KENNYS BOOK SIGNING PICS

Author Gerry Hanberry

The book signing in Kennys today was lovely: well attended, friendly and, hopefully for Kennys, lucrative. We had mince pies and mulled wine, coffee and Christmas cake, and lots of chats.

Author Geraldine Mills

Kennys is one of Ireland's best bookshops - it is run by people who genuinely and wholeheartedly LOVE books. And art. They have an art gallery on site.

Author Fred Johnston

Kennys are famous for hanging photos of visiting authors - the fame quotient is v high - and we had a group pic taken today as well as individual shots for their website and archive. Maybe even their wall.

Author Órfhlaith Foyle & Juno

It was nice to meet up with the great and good of Galway writing: Geraldine Mills, Gerry Hanberry, Órfhlaith Foyle, Fred Johnston, Dara Foyle, Colm Brady, Conor Montague, Alan Caden, Lucy McCrann, Sandra Bunting, Aideen Henry, Colette Nic Aodha, Tom Mathews, John Quinn, James Martyn Joyce, Aoife Casby, Michael O'Loughlin... I know I have forgotten people, so I do apologise for that.

The writers! Kennys - 19th December 2009

Anyhoo, books were bought, literature was celebrated and a good time was had.

WESTERN WRITERS' CENTRE FUNDING CUT

In another bizarre move, which deals a further belly-blow to literature in this country, The Arts Council have removed all funding from the Western Writers' Centre, Ionad Scribhneoiri Chaitlín Maude, in Galway. The Centre has been in operation as the only Writers' Centre West of the Shannon for almost seven years (I worked there for a couple of years) and has provided workshops, readings, a website, a newsletter - 'The Word Tree' - and were the first to organise a writers' residence in a Galway hospital (I worked on poetry and memoir with elderly patients in Merlin Park).

Among a lot more, they also run an annual festival, 'The Forge at Gort' which I attended and thoroughly enjoyed last year.

Their Arts Council grant of €10,000 enabled them to plan forward and continue to develop the Centre. Now it's gone. Please take the time to add your name to their petition calling for reinstatement of Arts Council Funding here.

LITERARY RESOURCE SHEET

Here's a free, downloadable info sheet of national resources for writers and literature professionals in the UK and Ireland, from Literature Training. Everything you wanted to know about writing in the UK and RoI, apparently.

It's a 20 page listing of organisations, websites, magazines, publications and information sources across the writing and literature sector. Handy!

See here