Here come the summer literary periodicals

LOOSE LEAVES:The season of summer editions is upon us, even if the sun is not. And the literary mood seems as uncertain as the climate.

“Writers shouldn’t ever feel too proud or glorious,” writes guest editor Dave Lordan sternly at the start of his editorial in the Stinging Fly. “We should remember our horrible origins. Writing was born of the desire to control and exploit people and things. It’s fundamentally a weapon of cabals and bureaucracies.”

After speculating about the possibly apocalyptic nature of our current crisis of civilisation, Lordan goes on, more positively, to say that “oppression’s implements can be turned against it” and that his editorship will showcase those trying to unwrite “the No-future”.

These include more than 50 writers of fiction, poetry and criticism, with an emphasis on youth and experiment, as in the work of 20-year-old Oisín Fagan.

Meanwhile, the 47th issue of the Dublin Review includes Molly McCloskey on being an accidental immigrant and Glenn Patterson on the pleasures of the periphery, plus short stories by Robert Cremins and Richard Lea.

The new issue of the free online journal Dublin Review of Books ( drb.ie) is also available, with contributions from Terry Eagleton (on Martin Amis's new novel), Carol Taaffe (on Mario Vargas Llosa's Roger Casement novel) and the DRB publisher – and Irish Times journalist – Enda O'Doherty (on the case against the Murdoch press).

Publishing day at the Irish Writers’ Centre

Next Saturday, the Irish Writers’ Centre, in Dublin, is holding an information day, From Inspiration to Publication, designed to give aspiring writers an insight into the way the publishing industry works, including a look at the submission process, marketing and the type of material publishers are seeking to acquire at the moment.

Among those taking part will be Arlene Hunt (pictured), who will talk about her experience of striking out alone as an author and starting her own company, Portnoy Publishing, which published her bestselling novel The Chosen.

Also giving talks at the event, and answering questions, will be Ciara Doorley, editorial director at Hachette; Cliona Lewis, publicity director at Penguin Ireland; literary agent Emma Walsh; and Gareth Cuddy, chief executive of ePub Direct, a leading ebook distributor.

The publishing seminar will take place from 11am to 4.30pm, with registration at 10.30am. Tickets for the day cost €60 (€50 for members of the centre) and should be bought in advance, either online from writerscentre.ieor by calling 01-8721302.

Dermot Sweeney’s letters to the editor

With almost 70 letters published in The Irish Times in the last five years of his life, the late Dermot Sweeney was clearly getting into his writing stride at the time of his sudden death last year, aged 45.

Sweeney, who worked in the campus bookstacks of Trinity College Dublin and was a prominent union activist there, was first moved to write to the paper in February 2006 on the subject of sectarianism, and in the following years he covered issues ranging from Iraq to the Lisbon treaty to the travails of the Ireland soccer team (“Stan! That’s another fine mess you got me into!”).

Now his colleagues have made a book of Sweeney’s Irish Times correspondence, called Dear Madam, which provides a snapshot of the changing national mood.

The book costs €20 from the TCD library shop or by email from kmcginly@tcd.ie.