… Would you like a drink? You’re a fantastic dancer. You look like a cousin of mine. I like you very much, you’re great. Do you want a massage? How about going to bed? And… Don’t worry, I’ll do it myself. Oddly, they didn’t include leave the light on – a must if you want to say any of these things.”)

Speaking to the audience afterwards while they were waiting to get their books signed, I got these responses:

“This is the funniest thing I’ve heard in ages. I’m going to have to read his books again.”

“I thought his books were funny, but in person, he’s gas.”

“I’m so glad I came; I haven’t laughed so much in ages. My son said I’d be too old for the humour – it might be too rude – but what does he know? He’s the prude!”

“This was the best festival event I’ve been to – fair play to Listowel for getting him here. I don’t know how they do it.”

Me either, but whatever their secret ingredient is; it’s working.

Immediately humble, charming and extremely funny, Michael took the stand quipping; “Can you hear me…and what would you say if I couldn’t hear you?”

With the audience already eating out of his hand, Michael explained how he first discovered the beauty of the written word.

“I grew up in Maidenhead Thicket – there are no references to this place by any great playwrights, novelists or poets – so it was difficult to break into the literary world coming from such an obscure place. But it was while I was living with my grandparents that I began to love books.”

Despite his amazing career and list of achievements, Michael is refreshingly unassuming. Regarding his books, he joked; “My first book, Basil Street Blues ended up in the music section. Mosaic went to the art section. My latest books, Secrets, I expect to go to the espionage section – but at least it will sell very well.”

Michael read a few autobiographical excerpts, including a section about his formative years when he frequented Maidenhead Library (“which became my university”) and came across his first biographies. Also included were funny anecdotes about his aunt lightly baking library books in the oven to remove the germs and how the breakdown of one of his mother’s marriages lead to Michael engaging in an elaborate discourse via letter – with himself! (“It wasn’t funny at the time,” he laughs.)

Not only poignant, funny and honest, Michaels’s autobiographical writing reveals an astute eye for the human condition, especially the quirks, idiosyncrasies and ability to make fun of oneself.

And this approach translates perfectly to his biographies. Michael treated us to a reading from his Shaw biography -  “I wanted to give an idea of G. B. Shaw the villager; how he was in his real, private life” – before closing the reading section with a few pages from Secrets – but this also came with an unfortunate revelation for his fans…

“I’ll never write another book – this, The Book of Secrets, is my last book. It’s better to give up rather than have your readers and critics beg you to give up; so I’ve taken the initiative.”

The Q&A session was, as you’d expect, full of earnest requests; but what I didn’t expect (and probably neither did Michael) was the barrage of women declaring their love…

Lady 1: “Your readings are so good, I think I’ve fallen in love with you. When I read the books, god only knows what will happen.”

Michael: “Perhaps you’d better not – we’ll keep it as it is!”

Lady 2: “Unlike the lady earlier – who thinks she is in love with you – I am in love with you.”

My pick of the audience questions:

What is the point of Shaw in the 21st century?

I think he is out of fashion but he’s interesting and provocative; his time, to some extent, will come. His plays – Pygmalion is showing in Dublin for instance – are still played globally, so in this way, he still has a life. His musical criticism is some of the best musical criticism ever written. But he had a problem with politics – he believed he had to include jokes. He might have been more effective if he had written less. His father was alcoholic and he shifted the obsession – he was a workaholic. His time is in the past and the future, but not in the present.

What was your experience of the National Service?

My experiences were rather humiliating – I missed a war, I had leave and found out my company were going to war. I called about buttons and got told to go to the Tower of London under self arrest, and I did. It turned out that the person who had sent me a telegraph calling me to war had actually sent it to himself. Then there was another time when the union jack was flying upside down and I didn’t know the union jack had an upside down – and I was responsible. It was on the front page of the newspaper!” (He adds, chuckling, “These were awful times for me – they weren’t funny then.”)

As a biographer, is there a danger that you fall in love with the subject and add a rose tinted edge?

Definitely – you’ve invested so much time and energy there’s a danger that you would colour the view slightly. The best thing to do is to find out your subjects enemies and give their best criticisms so it’s not you giving the judgement. I use parodies sometimes and in my autobiographical things, I will make fun of myself.

Confession time: Prior to the festival, Michael kindly agreed to an interview (you can read here). When I emailed Michael to tell him that his blog interview was live, I made a bit of a typographical error and said his interview was now ‘love’. When I emailed the correction he replied, “Dear Elizabeth, I’m not sure I didn’t prefer your first version.” At the start of the event, I thanked Michael for his interview. In turn, he thanked me for the typing error, saying; “I’ll never forget it.”

What a guy!

Offering a highly interesting and somewhat controversial look at the evolution of the English language, Robert was inspired to write his latest book, Globish, in response to the idea that there is a new form of English, outside of Queens English and Standard American, which is spreading across the globe.

Robert McCrum

He explains that the capacity to convey English in a highly unintelligible form is one of it’s enduring strengths. In 1985, we thought we were taking a snapshot of English at its peak. Should be described as English languages – “place several English speaking communities of different ethnic and social backgrounds together and this argument can have some form”.

