Readings, yes, we're used to them. Listen and clap. Buy the book afterwards if you're convinced. Etc. Coming up shortly is a three-day series of readings with a difference - the punter does most of the reading. From May 12th to 14th, Arthouse in Temple Bar will be hosting Voices From Erehwyreve (sic) from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. each afternoon. Multi-media artist Stuart Brisley, with Arthouse, has organised the event. Each day, members of the public are invited to bring with them "literature or text which you think relates to politics, death or sex".
The topic of politics is the 12th, death the 13th, and sex on the last day. The emphasis is on interactive readings: this is the opportunity to ferret out your favourite poem/fiction/ other written-extract on any of the above topics and bring it along to contribute to the reading.
Note that "literature or text" is specified. The word text covers a multitude.
For the first day - politics - a bit of quoting from the front pages of recent newspapers could well make for a most interesting afternoon, particularly if some of the invited politicians make it to Curved Street. Perhaps even the redoubtable Joe Taylor, the man who does such entertaining tribunal-witness impressions on Tonight with Vincent Browne, will turn up.
Otherwise, it's an unmissable opportunity for all the creeping Jesuses, pinkos, and other colourful members of the public to air their favourite bits of political-related guff, or gems, or otherwise. Entrance is free, so no need on this occasion for donations in the regulatory brown paper receptacles.
Tonight, the winners of the Strokestown Poetry Prize will be announced, with a purse of £3,000 for the winning poem, and £1,000 and £500 respectively for the runners-up. There is a shortlist of 12 poets: Patrick Clinton, Evelyn Cosgrave, Carol Davis, Susan Donnelly, Mary Gallagher, Helen Kidd, Anne McKenna, Margaret Miller, Geraldine Mills, Marion Moynihan, Mary O'Gorman, and Sheila O'Hagan.
At £30,000, Britain's Orange Prize for Fiction is a bigger bag of loot than the Booker, with the rider for eligibility being that you have to be female.
This year's shortlist includes Irish writer and librarian Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, for The Dancers Dancing, published by Blackstaff. The other titles are: White Teeth, 24-year-old Zadie Smith's muchfeted first novel; When I Lived in Modern Times, by Linda Grant; a book with a cult following, Divine Sister of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells; If I Told You Once, by Judy Budnitz; and Amy and Isabelle, by Elizabeth Stroud. All the shortlisted candidates will read at Hay-onWye on June 4th, and the cheque, plus a trophy will be handed over on June 6th.
This being an Olympic year, we're going to have quite a sportsfest in the autumn. To put you in the sporty mood, New Island Books has just published Playing the Field: Irish Writers on Sport, edited by George O'Brien, who has also written the introduction.
The book has essays by 11 Irish writers, on the various sports which have defined their lives in different ways. Anthony Cronin writes about his lifetime passion for horseracing; Conor O'Callaghan about cricket; and Mary O'Malley takes up the slithor for hurling. Joseph O'Connor returns to his flagship piece of journalism, the Irish and football; Vincent Banville writes about golf; Jim Lusby about greyhound racing; Colum McCann about handball; and Eamonn Wall about baseball.
So, are all these writers passionate sport fiends? Well, Sara Berkeley didn't let a lack of sport in her life deter her. She made up her own sport of car-camping: trekking through the American desert.
It's 100 years since Oscar Wilde departed this world to exercise his wit elsewhere: he died on November 30th, 1900. To commemorate his place in Irish literature, the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing at Trinity is hosting an international symposium from December 1st to 3rd. Academics, writers, and people from the world of theatre will be celebrating and exploring the Wilde legacy.
The line-up of speakers and lecturers is still to be finalised, but there will be the tie-in of a new play by Thomas Kilroy and dramatised adaptation of three of Wilde's stories for children.
The Ireland Literature Exchange (ILE) tells Sadbh that two young Irish writers will be featured in a European website, which is due to be launched next month. The website wants to attract new readers to the work of young European writers and translators, hence the presence of cultural partners in Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and France. The Irish writers are Cormac James (29), whose novel Track and Field is forthcoming from New Island, and Tarlach Mac Congail (24), an Irish-language poet, who has been published by Clo IarChonnachta. They will have extracts from their work posted on the website, alongside that of Spanish, French, and English writers.
Sadbh notes that Robert O'Byrne of this newspaper, who is author and presenter of the RTE television series after a fashion, will be giving a fashion workshop and lecture today in Brown Thomas in Cork.
The venue is the Designer Room, so if you turn up feeling underdressed, you can always fork out for a bit of on-the-spot sartorial updating.