First digital directory of Irish publishers and Literature Ireland translation series launched; MoLI wins award

In The Irish Times this Saturday, Lorrie Moore talks to John Self about her new novel, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home. Richard Morton Jack writes about his new biography of Nick Drake. For Father’s Day, Arnold Fanning writes about being a father and a writer, and asks fellow authors about their own experiences. And there is a Q&A with Chris Mullin, who has just published the fourth volume of his political diaries.

Reviews are Edel Coffey on Grand by Noelle McCarthy; Finn McRedmond on This Is Europe by Ben Judah; Tony Clayton-Lea on Bob Stanley’s Bee Gees biography; Michael Cronin on the best new fiction in translation; Peter Murphy on Nick Drake: The Life by Richard Morton Jack; Nicholas Allen on Getting to Good Friday: Literature and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland by Marilynn Richtarik; Sean Sheehan on James Joyce and the Irish Revolution: The Easter Rising as Modern Event by Luke Gibbons; Oliver Farry on The Sister by Sung-Yoon Lee; Pat Carty on Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson; Sara Keating on children’s books; and Sarah Gilmartin on Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess.

This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is The IT Girl by Ruth Ware. You can buy it with your newspaper for just €4.99, a €6 saving.

Minister for the Arts Catherine Martin visited the offices of Literature Ireland, the organisation which promotes Irish literature abroad, this week to launch five short stories in translation. Seoda, the Irish word for jewels, is an international initiative which sees the publication of stories by Claire Keegan, Danielle McLaughlin, Mary Costello, Kevin Barry and Wendy Erskine in Korean, Portuguese, French and Icelandic.

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Literature Ireland joined forces with Dublin Unesco City of Literature for this collaboration, involving five other cities of literature, Bucheon, Wonju, Óbidos, Québec and Reykjavik. Five contemporary Irish short stories have been translated into Korean, Portuguese, French and Icelandic by translators Jiyang Noh, Jeehyun Shin, Vasco Gato, Pascal Raud and Ingunn Snæfal.

Martin said: “The success of contemporary Irish writing is a source of great national pride. I’ve no doubt that these new translations supported by Literature Ireland will continue to expand the global readership for our authors, particularly in the short story form. I’m also delighted that these editions will be publicly available through the library system, making these gems widely accessible to all readers.”

Sinéad Mac Aodha, director of Literature Ireland, said, “These stories represent some of the finest short story writing in Ireland today. The enthusiastic responses to the stories by the literary translators are testimony to the strength of Irish writing. This is the first time some of these writers’ work will be read and enjoyed in languages as diverse as Icelandic and Korean, in what we hope will become a regular series. We are grateful to Dublin Unesco City of Literature for helping us connect with these cities, and for supporting the translation and promotional work that we do on behalf of Irish literature across the world.”

Anne-Marie Kelly, director of Dublin Unesco City of Literature said, “The Dublin Unesco City of Literature designation acknowledges Dublin’s rich literary heritage. Our collaboration with Literature Ireland is a tangible example of the vibrant contemporary literary scene here, and helps strengthen our relationship with these sister cities.”

The stories, selected by Mac Aodha, include Cell by Wendy Erskine (Dance Move, Stinging Fly Press, 2022) translated into Icelandic, and Sisters by Claire Keegan, first published in her collection Antarctica, is translated into Korean with the city of Bucheon. Kevin Barry’s powerful The Coast of Leitrim is translated into French with the city of Québec. Mary Costello’s intriguing Sleeping with a Stranger is available to read in Portuguese with Óbidos. The quintet of translations is book-ended by another translation into Korean, Daniele McLaughlin’s award-wining story, Dinosaurs on Other Planets.

The first digital directory of Irish publishers will be launched today, Bloomsday, to celebrate a brave publisher who took a risk on a dangerous book.

The Directory of Irish Publishers is a digital all-island map providing a snapshot of the Irish publishing landscape today. Listing over 180 active book and journal publishers, it reveals the rich publishing ecosystem in Ireland – from Irish language comic books to astrophysics, history and archaeology, to fiction and poetry, thrillers and crime to legal textbooks.

