GALWAY STORIES LAUNCH - DUBLIN

CÚIRT 2013 - AFTERS

So, for me, Cúirt is over for another year. I'm partly sad, partly glad - recovery can begin. Cúirt is a very social festival and I'm not used to the late nights, but they are great fun, of course.

Actor reading Julian Gough's story in St Nicholas's

I started my Cúirt at Vincent Woods interview with Edna O'Brien. It was too dark in the Town Hall theatre to take notes but the interview will actually be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 on Arts Tonight tomorrow the 29th April, at 10pm. Vincent is a good, warm interviewer and Edna is a very fluent speaker; she spoke about her life and particularly the influence of her homeplace and family in Co. Clare on her writing. She was charming, regal, witty.

I am writing an essay on her at the moment for a plenary I am giving at the AEDEI conference in Spain next month, so I have been immersed in Edna interviews lately online etc. I didn't learn anything new on Thursday night but it is always a pleasure to listen to her. Did somebody once say that if we didn't have Edna O'Brien we would have to invent her? She is our grand dame of letters, for sure.

Crowd at Galway Stories literary walk/reading, St Nicholas's

The next event I attended was the Arena live recording at the Nun's Island Theatre; it was broadcast Friday evening and you can listen to it here for a week or so. There was no way of knowing who was going to feature and I was thrilled when I got there to find that two of the guests were Paula Meehan and Sharon Olds, two of my favourite poets/women. Seán Rocks asked about the American-Irish poetic relationship. Paula said that 'from Emily Dickinson to Bob Dylan' American poetry has always provided 'huge nourishment' to Irish poets. She said she particularly likes Alicia Ostriker.

Sharon said that for her Irish poetry is both 'an ancestor from the past and a sister-brother from the present'. She also said 'Poetry is about going below while singing above.' I love that. Seán asked her about the tag 'confessional'; Sharon said she feels her poems are more 'accusational'. She said, 'No one would choose to be in the family of a family poet' and that when she writes she is 'resting' from herself. She also said that when she edits what she has written she 'tries to take out half of the adjectives and a third of the self pity.'

A local, sweet-voiced singer, Stacey Nolan, sang two songs at the Arena event. She may be Galway's answer to Gillian Welch. Writer and film-maker Conor Montague read from his story 'Eat the Swans' which features in the new Galway Stories anthology from Doire Press - a visceral, shocking story that will not suit the squeamish reader/listener.

Juno McLoughlin at Alan McMonagle's book launch, Town Hall Theatre

From there we went directly to the launch of the Galway Stories anthology which took the form of a literary walk with stop-offs for readings. It rained - of course - but Jim Mullarkey entertained a huge crowd outside McCambridge's; an actor read from Julian Gough's story in Saint Nicholas's Cathedral; Olaf Tyransen did the honours outside Neachtain's Pub, and finally we all piled into Monroe's Tavern where Kernan Andrews from the Galway Advertiser did the official launch. Congrats to Lisa Frank and John Walsh of Doire Press for a great idea, well executed.

Later I went to Paula Meehan and Sharon Olds's excellent reading at the Town Hall. They are a great poetry pairing and Paula was in fine, lively reading form. Sharon has a more subdued style in comparison but she is utterly convincing and sincere. It was a great evening. Down to the festival club after in the Meyrick Hotel where I enjoyed chatting to the very affable American writer Ben Marcus, as well as Mary Costello, Declan Meade, and many others.

Alan McMonagle signing Psychotic Episodes

Midday on Saturday saw my fellow member of The Peers, Alan McMonagle's, launch. Psychotic Episodes is his second short story collection and it comes from the inimitable Arlen House. Pat McMahon did the launch speech and also being launched was Aideen Henry's newest book, Hugging Thistles.

We went back to our hotel for a swim/rest and later for a walk on the prom in Salthill, where I used to bring my kids a lot when I lived in the city. My parents brought us on holidays there in the 70s and 80s. A special place. Then I went to Ron Rash and Claire Keegan at the Town Hall. Burning Bright, Ron's Frank O'Connor Award winning collection, is one of my all-time favourites. He read a harrowing drowning story from the new collection. In the Q&A he said that each story and novel of his is sparked by an image. He then follows that image, believing it will lead him to the story (he does not plan - yay!)

Salthill!

Claire Keegan read from Foster, that wonderful section where the child is brought home from a wake by an inquisitive neighbour. Claire is an original thinker which always comes across in her Q&A responses - she is unpredictable, sparky, interesting. There is never a rehearsed, sound-bytey quality to her answers. She is our Edna of the future but in her own particular maverick way.

I spent the evening in the Meyrick again enjoying the great conversation of Ron Rash (yes!), the lovely Richard Burns of Nantucket (a Cúirt stalwart), young London-based Irish writer Danny Denton, Mike McCormack, who is just back from a US book tour, Declan Meade, Mary Costello, and Martin Dyar who is now running the Strokestown Poetry Festival which is on next weekend. And I'll be there for the first time - whoop!

So, that was my Cúirt. I hate to think of all I missed due to fatigue/needing to eat/clashing events etc. I managed to meet the lovely Michael Harding and I got him to sign his memoir for my Ma. She will love it. I also met friends from near and far which, at the end of it all, is what good literary festivals are all about: the old friends and the new, the old books and the new, and all that great chat that makes going back to the desk alone both easier and important.

Next stop Strokestown :)

GALWAY STORIES IN THE GALWAY ADVERTISER

From The Galway Advertiser, April 18:

By Charlie McBride

NEXT WEEK, with Galway hosting authors from all over the world as part of Cúirt, the city itself and its own writers are showcased in a fine new anthology from Doire Press, entitled Galway Stories, to be launched during the festival.

