LEAVES LITERARY FESTIVAL

I'm taking part in the Leaves Literary Festival on Saturday 10th November in lovely Laois. My event is on in Stradbally, where I read with Christine Dwyer Hickey and Niamh Boyce, chaired by Seamus Hosey, with music by harpist Claire O'Donnell. Arthouse @ the Library, Stradbally at 8.00pm

John MacKenna is leading a workshop. It costs €40. I've done a workshop with him - he's very good. Worth doing.

Details of the rest of the festival here:

  

OFFICIAL OPENING & LAUNCH

The festivities commence on Friday 9^th November with the official launch in Áras an Chontae at 7.30pm. The event will also incorporate the launch of exciting new poetry collections by Ann Egan, Kathy D’Arcy, Jamie O’Connell and Pat Boran with James Ryan chairing the readings.  Readings by all the authors will be interspersed by music from guitarist, Conal Rae from Laois School of Music. Admission is free and books will be on sale on the night.

CHILDREN'S EVENTS

The Festival also includes a Children’s Programme.  On Friday 9^th November award-winning author and illustrator, Niamh Sharkey, Laureate na nÓg, will visit schools in the county to create a Monster Doodle and then on to Abbeyleix Library for a reading at 3.30pm.  Children’s author Roisín Meaney will also pay a visit to some lucky schools in Laois and give a reading in Portlaoise Library at 3.30pm. Admission to the children’s events is free of charge.

WORKSHOPS

Adult writers workshops will also take place in the Dunamaise Arts Centre. Hennessy award winner Niamh Boyce will hold a workshop entitled, “Poems Beget Poems” on the 9^th November running from 10am to 4pm.  This workshop would suit writers who have begun to write poetry and would like to explore it further. 

Also for adults, well-known writer John MacKenna will hold a workshop entitled, “Seasons of the Heart”, exploring the ways in which we can draw on nature and our own life experiences to create fiction and memoir. This workshop runs from 10am to 4pm on the 10^th November in the Dunamaise Arts Centre.   

READING

The final event on Saturday evening is an exciting mix of readings and music featuring Christine Dwyer Hickey, Niamh Boyce and Nuala Ní Chonchúir, chaired by Seamus Hosey,

with music by  harpist Claire O Donnell. This will take place in the Arthouse & Library, Stradbally at 8.00pm on the 10^th November.

Bookings for all events can be made at the Dunamaise Arts Centre Tel:  057 8663355. www.dunamaise.ie

SOME SORT OF BEAUTY - LAUNCH

Young Irish writer Jamie O'Connell launched his début short story collection Some Sort of Beauty (Bradshaw Books) in Dublin last night. Hodges Figgis, one of our best book shops, was packed with the great and the good who came along to support Jamie: Joe Woods of Poetry Ireland, Séamus Hosey of RTÉ and Alan Hayes, publisher with Arlen House, were there, along with various writers and friends of the author's.

James Ryan, who was one of Jamie's lectureres on the Creative Writing M.A. at UCD, launched the book. James said that the stories in the collection 'brilliantly adhere to Rilke's advice: "Search for the reason that bids you right...and a belief in some sort of beauty".' The stories are, he said, 'lyrical, distilled, illuminating, some of them unnerving, and above all, brave.' James further went on to say that 'Jamie's fiction is emotionally clear, direct, unshowy' and that this is the consequence of 'work, work and more work, as well as huge talent'. High praise indeed.

I've been reading Jamie's book since spending time with him in Arkansas last week and I can attest to how well written it is. In terms of subject matter, it is something brand spanking new in Irish short fiction: Celtic Tiger cubs do drugs, have gay sex, wear Prada with pride, and have secretive, competitive friendships. The title story is about Jehovah's Witnesses, surely a first in an Irish short story. Jamie read that story at the launch and afterwards we adjourned to Café en Seine and then Bar 37, which looks like a ramped up version of my house: lots of bone china, Holy statues and mirrors. I felt right at home!

If you missed the launch you can get Jamie's book in shops or online here.

ARKANSAS BOUND

Irish writer Jamie O'Connell who will feature at the International Conference on the Short Story in Arkansas this week

Well, I'm off to Amerikay. Arkansas to be precise. To the International Conference on the Short Story to be even more precise. This will be my fourth time at the conference which takes place in a different city every second year. So far I've been to Lisbon in 2006, then Cork and in 2010, Toronto. I am stoked to be going to Arkansas. I am reliably informed by Dr Maurice Lee, the conference director, that the temps are 'hot, hot, hot' just now.

I am on two panels while there: one on flash fiction, the other on the Irish short story (oh what a vast and sticky subject). I am also reading with the delightful Katie Singer. Can't wait! And I can't wait to see my pals Tania Hershman, Sylvia Petter, Paddy O'Reilly, Ann Luttrell and Mary Costello. And to make the proper acquaintance of fellow Irish writers Molly McCloskey, Mary Morrissy and new-kid-on-the-block, Jamie O'Connell.

Early on Tuesday it's bye bye rainy Ballinasloe, hello sunny Little Rock :) I will blog from there if I have the wit and/or the time.