President honours Swiss Joycean and Brazilian scholar; Jason Allen-Paisant wins TS Eliot Prize

In The Irish Times this Saturday, Ronan Bennett talks to me about his first book in 18 years, Jaq, a novelisation of the last series of his hit TV series, Top Boy. Colin Barrett talks to Patrick Freyne about his much anticipated debut novel, Wild Houses. There is a Q&A with Ferdia Lennon about his brilliant debut novel, Glorious Exploits. Deirdre Falvey talks to artists and Minister Catherine Martin about The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme. Secret pregnancies, missing women and swift marriages are part of the family story of a great many people of my generation: Clair Wills writes about her book, Missing Persons, or My Grandmother’s Secrets. Barry Cullen, a social worker who worked for many decades in the south inner city before co-ordinated a drugs taskforce in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, talks to Patrick Freyne about his book, The Harm Done: Community and Drugs in Dublin.

Reviews are Oliver Farry on I Seek a Kind Person by Julian Borger; Lovers in Auschwitz by Karen Blankfeld; Cold Crematorium by Jozsef Debreczeni; and One Life: The True Story of Sir Nicholas Winton; Conor O’Clery on Martin Sixsmith’s Putin and the Return of History; Joe Humphreys on The Good Enough Life by Daniel Miller; Claire Hennessy on the best new YA fiction: Diarmaid Ferriter on Conflict, Diaspora and Empire by Darragh Gannon; Chris Cusack on Anelise Hanson Shrout’s Aiding Ireland: The Great Famine and the Rise of Transnational Philanthropy; Andrew Hadfield on Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750 by Noel Malcolm; Edel Coffey on Breakdown by Cathy Sweeney; John Boyne on Day by Michael Cunningham; Niamh Jiménez on Quarterlife by Satya Doyle Byock; and Sarah Gilmartin on Piglet by Lottie Hazell.

This weekend’s Irish Times Eason book offer is The Lock-up, the latest thriller by John Banville. You can buy it for just €5.99, a €5 saving, with your paper at any outlet.

A Presidential Award for Distinguished Service Abroad was presented to the 96-year-old Swiss Joycean, Fritz Senn, by President Michael D Higgins at Aras an Uachtaráin this week. Senn is still the director of the Zurich James Joyce Foundation, which has one of the finest Joyce collections in the world, and hosts many events, workshops and seminars.

In paying tribute to Senn, the President referred particularly to the recent placing of a plaque commemorating James Joyce’s daughter Lucia beside Joyce’s grave in Zurich. The Zurich Foundation was involved in the installation of the plaque, which was first suggested by the late Stephen Joyce. Lucia Joyce is buried in Northampton.

Senn was one of 13 people to receive an award in Tuesday’s ceremony. Among the others were Dr Beatriz Bastos, co-founder of the Nucleo de Estudios Irlandeses in the Universidade de Santa Catarina, Brazil, hat designer Philip Treacy and British-based barrister Caoilfhionn Gallagher. Olivia O’Leary acted as MC.

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The winner of the TS Eliot Prize 2023 is Jason Allen-Paisant for his second collection Self-Portrait as Othello, published by Carcanet Press. The judges Paul Muldoon (chair), Sasha Dugdale and Denise Saul said: ‘Self-Portrait as Othello is a book with large ambitions that are met with great imaginative capacity, freshness and technical flair. As the title would suggest, the poetry is delivered with theatricality and in a range of voices and registers, across geographies and eras. It takes real nerve to pull off a work like this with such style and integrity. We are confident that Self-Portrait as Othello is a book to which readers will return for many years.’

Reviewing Self-Portrait as Othello in The Irish Times, Stephen Sexton called it “an erudite and expansive reflection on how identity, political and artistic, is composed, consolidated, and made fragile”.

Allen-Paisant, who receives £25,000 as the winner, is a Jamaican writer and academic who works as a senior lecturer in critical theory and creative writing at the University of Manchester. He’s the author of two poetry collections, Thinking with Trees (Carcanet Press, 2021), winner of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for poetry, and Self-Portrait as Othello, which also won the Forward Prize for Best Collection. His non-fiction book, Scanning the Bush, will be published by Hutchinson Heinemann later this year. He lives in Leeds.

Also shortlisted were Joe Carrick-Varty, Jane Clarke, Kit Fan, Katie Farris, Ishion Hutchinson, Fran Lock and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin.

Cork’s One City One Book 2024 is Once Was a Boy by Theo Dorgan, published by Dedalus Press. It will be launched on Monday, January 22nd at 6.30pm in the City Library, Grand Parade, by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, with readings by the now Dublin-based poet and author.

The Waterside Theatre, with support from Derry City and Strabane District Council and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, hosts its Spread The Word literary festival next month.

The multi-disciplinary, cross-community literary festival highlights the importance of reading, writing and literature and will run from February 6th-11th in the Waterside Theatre and in partner venues, including Little Acorns Bookstore, Void Art Centre, Offing Coffee, Strabane & Derry Central Libraries, The Hidden City Cafe and local schools.

Authors taking part include No 1 bestselling food author Nathan Anthony (Bored of Lunch); crime writers, Sam Blake and Brian McGilloway; Martin Doyle, who will be discussing his Troubles memoir Dirty Linen with Irish Times colleague Freya McClements; Irish surfer, author, artist and marine social scientist Easkey Britton; mother, writer and grower, Kerri ní Dochartaigh; spoken word artist, writer, playwright/theatre-maker, multimedia artist and actor, Mel Bradley; illustrator Grace Fairley; children’s book author, Marianne McShane; award winning Young Adult authors, Sue Divin, Kelly McCaughrain and Jenny Ireland; and Derry singer-songwriter, ROE.

The festival will also include creative workshops for all ages exploring illustration, animation, creative writing and lyric writing, immersive storytelling sessions and cosy reading corners.

“The impressive range of literary genres covered this year, from children’s storytelling and YA literature to cookery books, songwriting and most everything in between, means that there really is something here that will appeal to people’s interests. Diversity and inclusion are core values at the Waterside Theatre, and this festival delivers!” said Roisín McDonough, chief executive of Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

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The charity World Book Day is holding its annual celebration on Thursday, March 7th.

Two exclusive Irish titles will be available for young readers in Ireland to choose from. The Curious Case of the Irish Yeti: Molly Malone and Bram Stoker by Alan Nolan, illustrated by Shane Cluskey (O’Brien Press), and the Irish-language book, Inis Mara by Tristan Rosenstock, illustrated by Mark Wickham, (LeabhairCOMHAR).

Reading for pleasure is an important indicator of a child’s future success but recent research has shown that more than half of children and young people do not enjoy reading in their free time, the lowest level since 2005, and that reading enjoyment is lowest among children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Read Your Way calls on everyone to let go of pressure and expectations, giving children a choice - and a chance - to enjoy reading. Supported by long-term sponsor National Book Tokens and working alongside publishers and booksellers, World Book Day distributes over 15 million £1/€1.50 book tokens across the UK and Ireland every year through schools, nurseries, libraries, prisons and other charities.

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The Amazon Literary Partnership (ALP) is back for its fifth year, providing grants to non-profit literary organisations that support and champion writers of all ages and stages on their creative journey. In 2023, ALP supported 35 organisations - more than ever before.

The 2024 edition is now open, but submissions will be closing on the 31st January. Applications from all non-profit literary organisations in the UK and Republic of Ireland are invited to submit their applications for grants to support their work. Details of how to submit an application and the criteria for entering can be found here.