It has been developed by PublishOA.ie, a research consortium co-led by the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) and the Trinity Long Room Arts & Humanities Research Institute (TLRH).

“Ulysses was published by a brave publisher who took a risk on a dangerous book. I’m delighted to publish such a diverse list of publishers on the island and look forward to working with them over the coming year,” explained Ruth Hegarty, project lead of PublishOA.ie and RIA managing editor.

The Directory of Irish Publishers is “a valuable step in creating a national response to the Open Access publishing revolution and to supporting Irish research scholarship into the future”, added Prof Eve Patten, TLRH director.

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The Museum of Literature Ireland has won a prestigious cultural heritage award from the European Commission. The museum is a partnership between University College Dublin and the National Library of Ireland and was singled out by the Europa Nostra jury for its work as a heritage project fostering social cohesion, inclusion, multicultural dialogue and nurturing a sense of place and belonging. The Europa Nostra Awards are the European Commission’s most important cultural heritage awards, and every year identify best practices in the conservation and enhancement of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

MoLI director Simon O’Connor said: “The founding patrons and partners in UCD and the National Library of Ireland had the ambition and vision to create a major literary institution in the university’s original home that would open reading and writing to all audiences. We have never taken achieving that ambition for granted, and welcoming visitors from every imaginable walk of life to this spectacular facility has been at the centre of our work. From toddlers to teenagers, academics to pensioners learning to read for the first time, sharing the empowering and democratic value of the written and spoken word is what motivates us every day. To receive this award is a welcome acknowledgment of that work, and due recognition for the vision of our partners and patrons. It is an award for them, and the community of visitors who inspire us.”

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Monica Cure has won the 2023 Oxford Weidenfeld-Translation Prize for her translation from Romanian of The Censor’s Notebook by Liliana Corobca (Seven Stories Press UK, 2022) The prize was announced last Saturday at St Anne’s College Oxford, as part of its annual Oxford Translation Day.

The Censor’s Notebook is a fascinating narrative of life in communist Romania, and a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of literature and censorship. The Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. It was founded by Lord Weidenfeld and funded by New College, The Queen’s College and St Anne’s College, Oxford.

In November, Seven Stories Press UK will publish Kinderland by Corobca and translated by Cure.

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The 2023 Kennedy Summer School will take place in New Ross, Co Wexford, the ancestral hometown of the late US president John F Kennedy, from August 31st to September 2nd.

Details of guest speakers have been released and tickets are now on sale via the website.

The school is run in partnership with two renowned American universities: Boston College, Massachusetts, and Purdue University, Indiana. It will be officially opened by Canadian ambassador Nancy Smyth, who will address the summer school audience and participate in a public interview with Eileen Dunne.

Other speakers include football legend Martin O’Neill and Dr Kathryn Cramer Brownell, associate professor of history at Purdue University.

An expert panel will also discuss the 50th anniversary of Ireland’s membership of the European Union with moderator Alex White SC, former TD and government minister, and now director general of the Institute for International and European Affairs. Other panellists include Patrick Honohan, former governor of the Central Bank of Ireland; Ray Bassett, ex-Irish ambassador and diplomat; Suzanne Lynch, of Politico Brussels and former Washington correspondent for The Irish Times; Lucinda Creighton, chief executive of Vulcan Consulting and former minister for European affairs; and Dermot Murnaghan, a former Sky News presenter.

On Saturday, September 2nd, the Saturday interview will see a husband and wife political duo take to the stage to discuss their opposing political viewpoints. Democratic political consultant James Carville, who was the lead strategist in Bill Clinton’s winning 1992 presidential campaign, will appear alongside his wife, Republican political consultant Mary Matalin, who served under President Ronald Reagan, was campaign director for George HW Bush, was an assistant to President George W Bush and counsellor to vice-president Dick Cheney until 2003.

The annual JFK Summer School Speakers Lunch at the JFK Arboretum will be dedicated to the memory of the late Dr Robert Mauro, who was a good friend and a director of the Kennedy Summer School. The special guest of honour and speaker is EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness.

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