NOVEL SPACES - GUEST POST

I am the guest author over at Novel Spaces today. I talk about my novel You and the voice its written in. Go here.

You can enter a draw for the novel by commenting over there.

WINDING STAIR PICS

Some pics from last night's reading in the gorgeous Winding Stair Bookshop in Dublin. Big thanks to Regan and staff for a relaxed, friendly hosting. What a great shop it is. And thanks to everyone who turned up, listened, asked questions and bought the book. Thanks to Karen for the photos, as always. It was a lovely evening.

Signing the novel

Me with author Patrick Chapman

Me with my sweet Auntie Eta

Shelf-mates: Irene Némirovsky and Anais Nin!!

WINDING STAIR READING

I'm reading from You tomorrow night in The Winding Stair in Dublin.

Thursday 29th April, 8pm. All welcome!

The Frank O'Connor Short Story Award longlist has been released. Nude is on it - thanks to Salt for sending it in. More here.

GRACE WELLS INTERVIEW

Today I am interviewing Grace Wells whose first poetry collection has just been published by Dedalus. Grace was born in London in 1968. Formerly an independent television producer, she moved to Ireland in 1991. Her first book, Gyrfalcon (2002), a novel for children, won the Eilis Dillon Best Newcomer Bisto Award, and was an International White Ravens' Choice. Other publications for children include Ice-Dreams (2008) and One World, Our World (2009). Her short stories and poetry have been published widely and broadcast. She reviews Irish poetry for Contrary, the University of Chicago's online literary journal, is a freelance arts administrator, and teaches creative writing.


Welcome to my blog, Grace, I'm delighted to have you here to talk about your début poetry collection When God Has Been Called Away To Greater Things which appears from Dedalus on the 1st May. The title is a quote from within one of the poems. Tell us why you chose it as the book's title.

I suppose there's no short answer to that. The phrase says a lot to me. I should start by saying that as a rabid feminist I have trouble with both the word and the notion of "God". But swiftly clambering over that rather massive boulder, and moving on to answer your question, I think the collection is very much about the terrible things that people do to one another when "God" is far off dealing with politics and wars and so forth.

I'm not one of those lucky people who have the sense "God" is right in their pocket. For me there is more of a constant quest to find a spiritual presence in a rather bewildering material world.
And yet, even though "God" is far off, and we're doing terrible things to one another, somewhere right within the worst of it all, is an intricate lattice of spiritual movement. It's often invisible, usually incomprehensible, mostly frightening and yet, in glimpses, utterly beautiful.
I suppose the tension of the whole book is about witnessing that beauty and terror at the same time. For me the title is saying that despite all, the presence of a spiritual order in the midst of human chaos, is perceivable.”


The poetry in this collection is full of secret places, cubby holes, skins that the narrators hide in; the book reads as a personal journey from dark to light and love. When you go to write a poem, do you find you mostly write from a personal place? Do you enjoy trying on other voices when you write?

Yes, the book is shockingly autobiographical. It's all me, me, me. Even when I step into another voice, I'm often just articulating another part of myself. Disgraceful behaviour really.
What tempers my own intolerance of such copious self-indulgence, is that I believe the writing has some merit, some craft, that I'm not just whining, or moaning or feeling sorry for myself, but through the words I'm making a genuine effort to transform my own "stuff" whilst also being creative with it.
I admire writers who get into voices that represent the marginalised or the unvoiced, and I'd like to do that too, but really for the most part I've found myself and my life enough of a challenge. At least up to now. I do feel that "When God Has Been Called Away To Greater Things" puts a lot to rest, and frees me up for a new phase. I see a delicious, blank, white sheet ahead, and I feel future work may be quite different.

Some of the poems are very tense and raw, dealing as they do with violence against women. Are these poems difficult to write and to put out there?

Mostly they've been utterly necessary to write, and again transformative. But putting them out there, yes, there's huge doubt as to the wisdom or folly of that. I'm writing about sexually abusive behaviour, and that's one of the last taboos. The abusive relationship I'm dealing with is the one my children were born into, so it's all very close, very central. I won't know for some time if this is the right thing to do.

