WOMEN RULE WRITER: Lit blog of Nuala O'Connor / Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Showing posts with label Petina Gappah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Petina Gappah. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 December 2009
CONGRATS PETINA!
Huge congrats to Petina Gappah who has won the Guardian's First Book Award for An Elegy for Easterly, her stunning short fiction collection. Yay! More here.
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
WIN COPIES OF NUDE - IN GENEVA WITH PETINA!
Today on my virtual tour, I am in the company of the beautiul and megawatt-talented writer Petina Gappah in Geneva, Switzerland. Petina is from Zimbabwe and her collection An Elegy for Easterly was recently shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor Award. We talk about lots of stuff: writing with a family, ideal dinner party writer-guests and, of course, short stories.
Petina is giving away 2 signed copies of Nude to readers of the blog. Head on over to win one and read our chat here.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
PROGRAMME FOR FRANK O'CONNOR 2009
The programe for the 2009 Frank O'Connor Festival in Cork has been announced. See Munster Literature's site here.
I can only stay 3 days this year (sob) as I have to dash off on the Saturday for my Clifden Arts Week reading (Cork to Clifden by car with a, by then, 4 month old baby - urgh).
BUT! I will get to see Simon Van Booy read (I am reading his book for review at the moment and am totally lost in it); also Billy O'Callaghan and Petina Gappah.
And my book Nude is being launched there, in the City Library, on the Friday at 4pm - all welcome!
I can only stay 3 days this year (sob) as I have to dash off on the Saturday for my Clifden Arts Week reading (Cork to Clifden by car with a, by then, 4 month old baby - urgh).
BUT! I will get to see Simon Van Booy read (I am reading his book for review at the moment and am totally lost in it); also Billy O'Callaghan and Petina Gappah.
And my book Nude is being launched there, in the City Library, on the Friday at 4pm - all welcome!
Thursday, 2 July 2009
MY GUEST BLOG AT PETINA GAPPAH'S
I am a guest blogger today (my first time!) on the amazing Petina Gappah's site. Petina was just this week shortlisted for the €35,000 Cork City Frank O'Connor Award for her début short fic collection from Faber An Elegy for Easterly.
On Petina's website she has a Proust questionnaire and her answer to the question 'What do you most admire in a woman?' is:
'A good sense of humour, especially the ability to laugh at herself. Kindness, integrity and elegance.' I like that. And what does she most admire in a man?
'A good sense of humour, especially the ability to laugh at himself. Kindness, courage and integrity.' Interesting!
Anyhoo, see my post on Ms Gappah's site, about the notorious pram in the hall, here.
Monday, 29 June 2009
Cork-City Frank O'Connor Short Story Award Shortlist 2009
This news just in from the Munster Literature Centre! Irish writer Philip Ó Ceallaigh has been shortlisted for the second time for the Cork-City Frank O'Connor Short Story Award, as has Kiwi author Charlotte Grimshaw. And the wonderful Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah is also on the list. I talked about Petina's Elegy for Easterly earlier here.
HUGE congrats to the shortlistees. Here is the announcement from the administrators' of the award:
The shortlist for the 2009 Cork-City Frank O'Connor Short Story Award has been decided by an international jury. The award at 35,000 euro is the richest prize in the world for the short story form and is given annually to an original collection of stories judged to be the best. Previous winners have included Haruki Murakami, Miranda July, Jhumpa Lahiri and Yiyun Li. The award is organised by the Munster Literature Centre with generous funding from Cork City Council.
Notable names edged out for a position on this year's shortlist include Booker winner Kazuo Ishiguro, Orange Prize winner Chimanda Ngozi Adiche, veteran short story authors Ali Smith, Mary Gaitskill and James Lasdun and reviewers' darling Sana Krasikov.
The winner will be announced in Cork on September 20th at the closing ceremony of the tenth Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival which is the oldest annual short story festival in the world.
Further information can be obtained from Patrick Cotter, Director, The Munster Literature Centre, www.munsterlit.ie ++353 214312955
The shortlisted books are as follows:
An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah published by Faber, London
Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz University, and the University of Zimbabwe. Her short fiction and essays have been published in eight countries. She lives with her son Kush in Geneva, where she works as counsel in an international organisation that provides legal aid on international trade law to developing countries. Her story collection, An Elegy for Easterly is published by Faber in April 2009. She is currently completing The Book of Memory, her first novel. Both books will also be published in Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw published by Vintage, New Zealand
Charlotte Grimshaw is a fiction writer. Her first novel was described as ‘New Zealand noir,’ and her later books continue to draw from a range of genres and dramatic situations. Grimshaw has contributed short fiction to anthologies, was awarded the 2006 Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Award, and published her first short story collection in 2007. Titled Opportunity, this collection was short-listed for the world’s richest short fiction prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.
Ripples and other Stories by Shih-Li Kow published by Silverfish Books, Malaysia
Shih-Li Kow was born in Kuala Lumpur and was educated for the most part in schools in Malaysia. Her stories have been published in the anthologies, News from Home and Silverfish New Writing 7. Sh-li Kow holds a degree in chemical engineering and worked as an industrial engineer in a multinational consumer products company for more than ten years. She is currently in retail. She resides in Kuala Lumpur with her extended family and son, Jack.
The Pleasant Light of Day by Philip O Ceallaigh Published by Penguin Ireland.
Philip O Ceallaigh has lived and worked at a variety of jobs in Ireland,
Spain, Russia, the United States, Kosovo and Georgia.
He has lived mostly in Bucharest since 2000 where among other things he translates English subtitles for Romanian films. He has won the Glen Dimplex Award and the Rooney Prize for his first short story collection Notes from A Turkish Whorehouse which was also shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Award in 2006.
