Books

Aisling quiz and Helen Cullen book club podcast highlights of Waterford festival

Butler Literary Award; Prof Anne Enright at UCD; IMRAM festival; and cheaper e-books

Aisling authors Sarah Breen and Emer McLysaght host a table quiz dubbed “the ultimate Aisling meet up” as part of Waterford Writers’ Weekend

Wed Oct 3 2018 - 14:02

The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen is October’s Irish Times Book Club choice and the author will be discussing her work with books editor Martin Doyle on Friday, October 26th, as par t of Waterford Writers Weekend, part of Waterford City’s 17th annual Imagine Arts Festival.

Other highlights include Aisling authors Sarah Breen and Emer McLysaght hosting a table quiz dubbed “the ultimate Aisling meet up”; curator Rick O’Shea interviewing Tin Man author Sarah Winman and on Sunday Cecelia Ahern and John Boyne together. Free events include The New Starts of Irish Writing with Caoilinn Hughes, John Connell & June Caldwell.

Almost 10,000 copies of the two Aisling books were sold in Ireland last week, a phenomenal achievement in Irish publishing terms. The Importance of Being Aisling sold 7,646 copies while Oh My God What a Complete Aisling topped the paperback fiction chart with 2,232 sales. imagineartsfestival.com

The Irish American Cultural Institute is reviving the Butler Literary Award, which was founded in 1962 by Patrick and Aimee Butler of St Paul, Minnesota and continued until 2002. The award was for a deserving Irish author in English or Irish.

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The €2,000 biannual award will be offered for what the judges deem to be the best first publication by an Irish writer in any literary genre or a first publication in a new genre by an already published writer between September 2017 and August 2018. This year’s judges are Nadine O’Regan, Fintan O’Toole, and Eibhear Walshe, chaired by Catherine Marshall.

The shortlisted authors are Arnold Thomas Fanning for Mind on Fire; Caoilinn Hughes for Orchid and the Wasp and Emilie Pine for Notes to Self. The winner of the Award will be announced at a reception at Books Upstairs, 17 D’Olier Street, Dublin 2 next Monday at 6.30pm.

Anne Enright, Ireland’s first Professor of Fiction, with her MA student group at UCD

Award-winning novelist Anne Enright has begun her new role at University College Dublin as Ireland's first Professor of Fiction in the creative writing department based in the School of English, Drama and Film, where she joins the recently-appointed Professor of Poetry Ian Davidson, Paul Perry, lecturer in creative writing, as well as Katie Hayes and Gavin Corbett, both Fellows in Fiction.

Enright said: “It is great to join the creative writing department at UCD. There are few things I like better than fresh prose, with the ink still wet. I love seeing a story take shape, whether in the workshop itself, or over the course of a term. Creative writing students are truly invested in their work. They are vulnerable and keen and they learn at a terrific speed. It is, for me, an immensely practical course – like a posh metalworking class. We are shaping books, redrafting short stories, conjuring narrative out of thin air. Writing is a way of making sense of the world, it is also, if you are lucky, a way of making your name in the world of books.”

The seventh annual Irish Spanish Latin American Festival takes place in Dublin's Instituo Cervantes on October 18th and 19th, looking into love and humour to show the infinite diversity of the Spanish-speaking world through these two universal driving force. A dozen creators and professionals from Hispanic countries will take part, along with Emilie Pine and Eithne Shortall. Designed with a general audience in mind, ISLA offers an eclectic programme of panel discussions and talks, all of them free. dublin.cervantes.es

The John O'Connor Writing School and Literary Arts Festival, in honour of Armagh author John O'Connor, returns to Armagh from November 1st to 4th, with a programme featuring poets, song writers, prose, stage and screen writers and how-to-write experts including Roger McGough, author and critic Robert McCrum and actor Susan Lynch.

O’Connor’s emergence as a storyteller of genius did not happen in a vacuum: his immersion in the cultural and literary traditions of his native city of Armagh, in general, is evident in his work. This cultural backdrop and his sense of ‘no borders and no boundaries where good writing is concerned’ endures in the values of this festival championed by the school and festival director Cathy McCullough.

Celebrating and inspiring are school patron Paul Muldoon , Roger McGough, Susan Lynch, Lisa Dwan, Lisa Lambe, Gareth Dunlop, Michael Longley, William Crawley, Nuala McKeever, and Horslips. thejohnoconnorwritingschool.com

The inaugural Irish Book Week takes place from October 27th to November 3rd. A collaboration between Bookselling Ireland and Publishing Ireland, this nationwide celebration of Irish books and bookshops will feature events highlighting the central role bookshops play in Irish society and culture. The week aims to encourage people into their local bookshop. Author Donal Ryan said: "I'm honoured to be chosen as ambassador for a week that celebrates books and booksellers. Books are precious, and shops full of paper and ink books are sacred places, fortresses of empathy and light in this darkening world."

The IMRAM Irish Language Literature Festival runs from October 15th to 20th. This year's highlights include Buail na Cloig/Ring them Bells: The Dylan Gospel Project, with Liam Ó Maonlaí; major celebrations of the life and work of poets Liam Ó Muirthile, Danny Sheehy and Máirtín Ó Direáin; Siar agus Aniar, a multi-media show based on Irish language writers cited in Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks, published by the Royal Irish Academy and The Irish Times. Ar ais go Rinn na Mara features Rody Gorman reading poems about Dublin and Dún Laoghaire to live music by Seán Mac Erlaine. Full programme at imram.ie

Ebooks could become a lot cheaper if the Government acts on a new EU decision to allow member states to make then VAT-exempt.

Publishing Ireland has welcomed the news that the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) has agreed to a proposal to allow all member states to align the VAT rates applied to sales e-books and audiobooks with those for physical books, which are VAT exempt in Ireland.

“The standard rate VAT (23%) applied to e-book and audiobook purchases has unfairly penalised readers who embrace digital: audiobooks are growing very significantly with the rise of downloads and streaming, but pricing is still higher than many consumers will accept,” said Ivan O’Brien, president of Publishing Ireland. “This change will allow the Government to stop taxing reading and learning, and keep up with changes in other EU member states: Luxembourg and France have had their rates aligned for years, and others are likely to move quickly following this ruling. The Federation of European Publishers and others have been pushing for this change for several years, and it’s great that this barrier to greater adoption of e-books is now being removed.

“We strongly encourage the Irish Government to take advantage of this ruling and remove VAT from e-books and audiobooks at the earliest opportunity.”