Basically, the story is one of suffering and emergence from that. People suffer for many different reasons and I think my poems can resonate with anyone in pain. One of Buddhism's five noble truths is that, 'Life is Suffering'. I rebel against that, I'd like to retranslate it as 'Life is Challenging'. I think that's also somewhere in my title: how are we going to rise to the challenges we've been given, 'When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things'?
Even though I flounder around in my own doubt about exposing my story, I believe in the power of poetry to change lives, and my strength in that belief outweighs any insecurity. I feel a great responsibility for women who are still stuck in abusive relationships. I think my book is like a blueprint, a map for a way out. It shows it's possible to move on and make the kind of life you had once intended to live.

Flowers and trees are like safety nets throughout these poems. Are nature and gardening hugely important to you, as a woman and as a writer?
Please share a quote from a favourite poem featuring plant life, by another poet.

One quote? That's not fair. Instantly I think of Paula Meehan's wonderful line, "Not alone the rue in my herb garden". She follows with a gorgeous description of the garden (of the life) she is abandoning, "The weeds grow lush and lovely/at midsummer, honeysuckle roving/through the hawthorn: my garden/at Eslin ferociously passing judgement". I also love her poem 'Laburnum', where heartache and rejection are earthed and made entirely memorable by the plant's blossom, "say/mid May, say the time of laburnum." I can't see laburnum without seeing Meehan's words. She has wonderful plant references in her latest collection, Painting Rain, especially in the poem 'Death of a field', ”with its bewitching, "I'll walk out once/Barefoot under the moon to know the field/Through the soles of my feet to hear/The myriad leaf lives green and singing".

Kerry Hardie's work is also very important to me. She writes of walls that "would be whitethorn, porous and birded" and I envy her those lines. I love her casual communication between the human and plant realms, "We came round the bent road in the drowned light/of a Spring evening/and I saw you, in your dark coat,/your hair dark, your face white, your hands full of lilac.”//You might have been a bride".

Hardie is firmly rooted in a landscape similar to the one I live in, small fields, hedgerows and Irish mountains. Because I am so familiar with the plants here, they are not just names on a page. I'm immersed in their behaviour and culture, yet I am no scientist - photosynthesis, what's that?

I'm not sure that it's because I'm a woman that nature is so important to me. It seems fairly fundamental that it should be important to everyone: the natural world is all we've got. The human/nature balance is out of sync. With world population due to rise from 6 billion to 9 billion in the next forty years, there's a good chance we're going to eat ourselves out of house and home.
My worst nightmare is the Star Wars city planet, Coruscant, which is entirely covered by urban sprawl. Right now in England, the Labour Party is selling off the Green Belts. It's not so difficult to predict where all this is going. As a political statement I've grown my own food for the last two decades. Even if I'm wrong about Climate Change, Peak Oil, water shortage, our famine landscape, and all the other things we're facing into, living close to nature is an endlessly fulfilling way to live.

You have lived in Ireland for nearly 20 years. Do you consider yourself an Irish writer? Or does that kind of labelling matter to you at all?

Oh Nuala! What a provocative thing to be asked! The roots of that question go right down deep into ancient Irish/English dynamics! I would love to consider myself an Irish writer, but the truth is I don't suppose I will ever be allowed to be one. If you're from outside the parish here, you're from outside the parish forever. While that's hard, it also allows for levels of freedom that indigenous writers may not have, both internally and externally. The trouble is, I may not ever be considered an English writer either. I'm something of a Hiberno-English hybrid, but that mix has been producing wonderful literature for hundreds of years, so I'm in good company.
Wounds from labeling only ever scratch the skin—after all they have no impact on the main thing, which is me and a pen in a room, working. I would say however that my writing is enmeshed in Ireland. My writing voice, just like my speaking voice have been moulded by my years here, by Irish forces which have rounded off a few sharp London edges, given me a softer burr, and allowed for all sorts of images and resonances to spring up—€”qualities I'd never have developed had I stayed in England.