Edited by Lisa Frank, the volume contains 20 stories set in the environs of Galway city and county, including stories by Kevin Barry, Julian Gough, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Geraldine Mills, Hugo Kelly, Mike McCormack, and Mary Costello.

Places, personalities, and rituals of Galway life are vividly rendered throughout the stories; student parties, walking the prom, meeting friends in bars or coffee shops, even the road-rivalry between cyclists and motorists on Taylor’s Hill.

As Des Kenny remarks in his preface: “By touching the pulse of some of the highways and byways of the city and county, the authors of these twenty stories bring into sharp relief Galway’s human heart and soul in all its joys and sorrow, in all its aspirations and disappointments, in all its victories and defeats.”


The French connection
This literary celebration of Galway actually had its origins in Paris, specifically from a birthday trip Lisa Frank made there in 2010.
“Before going to Paris, I combed the internet for a book on the city,” she explains. “I didn’t want a typical guide book or one on its general history. I came across an anthology called Paris Tales, which contained stories all set in Paris. I read the book throughout our trip and thought it was a great and intimate way to better get to know the neighbourhoods. After I came home the thought occurred to me, Paris Tales...why not Galway Stories?

“I’ve lived in many cities but Galway is by far the most special to me. It’s a combination of the landscape and people, the strong sense of art and culture, and of course the charm of the city. I thought a city and county as wonderful as Galway, with such an amazing pool of writing talent, deserves a book that would help celebrate how special it is and the talent of its writers.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Frank is one of those many artistic spirits who came to Galway for a visit only to end up making the place home. She first came here for a summer writing course at NUI Galway in 2003 and fell in love with the city immediately. And in her fourth and final week of the course she also met her now-partner, writer John Walsh. The couple live in Indreabhán where they co-founded Doire Press in 2007.

Having come up with the idea of Galway Stories, Frank set about finding her contributors.
“I approached various writers, some of whom I knew and some of whom I didn’t, and I told them the idea of the collection,” she recalls. “I sent them a brief synopsis of what the book was going to be about and that the story should be set in Galway or reflect it. Most of the stories captured Galway pretty well whether that be through a specific detail or the spirit of the place.

“The very first person to send a story was Nuala Ní Chonchúir, whose Cri de Coeur is a fictional account of the time Ted Hughes and Assia Wevill spent in Cashel. It’s a gorgeous and ultimately dark story and Nuala did a wonderful job in her description of Cashel, and so I was beaming, seeing then how amazing the book could be. It was at that point that Galway Stories became real.”


A diversity of talent
There are many memorable stories in the collection. Kevin Barry’s Party at Helen’s gives razor-sharp snapshots of the people and shifting dynamics of a late night student party in the Claddagh; Celeste Auge’s Eternity features a woman trying to nerve herself to make a purchase in a city centre sex shop; Hugo Kelly’s Traffic Lights describes the burgeoning relationship between a labourer and his landlady on a Knocknacarra estate - two people marked by personal disappointment whose coming together is a piquantly ambivalent blend of resignation and tenderness.

Conor Montague’s Eat the Swans offers a grisly post-apocalyptic city scenario of warring gangs and cannibalism; Alan McMonagle’s Women Drivers on Taylor’s Hill gets much comic mileage from the cyclist narrator’s repeated collisions with the eponymous female motorists, yet the comedy is counterpointed by the backdrop of his relationship with his dying father and distant brothers.

“Alan McMonagle’s was one of the very last stories to come in,” says Frank. “It’s a new story and there is a lot of humour in it of course. Conor Montague’s story is very different. To be honest when he first gave it to me I felt rather squeamish about it, I don’t like blood very much so I had to get over that, but it’s a fantastic story, and the very fact it made me squeamish is a testament to the strength of his writing.
“To me what was interesting was the way that writers who were from Galway talked mostly about Galwegians as well as the city, and I was interested in the way Hugo Kelly reflects Knocknacarra for instance. One of the best things of this project was learning more about the neighbourhoods of Galway through reading the stories.

“The other was realising the great variety in the book — from style and content and theme, the stories are completely varied and show the immense talent of Galway and the writers who clearly have a lot of affection for it.”

The stories are grouped according to the locations in which they are set and the book also features photographs and background information on the different districts. Frank also highlights the contribution of Holly Mullarkey who provided the book’s cover art.

“I spoke to Holly about the project, which she had already known about since her husband Jim had a story in the collection (a wonderful piece called Encounter on Buttermilk Lane). She had done the cover art for Jim’s book And, which we had also published, and so I didn’t have to be convinced of her talent.
“I tried to explain to Holly what I was looking for, though it was difficult to describe. I told her I was looking for the real Galway, not postcard-perfect. When I saw the paintings Holly did, it was clear we were on the same wavelength. She sent about six different paintings for me to chose from but ultimately I used the first. She not only captured Galway perfectly and with striking colours but the image seems to have a thousand stories.”


Literary Walk
Galway Stories will be launched on Friday April 26 with a literary walk taking in a number of the locations mentioned in the book. The walk begins at 4pm at Il Vicolo Café & Wine Bar before proceeding to McCambridges, St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church, Neachtains, and Monroe’s.
There will be readings en route by Celeste Augé, Jim Mullarkey, Olaf Tyaransen, and John Walsh, while Sean Leonard will read Julian Gough’s How to Fall in Love Properly. The trail will conclude with the book’s official launch in Monroe’s, where the Galway Advertiser Arts Editor Kernan Andrews will ‘do the honours’.

Galway Stories costs €13.99 and is available from all good bookshoops.