Gerald Dawe wins Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award

In tomorrow’s Irish Times, John Boyne introduces his new quartet of novellas based on the four elements. There is a Q&A with Jane Clarke, shortlisted for the Forward and TS Eliot Prizes, about Windfalls, the nature poetry anthology she has edited. I ask writers to share their most memorable meals for Food Month. And Rory Stewart, the former Conservative MP turned author and podcast host, talks to Hugh Linehan about the Brexit vote, serving as minister under David Cameron and Theresa May, and running against Boris Johnson for the party leadership.

Reviews are Finn McRedmond on Politics On the Edge: A Memoir from Within by Rory Stewart; The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life by Theresa May; and The Right to Rule: Thirteen Years, Five Prime Ministers and the Implosion of the Tories by Ben Riley-Smith; Tommie Gorman on The Kidnapping by Tommy Conlon & Ronan McGreevy; Brian Cliff and Elizabeth Manion on the best new crime fiction; Houman Barekat on A People’s History of Football by Mickael Correi, tr. Fionn Petch; Chris Horn on Tokens by Rachel O’Dwyer; Sally Hayden on Some People Need Killing By Patricia Evangelista and A Death in Malta by Paul Caruana Galizia; Niamh Jiménez on Black & Irish: Celebrating Black Irish Legends, Trailblazers and Everday Heroes; Michael Cronin on The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers Guild by Mathias Enard, tr. Frank Wynne; and Sarah Gilmartin on Toxic by Sarah Ditum.

This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, just €5.99 when you buy a paper. Hayes’s debut novel sold over 1.5 million copies in the UK and Ireland. He comes to Dublin Book Festival on Saturday, November 11th with his second novel The Year of the Locust. He will be in conversation with Alex Clark at 3pm in The Printworks, Dublin Castle.

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This year’s recipient of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry is Gerald Dawe , which will be presented in St Paul, Minnesota in May 2024.

The award, established in 1997, honours Irish poets and is named for Lawrence O’Shaughnessy, who taught English at University of St. Thomas from 1948 to 1950. Dawe’s latest book, Another Time: Poems 1978-2023 (Gallery Press), brings together a new collection of poems with an extended selection from his eight previous books.

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Irish PEN, in collaboration with Fighting Words and the Ukrainian-Irish Cultural Platform, will hold two Ukrainian-themed events as part of the Dublin Book Festival in November.

These events will be dedicated to the memory of the writer and human rights activist, Victoria Amelina, who was killed in a Russian missile strike this year.

The first event will be a discussion at the Royal Irish Academy entitled CULTURE IN A TIME OF WAR. Panellists are Tetyana Teren, Executive Director of PEN Ukraine, Iryna Starovoyt, Professor of Cultural Studies and Olha Mukha, Curator of the Wounded Culture Project and manager at PEN International. This event will take place on November 9th at 6.30pm.

Two days later, at Windmill Lane, there will be a celebration of Ukrainian and Irish culture, with writers and musicians from both countries on November 11th at 8pm. Taking part will be Olesya Zdorovetska, Nick Roth, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Catherine Fitzgerald. Irish poets Celia de Fréine, Thérèse Kieran and John O’Donnell will join our Ukrainian guests in a poetry reading.

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The literary strand at Westival has something for readers and writers this October bank holiday. Join Doreen Cunningham and Alice Kinsella for Journeys of Motherhood and Whales as they explore themes of motherhood both on land and in the ocean, and how in the face of the climate crisis we can learn from the aquatic animal queendom.

Beloved local bookshop Tertulia will host Una Mannion to explore the themes of who we are, and the role of fiction in exploring themes of identity.

Budding poets can bring a small item of their choosing to Poetry & Stories, a workshop with poet and writer Karen J McDonnell - this item will act as a prompt to explore history, memories and stories to write drafts and a new poem. Fiona Wilde will help you get your words out - Fiona Wilde - learn about the steps to publishing your novel – with a focus on self publishing and self-marketing. Visit Westival.ie to book tickets.

Out of Office Notification by Mark Fiddes has won the Westival competition judged by Geraldine Mitchell.

Out of Office Notification

One bell

tempered in new sun, quenched with wet leaves

will be enough to wake to.

It will toll a different hour

to the opening stock market and rolling news.

The skin of the air will shine.

A green world will remember it has work to do

as we remember we don’t.

This may be the day we live decades

as if everything we loved was

for the first time.

One pepper

between flesh and tender deliquescence

will be enough to feast upon.

It will seed our tongues

with the supple Earth, olives and woodsmoke.

Our plates will be haloes.

The terrace will knot with fruiting vines

to hold us captive.

This may be the hour we live most of all

As if everything we loved was

for only a moment

One storm

ripping pages from distant mountain ranges

will be enough to sleep through.

It will start a forest fire

when lightning guillotines through the valley.

Our blinds will rattle like dice.

The room will sigh for breath before rain

falls as hot and soft as late figs.

This may be the night we live forever

as if everything we loved was

for the last time.