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower Published by FSG New York and Granta UK
Wells Tower’s short stories and journalism have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, The Washington Post Magazine, and elsewhere. He received two Pushcart Prizes and the Plimpton Prize from The Paris Review. He divides his time between Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Brooklyn, New York.
Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy published by Harper Perennial New York.
Simon Van Booy was born in London and grew up in rural Wales and Oxford. After playing football in Kentucky, he lived in Paris and Athens. In 2002 he was awarded an MFA and won the H.R. Hays Poetry Prize. His journalism has appeared in magazines and newspapers including the New York Times and the New York Post. Van Booy is the author of The Secret Lives of People in Love, now translated into several languages. He lives in New York City, where he teaches part-time at the School of Visual Arts and at Long Island University. He is also involved in the Rutgers Early College Humanities Program (REaCH) for young adults living in underserved communities.
HUGE congrats to the shortlistees. Here is the announcement from the administrators' of the award:
The shortlist for the 2009 Cork-City Frank O'Connor Short Story Award has been decided by an international jury. The award at 35,000 euro is the richest prize in the world for the short story form and is given annually to an original collection of stories judged to be the best. Previous winners have included Haruki Murakami, Miranda July, Jhumpa Lahiri and Yiyun Li. The award is organised by the Munster Literature Centre with generous funding from Cork City Council.
Notable names edged out for a position on this year's shortlist include Booker winner Kazuo Ishiguro, Orange Prize winner Chimanda Ngozi Adiche, veteran short story authors Ali Smith, Mary Gaitskill and James Lasdun and reviewers' darling Sana Krasikov.
The winner will be announced in Cork on September 20th at the closing ceremony of the tenth Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival which is the oldest annual short story festival in the world.
Further information can be obtained from Patrick Cotter, Director, The Munster Literature Centre, www.munsterlit.ie ++353 214312955
The shortlisted books are as follows:
An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah published by Faber, London
Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz University, and the University of Zimbabwe. Her short fiction and essays have been published in eight countries. She lives with her son Kush in Geneva, where she works as counsel in an international organisation that provides legal aid on international trade law to developing countries. Her story collection, An Elegy for Easterly is published by Faber in April 2009. She is currently completing The Book of Memory, her first novel. Both books will also be published in Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw published by Vintage, New Zealand
Charlotte Grimshaw is a fiction writer. Her first novel was described as ‘New Zealand noir,’ and her later books continue to draw from a range of genres and dramatic situations. Grimshaw has contributed short fiction to anthologies, was awarded the 2006 Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Award, and published her first short story collection in 2007. Titled Opportunity, this collection was short-listed for the world’s richest short fiction prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.
Ripples and other Stories by Shih-Li Kow published by Silverfish Books, Malaysia
Shih-Li Kow was born in Kuala Lumpur and was educated for the most part in schools in Malaysia. Her stories have been published in the anthologies, News from Home and Silverfish New Writing 7. Sh-li Kow holds a degree in chemical engineering and worked as an industrial engineer in a multinational consumer products company for more than ten years. She is currently in retail. She resides in Kuala Lumpur with her extended family and son, Jack.
The Pleasant Light of Day by Philip O Ceallaigh Published by Penguin Ireland.
Philip O Ceallaigh has lived and worked at a variety of jobs in Ireland,
Spain, Russia, the United States, Kosovo and Georgia.
He has lived mostly in Bucharest since 2000 where among other things he translates English subtitles for Romanian films. He has won the Glen Dimplex Award and the Rooney Prize for his first short story collection Notes from A Turkish Whorehouse which was also shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Award in 2006.
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower Published by FSG New York and Granta UK
Wells Tower’s short stories and journalism have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, The Washington Post Magazine, and elsewhere. He received two Pushcart Prizes and the Plimpton Prize from The Paris Review. He divides his time between Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Brooklyn, New York.
Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy published by Harper Perennial New York.
Simon Van Booy was born in London and grew up in rural Wales and Oxford. After playing football in Kentucky, he lived in Paris and Athens. In 2002 he was awarded an MFA and won the H.R. Hays Poetry Prize. His journalism has appeared in magazines and newspapers including the New York Times and the New York Post. Van Booy is the author of The Secret Lives of People in Love, now translated into several languages. He lives in New York City, where he teaches part-time at the School of Visual Arts and at Long Island University. He is also involved in the Rutgers Early College Humanities Program (REaCH) for young adults living in underserved communities.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
PROOFS, READING PETINA, RE-ISSUES
"I think of my writing as a compulsive form of theft. Every story I have written is based on at least one true thing." Petina Gappah
I have proofs coming out my ears. Nude proofs. The re-issue of The Wind Across the Grass (my first collection) proofs. All done for now. It is amazingly daunting/rewarding work, reading proofs. Your stories look like a proper book all of a sudden and you start to get a bit excited at the prospect of the actual book.
I'm delighted that Arlen House are re-issuing The Wind Across the Grass (with four bonus stories!). It's been out-of-print for ages, so it will be great to have it available again.
Back to reading now and preparing for Cúirt. I'm reading Petina Gappah's début An Elegy for Easterly. Petina is a Swiss-resident, Zimbabwean native and her stories are set in Zimbabwe. The title story is masterful: dark and moving. I've only read four stories from the book to date and, so far, so impressive. Petina blogs here. She'll be reading at Cúirt next week, on Thursday the 23rd at 1pm, with Helen Simpson. Sadly I'll miss the reading as I'll be doing my visit at Castlerea Prison.
As for my preps for Cúirt, today I'll be selecting masterclass participants and preparing my Arts Centre and Prison classes. In between an ante-natal visit at the hospital and starting a collage based on a poem about Paul Durcan...but more of that anon!
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