You are a published children's fiction author. Do you write adult fiction? Any plans to publish a short fiction collection or novel?

There are always big plans. I long to write adult fiction in a serious way. I forever feel there are unwritten novels writhing in my entrails, sulkily banging doors to rooms deep in my subconscious, causing me endless discomfort because they can't get out. My life doesn't presently allow for the kind of internal silence a novel requires. I write short stories which go out in magazines from time to time, but I'm a very slow writer. A collection will come, but it's far off somewhere in the unreadable future.

Who are your favourite female writers? And why?

C.S.Lewis said we read to know we are not alone; I'm definitely of that school. For me reading and writing are really about sharing an understanding of human experience. That requires immense honesty, no tricks. I've already mentioned Paula Meehan. Her poetry has been essential to my life and my work. The Canadian poet Annie Cameron was very important early on, she's very frank about being a woman in patriarchal world. And I really like Anne Michaels, who is more lyrical and romantic.
I've always read a lot, but haven't necessarily had the money to read what's hot now, so I often fall back on women of the last century, who are often in libraries and second hand shops and were in the house where I grew up. As a teenager I loved Agatha Christie, I still think she's great, she can really tell stories. And Nancy Mitford is a favourite, she's so sharp and funny, and knows the British upper class so well. Daphne du Maurier is wonderful. Rumer Godden, Mary Renault, Vita Sackville West, Mary Lavin, Jennifer Johnson and Elizabeth Bowen are all on my bookshelves and won't be parted with. I'm a very 20th century person in a lot of ways.
These days I tend to get my hands on new writers about five years after all the fuss has been made. I've huge respect for Sarah Waters and Annie Proulx. It seems I love poetry that's honest and a little raw, and prose that's quite wordy, lyrical and deeply enmeshed in traditional story-telling values, so there's tension, drama, and that great gift of escape, of entering entirely into another world.

And, finally, what is your great, big ambition as a writer?

I'd really like to feel I'd written what I meant to write. That I'd honoured all the writerly forces that slosh around in me, and had succeeded in channelling them into something worthwhile. To an extent I feel that I have done that with this book, but there's so much more to be said about other things besides myself.
As a writer you can get fixed on publishing and awards and reviews and all that, but that's just surface stuff, the sense of deeper creative fulfillment is really the most important aspect of it all at the end of the day. I'm told that when you get to the pearly gates they ask, "well, did you make the most of the gifts we gave you?" I don't want to hesitate in that moment. I want to say yes.

Thanks, Grace, for being my guest here at Women Rule Writer - it's been a pleasure! You can all buy the book here.

YOU - LAUNCH PICS

Annie and Ted Deppe and Nuala

The launch of my novel You went fantastically well. I couldn't have asked for a nicer crowd, or nicer things to be said by the launchers Annie and Ted Deppe. Thanks to all who came, but especially to editor/publisher Deirdre O'Neill from New Island and my Ma.

Nuala reading from You

Signing You for writer Mike McCormack

Signing copies of the novel for Kennys

The novel can be bought online from New Island here but it will also be widely available in book shops in Ireland.
Poethead has a small review here.

YOU LAUNCH - SAT 24th APRIL

My book arrived yesterday; I got to hold it, sniff it, look at it, feel it. It's gorgeous. I'm so happy - it's been a long journey. Righto, I'm of to Cúirt: Colum McCann to meet; an anthology launch to speak at; my novel launch tomorrow - it's all go ;) Report next week, hopefully.

‘A wonderful piece of work. Economic, evocative, sharp and nail-bitingly tense. The little girl’s voice is pitch-perfect.’ Rachel Trezise

ONE-OFF FLASH FICTION COMP, DUBLIN REVIEW OF BOOKS

OK, I know I am multi-posting but this looks interesting:

The Dublin Review of Books is pleased to present its Once Off Flash Fiction Contest. The prize will bring recognition to distinguished flash fiction writing from within Ireland and around the world. The winning entry will receive 1,000 Euro in addition to publication in The Dublin Review of Books. Second and third place winners will also see their work appear in The Dublin Review of Books.

