Madam, - Fred Johnston (July 5th) is wide of the mark in alleging that Irish publishing in general is stuck in a parochial rut. Both he and Desmond Fennell should perhaps be aware that there may be good reasons why their work is not snapped up.
A massive decline in the market for serious books that are not by or about celebrities - and for fiction that is not chick lit or by a few well-known names - poses serious problems for book publishing in Ireland and internationally. Despite these pressing problems, Irish publishers are investing in a far-from parochial manner in work of real quality from wide-ranging sources, bringing to potential readers a far greater range and quality of work than was ever achieved by the Irish Writers' Co-operative, which nevertheless played an excellent role in its time.
To take my company (Brandon/Mount Eagle) alone: in recent months we have published a collection of short stories ( The Third Shore) by 25 women writers from 18 nations of east central Europe; a collection of short stories by the Slovenian writer Drago Jancar ( Joyce's Pupil); a novel ( Lodgers) by Nenad Velickovic from Bosnia-Herzegovina; a book by Manchán Magan ( Angels and Rabies) about the Americas, with another one due shortly ( Manchán's Travels: A Journey Through India); a collection of short stories by William Wall ( No Paradiso), which is international in its scope, perspective and subject matter; a novel ( Baby Zero) by Emer Martin which explores the alleged clash of civilisations between East and West; a novel ( Branwell) by the North American writer Douglas A Martin about the Brontë brother; a novel ( Sweetwater) set in London by Paul Charles, a writer "who treads in the classic footsteps of Morse and Maigret" (according to the Guardian) with another one ( The Dust of Death) - set in Donegal, so does that mean that to publish it is supposedly parochial? - due in September; a first literary novel by John Maher ( The Luck Penny), which is characterised by a complete lack of parochialism (see the Dublin Review of Booksreview; see any of the excellent reviews for this book); the eighth novel by Mary Rose Callaghan ( Billy, Come Home), which offers a scathing critique of attitudes to mental illness. And this is just a selection of our range. Meanwhile, we successfully trade foreign rights in Brandon authors such as Ken Bruen, Gerry Adams, Chet Raymo, Alice Taylor and Sam Millar.
Obviously it is dispiriting for writers to receive rejections, but seeking a false explanation such as parochialism is self-deluding.
- Yours, etc,
STEVE MacDONOGH (Former Chair, Irish Writers' Co-operative), Brandon/Mount Eagle Publications, Dingle/Daingean Uí Chúis, Co Kerry.