LOOSE LEAVES:It's a good thing that John Banville (below) managed to finish his latest novel, Ancient Light, and get it into the bookshops on schedule, as his thriller-writing alter ego Benjamin Black is about to become even busier than usual.
It was announced this week that Black – who also had a novel, Vengeance, published this year – has been signed up to resurrect Raymond Chandler’s private eye Philip Marlowe in a new book to be published next year. The book will be set in Bay City, Chandler’s fictional Santa Monica, and will also bring back to life Marlowe’s friend and former colleague, police detective Bernie Ohls.
“This all happened very speedily, in a matter of a few weeks,” says Banville of his nom-de-plume’s coup. “Some years ago my agent, Ed Victor, had come up with the idea that I might write a Philip Marlowe novel, but the terms at the time werent right. In the meantime the Chandler estate changed hands, and suddenly I found myself committing to what is a daunting project.
“Chandler was a wonderful writer, with what I used to think of as an inimitable style – let’s hope its a little bit imitable – and of course Marlowe is a marvellous noir protagonist, perhaps the greatest of all private eyes. Im excited to be calling him back to tackle another case.”
Literary larks on the Tipperary lakeshore
The deadline for entering the poetry and flash short story competitions run by this year’s Dromineer Literary Festival is next Friday, August 17th. The judges will be the writers Fiona Sampson (poetry) and Nessa O’Mahony (flash short story), and the winners of each category will receive €500, with €350 for the runners-up and €150 for those in third place. The results will be announced during the Co Tipperary festival, at which the winners will read from their work.
The festival, now in its ninth year, will take place from October 11th to 14th, offering workshops, readings, interviews and an afternoon event aboard The Spirit of Killaloe on Lough Derg. Among the writers lined up to appear are Kevin Barry, Claire Keegan and Patrick McCabe, and there will also be an outdoor performance by the Bee-Loud Glade cabaret, combining music and song with the spoken word.
For details of competition rules and entry fees, and for a full festival programme, see dromineerliteraryfestival.ie; @DromineerLit.
Poetry slam champs to converge in Cork
The All-Ireland Live Poetry Slam Championships are now in their sixth year, but as they have no formal funding the organisers are seeking help to cover the costs for this year’s final, which will take place at Ó Bhéal, on Cyprus Avenue, Cork city, on November 30th. Each year in the performance-poetry championships, open heats take place in five cities – Belfast, Derry, Dublin, Galway and Limerick – and, from these, eight poets reach the final. One winner each from the Belfast and Derry heats goes forward to represent Ulster, with two each from the Dublin, Galway and Limerick heats representing Leinster, Connacht and Munster. The location of the final rotates between the four provinces each year; this year is the first time it is to be held in Cork.
The organisers are hoping to raise €1,000 for prize money, travelling expenses and printing costs for a chapbook of the poems that contestants will bring to the final. If you'd like to contribute, see the performance section on the fundit.iewebsite.