Final judging will be made by authors James Ryan, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and an editor from the drb.

GUIDELINES:

Submit up to 3 flash fiction stories of no more than 500 words apiece.

Work must be previously unpublished.

Simultaneous submissions are not accepted.

Copyright will remain with winning authors. The drb reserves the rights to use winning entries up to one year after publication.

Manuscripts must include a cover letter containing name, address, e-mail address and/or telephone number, and the title of each work.
Entry fee is 10 Euro.

Payment can be made through our PayPal account when submitting an entry.

Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2010. Entries received after this date will not be read.

Only winning authors will be contacted.

Writers may submit through our online form (see details at http://www.drb.ie/competition.aspx)

FACELESS MONSTERS - ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH

The fantastical, fun, brilliant short story anthology from the Atlantis Collective, Faceless Monsters, which I edited, is being launched tomorrow night at the Cúirt Literary Festival. Massimo Bar, William Street at 6pm. There'll be music, alcohol, readings and wall-to-wall short story writers. What more could you want?! See you there!

KERRY FICTION AWARD SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

It's an all-male novelist shortlist for the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award this year. Actress Kate O'Toole and author, Giles Foden adjudicated and chose the final five shortlisted novels for this year's prize fund of €15,000. They are: The Infinities by John Banville, Glover's Mistake by Nick Laird, Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, The Space Between Us by John McKenna and Not True and Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin.

The winner will be announced on Wednesday the 2nd of June at the official opening of the Festival which will run to Sunday 6th of June. Frank Hayes, Director of Corporate Affairs with Kerry Group, has been sponsoring the Fiction Award for the last 15 years,

"Kerry Group is again proud to sponsor the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Now entering its 16th year, this award continues to be a much sought after accolade in the Irish literary calendar, with the 2010 award attracting excellent entries from a myriad of established and up-and-coming Irish writers." said Hayes.

This year the competition attracted over 50 entries creating tense competition for the authors. Adjudicator, Kate O'Toole found the process of selection both enjoyable and extremely difficult,

"When asked to adjudicate this year's competition I did not anticipate how personally involved I would become with each of the novels. I was acutely aware of the difference an award of this nature represents for the winner and found the final process of selection challenging as there were so many talented novels to choose from" she said.

My money's on Colum McCann.

CÚIRT OPENING

Fun was had at the Cúirt opening at the City Museum last night. I himmed and hawed about going (I get fed up dragging my kids everywhere with me - car-crying, feeding them, keeping them entertained during lots of speeches, general longing to be free, if only for a few hours...also longing for a glass of vino which my 40 mile drive home prevents me having, grrr.)

Anyway, my good writer-pal Órfhlaith Foyle said she'd come with me, so I packed up the car and headed in to Galway. I'm glad I did; it was just good to see everyone all giddy and positive in that way that Cúirt affects people. As Dep Mayor Peter Keane said: 'Cúirt puts the writers and the readers at the heart of what it does.' And that makes it feel friendly and inclusive.

This is the 25th anniversary of Cúirt, which started as a poetry festival in 1986. Maureen Kennelly admitted they've had 'a challenging few days' because of the volcanic ash cloud which has prevented some writers from travelling. Damn Eyjafjallajökull. Anyway, some people's loss is other's gain - Órfhlaith Foyle is filling in for Tessa Hadley at 1pm in the Town Hall today.

Roddy Doyle, his man-bag slung across him, talked about feeling exotic as he'd come all the way from Dublin, which suddenly 'feels like abroad'. He said that 'being in Galway feels like walking around in a short story'. Anne Enright looked lovely in a pair of red shoes which are very like the ones I'm wearing for my launch on Saturday. Irish women writers rock the red patent shoe look!

Kevin Barry was there too and local scribes in abundance, including Joan McBreen and Gerardine Burke. Andrew Meehan won the Cúirt New Writing Prize for his story 'Her Way of Saying No'. Congrats, Andrew.

