The Harvard, Yale and Princeton clubs, the Algonquin Hotel, Barnes & Noble and around two dozen other venues in New York will be humming next month, when the New Yorker Festival, a literary and arts celebration organised by the magazine, kicks off on May 18th and continues for three days. High points include the High Fidelity Dance Party, with Nick Hornby as DJ, and a tribute night to Bob Dylan. Keeping up the Irish side will be Roddy Doyle, performing on the opening, Friday night at - wait for it - the Knitting Factory on Leonard Street. Many of the writers are reading in pairs, and the pairing is everything: Nick Hornby with Zadie Smith; Martin Amis with Norman Mailer; Peter Carey with Annie Proulx.
There will also be a series of public interviews, including New Yorker fiction and literary editor Bill Buford talking to Bill Bryson about his inimitable adventures on the travel trail, and Woody Allen, who has contributed stories to the New Yorker since the 1960s, in conversation with the magazine's editor, David Remnick. Panel discussions are also on the bill, one of the most interesting being "Far-flung reporters in times of trouble". Moderated by Christopher Hitchens, the panel includes Philip Gourevitch, Michael Ignatieff and Isabel Hilton, expert on Tibet and the author of The Search for the Panchen Lama.
Other attractions include literary walking tours of midtown Manhattan and a free poetry reading in Bryant Park, with contributions from Paul Muldoon among others. Richard Ford; Michael Cunningham; The Virgin Suicides author, Jeffrey Eugenides; last year's Pulitzer Prize winner, Jhumpa Lahiri; philosopher Peter Singer; Simon Schama; Elmore Leonard; Patti Smith and fashion designers Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen are just some of those also taking part in the 50 events, which cover a myriad of topics.
Detailed information on the whole fiesta is available from www.newyorker.com
It's that time of year again: the shortlist for the Kerry Ingredients Irish Fiction Award was announced during the week, the winner to be revealed at the opening of Writers' Week on May 30th. Adjudicators Eugene McCabe and Ita Daly believe they have a very strong list for the £5,000 award, which last year went to Michael Collins, who went on to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize. This year's Listowel shortlist is Anne Enright for What Are You Like?; Emma O'Donoghue for Slammerkin; Anne Barnett for The Largest Baby in Ireland after the Famine; US by Martin Malone and Inishowen by Joseph O'Connor.
May the best man or woman win.
Michael Longley is at it again, picking up awards. This week it was the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, awarded by the English monarch on the advice of a panel chaired by Andrew Motion, the British Poet Laureate.
These first years of the 21st century are obviously a blessed time for the Belfast poet, who was silent throughout the 1980s. Already this year, he has won the T.S. Eliot Prize for the last collection, The Weather in Japan, and he recently notched up the Hawthornden .
The Queen's medal has been awarded since the 1930s; past winners include W.H. Auden, John Betjeman, Ted Hughes and Les Murray. Longley is on a roll all right - a most deserving one.
THE third Strokestown Poetry Festival gets under way in Roscommon on Friday with the stirring flute playing of Matt Molloy, of the Chieftans, and poetry reading by the actor Mick Lally. One of the most endearing aspects of the festival is its democracy. If inspiration strikes a member of the audience, they can read or recite their poetry whether at a forum in the local library or in the Lisroyne Inn, where those brave enough to air their work will get a free cup of coffee and a sandwich. The big event will be the announcement of the winners in the main award category of the Strokestown Poetry Prize competition; the first prize is £3,000. The shortlisted poets are Mary Armstrong, California; Alan Dunnett, Glasgow; Martin Dyar, Co Mayo; Helen Kidd, Oxford; Tinker Mather, Oxford; Martin Mooney, Northern Ireland; Sherman Pearl, California; David Ray, Arizona; Connie Roberts, New York; L.R. Rogers, Cornwall; Aidan RooneyCespedes, Massachusetts; Tony Strong, London. Most will be present for the nail-biting moment of the winner's announcement.
Readings by established poets include performances by Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Robert Welch, Sheila O'Hagan and Liam O Muirthile. There will even be a tour of Strokestown Park House gardens, foot-and-mouth disease permitting.
Details from 078-33759 or www.strokestownpoetryprize.com
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