A major poetry competition will be announced on Tuesday at a reception in Dublin Castle. The SeaCat Irish National Poetry Competition (in association with Poetry Ireland) has substantial prize money, and the plaudits will be handed out in November.
A new team is now in place at Poetry Ireland, most having joined last year. They were determined to pull off something special in the competition line, as befitting a national poetry organisation. The first prize in the main competition is £5,000, and the three judges are Eavan Boland, Michael Longley and Cathal O'Searcaigh. There will be three categories in all - primary, secondary and everyone else - and the same judges will look at all the categories. While the school-goers will not have quite the same purse as that of the senior competition, it'll still buy a fair few phone cards and ice-creams, plus there's the glory of getting the same trophy all the category winners will receive. The ins and outs of it all will be revealed next week, and information is available from Wednesday at 01-6714632 or management@poetryireland.ie
Last month, welcoming the publication of papers given at the autumn school devoted annually to Lady Gregory at Gort in Co Galway, this column bemoaned the dearth of scholarship on the writer. Now comes news of a major lecture on her to be given by Colm Toibin in New York later this month. Called "Lady Gregory and the Creation of Modern Ireland", it's part of a series of public programmes organised by the Centre for Scholars and Writers through the New York Public Library. It's on May 16th at 6 p.m., and it's free. But it's not the only thing that will be on Toibin's mind that week. Two days earlier, on May 14th, there is the announcement of the overall winner of this year's International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, for which he is on the shortlist. The winning name will be announced by Dublin's Lord Mayor, Alderman Maurice Ahern, in St Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle shortly after noon on the appointed day.
It's hard to think of Bisto without the image of two kids with their noses in the air, sniffing the smell of gravy. Presumably they get as much delight out of sniffing the lovely smell of new books, since the company sponsors the Bisto Children's Book of the Year award. The shortlist for the prize was announced recently at the Irish Writers' Centre. There are 10 books on the list for the £1,500 prize, which will be presented on May 30th. On the list this year is an Irish language book, An Bothar Fada, by Michael Mullen.
The list also features two illustrators: Adrienne Kennaway, for This is the Tree: a Story of the Baobab; and illustrator Niamh Sharkey, who is on the list for the third year in a row, with Tales from Old Ireland, written by Malachy Doyle. The other titles are Call of the Whales by Siobhan Parkinson, The Orchard Book of Ghostly Stories by Martin Waddell, an earlier offering from Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer called The Wish List, Dirt Tracks by Martina Murphy, Fowl Deeds by Jim Halligan and John Newman, Izzy and Skunk by Marie Louise Fitzpatrick and The Lost Orchard by Patrick Deeley
Rattlebag, the RTE arts programme, has e-mailed Sadbh about its Poetry Slam Competitions. The folk at Rattlebag are looking for poems of all lengths (they might be sorry they put that bit in), on all themes, published, unpublished and whatever other state your poems might be in. The 10 poems judged best will be read by their authors in the Project Arts Centre on June 15th as part of the Dublin Writers' Festival. Send entries to Poetry Slam, Rattlebag, RTE Radio, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, or e-mail them to rattle@rte.ie
An unusual and beautifully produced catalogue-cum-anthology has been sent to Sadbh from Coleraine's Cranagh Press. It's entitled Artwords: an Ulster anthology of contemporary visual art and poetry, edited by Amanada Montgomery. This lovely colour production, which uses many different typefaces and layouts, showcases the work of 15 artists and poets working in Ulster. Poems are accompanied with images of artwork, ranging from Brian Patterson's `Habitat' installation to Sharon Kelly's arresting charcoal of a bare foot. Poets represented include Martin Mooney, Leontia Flynn, John Brown, Gearoid Mac Lochlainn and Eilish Martin. The anthology is backed up by a touring show at various Northern Ireland venues of the paintings featured in it, accompanied by readings and talks. Priced £9.95 sterling, it's a lovely little book that rescues the expression "slim volume" from the dustbin. It is available by post from the Centre for Irish Literature, Cavehill Building, University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 7SA, or F.Sewell@ulst.ac.uk
Certain reviews from these pages are available at www.ireland.com/dublin/entertainment/books/