With capitalism and the internet, language now has a global reach; it’s possible for one language to be transmitted and received across the world. This global hunger for English has brought a point of no return. Consider the power of popular culture and recent awards; The White Tiger winning the Booker Prize and Slumdog Millionaire winning 8 Oscars in Hollywood including best picture – both of these which could be considered Globish.

But rather than seeing Globish as an accident of history, he argues that it has an identity past, present and future which should be taken as seriously as the Queen’s English received pronunciation.

“Language evolution is very slow – it spread over at least 500 years and it’s the story of three invasions and a cultural revolution (Christianity).”

Discussing the vernacular of Churchill, Obama, Daniel Defoe, Henry V, Shakespeare, Robert argues that English has “always been the language of everyman; an oral culture, informal and profane, which grew to be the pride of country, not because it was an elevated language (this was French and Latin) but because it was “direct, earthy and simple – a way to speak and arouse the common people” Hence why strong political figures have always used the English language to mobilise the country when needed.

Robert argues that the English language is “adaptable and pragmatic” and that “perfect English does not exist – English has always been normative, imperfect, work in progress and in a continuous state of flux”.

Robert also looked at the language policies and adoption of localised English across the world to give the overall message that this new movement, the adoption of Globish, is not something to fear; on the contrary, it has a valid place in modern and future society.

“This is not the end but the beginning…one thing is certain. Now at the beginning of this century, Globish is more an educational commercial tool. We’ve always tried the short way to get the message across…Language will be taken by speakers and embellished, but in everyday life and volatile situations, its function is to express something dynamically and directly…This is the age of new media and Globish will be the language adopted by this media.”

To get the full story and decide where you stand on the matter, you’ll have to read his book.

Anyone interested in any form of humanitarian issues – whether it’s looking after an older relative, working in a caring profession or campaigning for human rights – John Lonergan, a man who understand the values of a hug, a kindly word, and respect towards fellow man, is certainly worth looking up.

John Lonergan

Rather than sitting back on his laurels, this is a man who has demonstrated the power of his human-centric philosophy through his career at Mountjoy. This isn’t glorified public speaking; John is interested in action and going against the norm, avoiding grand gestures and taking things to a smaller, everyday level, where we can all make a difference and a connection through basic human kindness.

Starting with the Celtic Tiger, John explained that he was never a fan of those times.

“Someone said Ireland during the Celtic Tiger is the envy of Europe and I said god help Europe – we got our priorities all wrong and we might have been the envy when it came to materialism but we’d forgotten the basics.”

Part of his approach included a strong belief in the power of the written word and arts.

“We produced several plays in Mountjoy and we played at least five of John B’s plays; they had a message and was all had a message. They were about people and culture and all the things we go through. We often forget how significant culture is; we ignore it and become unconscious of it’s significance, but it’s amazing; the power of culture.”

John spoke of the difference between his visits to schools in lower class and impoverished areas. When visiting a middle class area, any child with a parent in prison would be discussed delicately before John’s talk and he would come away oblivious of which child was highlighted; the child would simply blend and not bring the matter to attention.

In contrast, when visiting impoverished areas – such as one of the six tiny areas in Dublin which represent where 75% of the prisoners who got to Mountjoy were born – the children approach John and ask “Do you know me da?”, oblivious to any concept that this would be viewed by society in general as something to be ashamed of.

Also covering the topic of security and how it is severely mishandled, John stated;

“Security justifies everything in the world – it even prevents dads from holding their babies during prison visits.”

From the treatment of Saddam Hussein to the Queen’s visit to the parental instructions to teenagers – John has an amazing outlook towards being a role model and approaching positions of power which we should all certainly consider:

“It’s far more important to be merciful than be right…I’ve always tried to maintain a balance between security and humanity. And whenever there’s a conflict I would always side with humanity; because if you forget how to treat fellow man then you’re lost… Never humiliate another human being, in any situation whatsoever. That’s not strength, that’s abuse. ”

John also addressed the issues of homelessness, good customer service, misconception, perception, through an array of witty personal anecdotes, quotes and accounts of events encountered during his career. He also asked the audience to look at their own situation.

“There isn’t one person in this room who made it on their own; and if you did, stand up, let’s have a look at you. Imagine the term ‘self made man/woman’. If you have all the talent in the world – it’s pointless if you don’t get the opportunity to be recognised and grow. And you need to recognise and foster that talent in others.”

Despite the important and serious undertones, John’s talk was full of humour and insight. If you’re at all interested in humanitarian issues on any level, I’d certainly recommend you familiarise yourself with this man.

Supporting not just literature, but the arts in general, there have been an array of plays, launches, tours and exhibitions throughout Writers Week; one of which I encountered by accident at the Emily Barr event but which certainly fitted the travel writing theme.

Michelle Edwards and Claudio Tagiola have stunning landscape images for sale in the The Boy’s National School Concert Hall until 2pm on Sunday with prices for framed ranging from €55 to €95 – I’ll let the sample images speak for themselves.