All in all it was a lovely evening, with the crowd spilling out of the museum to the banks of the Corrib, from which a huge heron flew over to survey the scene.

NUDE ON EDGE HILL LONGLIST - WOOP!

I'm delighted that my short story collection Nude (Salt, 2009) is on the longlist for the Edge Hill Prize.

The Edge Hill Short Story Prize, now in its third year, is the UK's only literary award that recognises a published collection of short stories, and this year they have announced a longlist of 18 titles, which will be whittled down to a shortlist. The shortlist of 5 will be announced on the 8th of May.

The links are to reviews on The Short Review website. More here.

• Regi Claire - Fighting It (Two Ravens Press).
• David Constantine - The Sheiling (Comma Press). 
• Jeremy Dyson - The Cranes that Build Cranes (Little Brown). 
• Jane Feaver - with Love Me Tender (Random House).
• Patrick Gale - Gentleman's Relish (Harper Collins).
• Sian Hughes - The Beach Hut (Biscuit Publishing). 
• Mark Illis - Tender (Salt Publishing). 
• A.L. Kennedy - What Becomes (Jonathan Cape).
• Tom Lee - Greenfly (Harvill Secker).
• Michael J Farrell - Life in the Universe (The Stinging Fly). 
• Ben Moor - More Trees To Climb (Portobello). 
• Nuala Ní Chonchúir - Nude (Salt Publishing).
• Philip O Ceallaigh - The Pleasant Light of Day (Penguin).
• Robert Shearman - Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical(Big Finish)
• Charles Stross - Wireless (Little Brown).
• Craig Taylor - One Million Tiny Plays About Britain (Bloomsbury).
• Douglas Thompson - Ultrameta (Eibonvale Press).
• Simon Van Booy - Love Begins in Winter (Beautiful Books).

LINK TO RADIO INTERVIEW

Here's a link to yesterday's radio interview with Niamh Bagnell about my novel You and rivers and women writers etc., etc.:

Sunday Scrapbook - Nuala interview

RADIO INTERVIEW ON SUNDAY

 I'm being interviewed on Sunday the 18th April (this Sunday!) at 4pm, on the radio, on a programme called Sunday Scrapbook by Niamh Bagnell, who blogs at Various Cushions.

The station is Liffey Sound and we are going to chat about rivers which feature strongly in all my work and I'll be reading a couple of poems and a wee extract from my novel You.

Niamh blogs about it in a much more interesting way here.

ADVICE FROM RODDY DOYLE

"Do not place a photograph of your ­favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide." Roddy Doyle.

Guess who is over my desk?

Prize for the first correct answer, which may be find-able on a recent post on this blog, if you look closely...

The prize? A signed copy of my poetry pamphlet Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car.

MAG POETRY PRIZE 2010

The MAG Poetry Prize 2010 is now open.

They have no appointed judges – the entrants judge the competition themselves. It's a knockout system in three rounds – but beware, if you don't participate in the judging, you will be knocked out yourself. In each round the entrants read 12 poems. In the final round everyone reads the last 12. The judging will take place in May and June, following closure of the competition.

Entry and all details are online at www.poeticrepublic.com. The deadline is 30^th April 2010.

LAUNCH OF YOU - GALWAY 24th APRIL

WILLESDEN EVENT PICS & REPORT 2010

BUILDING NEAR SPITALFIELDS

GEORGE ORWELL'S HOUSE, PORTOBELLO RD

TANIA HERSHMAN & JUNO

LEAST CRAZY PIC OF ME READING, AT DICKENS'S DESK

CLAUDIA BOERS, TANIA HERSHMAN, VANESSA GEBBIE

STEPHEN MORAN, COMPETITION ORGANISER

DICKENS'S FAUX CHICKEN!

TOM VOWLER READING IN THE LIBRARY 

 

WENA POON, JUNO & FINBAR

 

JULIA BOHANNA

 

WENA POON & STEPHEN WITH THE COVETED MUG

SUNSET NEAR ATHLONE ON THE WAY HOME

Wena Poon was the winner of the 2010 Willesden Herald Short Story comp with her story 'The Architects'. Huge congrats to her! The joint runners-up were 'Emily Strabnow's Freckles' by Willie Davis and 'Falling' by Henrietta Rose-Innes.

