Loose Leaves

A literary round-up

Collected Irish in Princeton celebration

A line-up of Irish writers, including John Banville, Anne Enright, Paul Murray, Hugo Hamilton, Colm Tóibín and the historian Roy Foster, are taking part in a public symposium at Princeton University in New Jersey this weekend. It’s one of a series of events celebrating a donation to the university of more than 1,700 books, manuscripts, portraits and audiovisual materials illustrating Irish prose since 1798. The collection, donated by a New Yorker, Leonard L Milberg, will be on exhibition until July. The material ranges in subject matter from the 19th-century Irish romantic novel and the Blasket writers to the independent Raven Arts Press, which published the early work of Roddy Doyle and Fintan O’Toole. It builds on two similar collections relating to Irish poetry and theatre, previously given by Milberg to the university, which now has an extensive Irish-studies archive. See fis.princeton.edu/milberg/ irish-prose.

Writers to shape city of literature

A writers’ forum is to be held this month to maximise the opportunities presented by Dublin being a Unesco City of Literature. The forum will take place twice: on February 21st and 23rd, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, at the National Library, on Kildare Street. If you’re interested in attending, call 01-6744873 or e-mail elizabeth.cuddy@dublincity.ie by Monday.

The masterclass way to spend three hours

The writers William Boyd, Ali Smith, Colin Thubron and Candia McWilliam are to give a series of masterclasses in Britain run by the Royal Society of Literature and the Booker Prize Foundation. Thubron says these will be intensive and generous to individual needs, and believes that "few three-hour periods could be better spent". Smith's event , in Brighton on March 12th, is titled Tell It Like It Is: The Art of Fiction.After that the sequence is Thubron (Evoking the Spirit of a Place, London, May 21st), McWilliam (Memory and Imagination, Edinburgh, September 24th) and Boyd ( Adapting Words for the Screen,London, November). Classes cost £30 each. See rslit.org.

Strong contenders for poetry prize

The shortlist for the €2,500 Rupert and Eithne Strong Award for a first poetry collection has been announced. The nominees are Caitríona Ní Chléirchín for Crithloinnir(Coiscéim), Órfhlaith Foyle for Red Riding Hood's Dilemma(Arlen House), Paul Maddern for The Beachcomber's Report(Templar Poetry) and Grace Wells for When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things(Dedalus Press). The winner will be announced at the DLR Poetry Now festival next month.