There's the Lotto, and then there's what many writers perceive as the "other Lottery" - Arts Council bursaries. For several years, the Arts Council has been awarding monetary bursaries in the disciplines of literature, dance, music, opera, visual arts, film and video, architecture, and drama. Within literature, the bursary system is subdivided into poetry, drama, literary fiction, literary criticism and literary biography. In 1999, 13 writers received awards ranging from £3,500 to £10,000 (payable over two years). This year, bursaries will range in value from £4,000 up to £16,000.
The money, explains Sinead Mac Aodha, Literature Officer with the Arts Council, is given to writers to encourage them to continue to develop creatively, and as a way of endorsing their work.
It's fair to say that there has long been an aura of mystique about the whole application process, partly because so many people apply for so few awards. Even writers who receive the bursaries are often surprised when the cheque arrives in the post. There's also long been the assumption among some writers that you must apply every year as a matter of course, and that some year, you will be rewarded for your patience.
Mac Aodha is anxious to make it known that since last year, the application procedure has changed. "Now we ask writers to submit only 20 pages of a work in progress - something that they feel is most representative of their current work - rather than including copies of work that's gone before". The new system seems to be working more efficiently in filtering out Lottery-type applicants: in 1998, there were 198 applications, but in 1999, it was down to 110.
So what do bursaries mean to writers who have received them? The poet Conor O'Callaghan, who is currently writer-in-residence in UCD, got awards in 1990 (£2,000), 1993 (£2,000), and 1997 (£8,000 over two years). He is the author of two collections of poems, History of Rain and Seatown.
"I was 20 when I got the first bursary", O'Callaghan says. "I wanted to buy some time while I got a first collection together. It's the verification which is so important, though. Someone out there thinks your work is valuable enough to support it". The last time O'Callaghan received a bursary, "our children were three and two. I used part of the money to put them in a creche two mornings a week so I could work in peace - that was hugely valuable."
Brian Leyden, the author of a short-story collection, Departures, and a novel, Death and Plenty, received a bursary of £5,000 in 1993. He is a past editor of Force 10, a radio documentary-maker, and is currently Leitrim's first writer-in-residence. "If the typewriter is a bicycle, the Amstrad computer is like a Honda 50, and I needed some money for a new computer. Get up to speed, if you like."
For Leyden, the most important thing was "knowing that the selection process is made by your peers, and the feeling that your work is being recognised". Once he had bought a computer, he used the rest of the money as a deposit for a house. "I do all my work from home, so I was buying a base from which to work. In a way, that bursary set me up as a writer."
So what happens to applications once they arrive at HQ on Merrion Square? "Everything is first read by a panel of readers", explains Mac Aodha. "They shortlist about 50 per cent of applications, which go forward to be read by the panel of assessors, from which the decisions about awards will be made."
The names of the panellists who make the awards are recorded in the Arts Council's Annual Report the following year: in 1998, the most recent year for which records are available, panellists were Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, Anne Haverty, Colm Toibin, Liam O Muirthile, Christopher Fitz-Simon, and Ciaran Carson. A recent development is the presence of one international assessor on the panel.
The poet Katie Donovan, who is author of Watermelon Man and Entering the Mare, and who is also an Irish Times journalist, got £6,000 when she made her first application in 1998. "I had never applied before, because I didn't think writers who had a full-time job were eligible, and also I thought I hadn't published enough. But when I did a bit of digging, I realised bursaries had been given to people in the past who hadn't published anything at all", she explains. However, the information sheet which is now sent out with all application forms does state that "applications from unpublished writers are eligible for consideration but only two unpublished writers have been awarded a bursary since 1995."
Donovan applied for a bursary on the basis that, if she was awarded one, she would take time off from her journalistic job to work on her novel full time. "When I got it, it was a real boost - it was an acknowlegement of what I had achieved and an act of trust in what I might achieve. The knowledge that you're deemed worthy by your peers is very important. I was able to take three months off work, and I was able to work for myself for the first time in my life."
What about Irish-language writers? "Over the years, we've received a number of complaints from Irish-language writers that not all panel members were fluent Irish speakers", Mac Aodha admits. "In response to that, we have set up a separate panel to assess the Irish language applications". The Arts Council in general are worried about the low number of applicants from Irish language writers: in 1999, they got only nine. The good thing for the applicants was that five of them got bursaries.
The closing date for literary bursaries this year is 9th May. Application forms and further information from The Arts Council, 70 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.