We had a fantastic time - I love, love, love London. We had a ball in Notting Hill and around Regent Street, wandering in the sunshine, happy out of our heads to be out and about.

The Charles Dickens Museum in Bloomsbury, where the event was held, was small and sweet and interesting, with lovely, helpful staff.

It was great to meet writers Tom Vowler, Rob Shearman and Julia Bohanna in the flesh, also Stephen Moran and Lane Ashfeldt, the legends behind The Willesden Herald and Pulp.net respectively. Great people, all. And I was thrilled to re-meet my cyber-pals writers Vanessa Gebbie, Tania Hershman and Adam Marek. Adam was recently shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Award with his stunning story 'Fewer Things'. Seek it out if you haven't already read it. It was in last Sunday's Times mag. (Easter Sunday's.)

It took me bleddy ages to load and caption the pics above so I am not posting links to all the writers mentioned here. They are all google-able! Many of them keep blogs. Go find.

The night, of course, flew, between readings, chatter and prize-giving. We adjourned to Carluccio's for food and more wine and all in all it was a cheerful, friendly event. It was all over far too soon. Did I say I love going to London?!

And finally, if you want to read the stories that won and were shortlisted, New Short Stories 4 is now available with "fourteen of the best short stories of the year 2010 from brilliant new and award-winning authors, seven by men and seven by women. The stories are set in Australia, Ireland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, UK, US and more. Contributors: Wena Poon, Toby Litt, Julia Goubert, Willie Davis, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Kevin Spaide, Carys Davies, Jonathan Attrill, Peggy Riley, Tom Vowler, Paul McGuire, Jo Cannon, Jarred McGinnis, Henrietta Rose-Innes."

You can buy it here.

WILLESDEN SHORT STORIES AT DICKENS MUSEUM

A Willesden Mug (not THE Willesden Mug, though...)

I’m reading in Bloomsbury in London on Saturday next, the 10th April, at 5.30pm, for the Willesden Herald Short Story Prize Event. At the Charles Dickens Museum, no less. How very literary!
Four of the shortlisted writers will be reading: myself, Wena Poon, Henrietta Rose-Innes and Tom Vowler.

This event sees the lauch of the anthology New Short Stories 4 which features 14 new stories by new and established authors from around the world. The complete list can be seen here.

Someone will bring home the much coveted Willesden mug. There's a one in ten chance of me winning it, so I'm not holding my breath. But I get to go to London!! That is prize enough. I need a break after the last two weeks which have been very up and down. Meaning mostly down.

According to Amazon (and they know everything, right?) today is publication day for my novel You. So, happy publication day to me! And, no, I do not have copies of the book...

Abridged 0 – 21 - Call for poetry & art subs

Abridged is a beautifully produced magazine out of Derry. They are looking for poems and art on the theme of Magnolia. Yes, Magnolia - the queen of paint colours. Closing date 21st May.
See below for their call for subs:

"In the world of colour charts and iconic English sheepdogs, Magnolia represents the fence-sitting hue that neither offends or accosts the senses. Adorning the walls of TurnKey packaged homes of first-time buyers or haunting the corners of final destination rest homes of howls and despair, Magnolia stalks us from the cradle to the grave. It is the bastard offspring of white: it is the disgraced sibling of beige. It is nothingness yet it is everywhere. It is Abridged 0 – 21.

Abridged, the poetry/art magazine is looking for submissions for its Magnolia issue. A maximum of 3 poems may be submitted of any length. Art can be up to A4 size and can be in any media. It should be at least 300 dpi. Submissions can be emailed to abridged@ymail.com or posted to: Abridged c/o The Verbal Arts Centre, Stable Lane and Mall Wall, Bishop Street Within, Derry BT48 6PU. Closing date for submission is May 21st."