In The Irish Times this Saturday, Elif Shafak tells Niamh Donnelly about her latest novel, There Are Rivers in the Sky. Sinéad O’Shea writes about her relationship with Edna O’Brien while filming a forthcoming documentary on her life and Andrew Fitzmaurice reflects on the late author’s complicated relationship with her homeplace. Plus there is a Q&A with Charlotte Mendelson, award-winning author of Wife.
Reviews are Paschal Donohoe on Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places by Paul Collier and The Centre Must Hold: Why Centrism is the Answer to Extremism and Polarisation, edited by Yair Zivan; NJ McGarrigle on Paul Foot: A Life in Politics by Margaret Renn; Martina Evans on The Accidental Garden by Richard Mabey; Claire Hennessy on the best new YA fiction; James Hanrahan on Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea by Darrin McMahon; Dan McLaughlin on Illia Ponomarenko’s I Will Show You How it Was; Philippa Conlon on Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang; Val Nolan on Paddy Crewe’s True Love; Helen Cullen on Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers; Edel Coffey on Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal; Adrienne Murphy on Ann Powers’ Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell; Oliver Farry on Nabila Ramdani’s Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic; Paul Clements on Richard Gwyn’s Ambassador of Nowhere; and John Boyne on The Echoes by Evie Wyld.
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano is this weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer, just €5.99, a €5 saving.
Gillian Anderson is to star in a Channel 4 adaptation of Louise Kennedy’s award-winning debut novel Trespasses.
She will play Gina, a ‘glorious wreck’ who is constantly sparring with her daughter Cushla, who is being played by Lola Petticrew (Bloodlands). Tom Cullen plays Michael, Cushla’s lover.
The novel is set in 1975 near Belfast, as Catholic schoolteacher Cushla falls for a customer in her family pub, who is older, married and a Protestant barrister, who often defends IRA suspects.
Trespasses is being produced by Bafta award-winning and double Oscar-nominated Wildgaze Films (Brooklyn, An Education) and is being adapted for the screen by Ailbhe Keogan (Bad Sisters, Run & Jump). Filming starts in Belfast this autumn.
Anderson said: “I fell in love with Louise’s stunning book when I read it in proof. I was immediately drawn to the tragicomic creation that is Gina and couldn’t resist when Louise asked me to play her. Reading Ailbhe’s brilliant scripts confirmed how vividly this story could translate to screen and with Dawn at the helm and Lola and Tom alongside, I’m delighted to be part of the Trespasses family.”
There is Irish interest in another Channel 4 drama that has just been announced, Summerwater, based on the bestseller by Sarah Moss, who lives in Dublin, lectures in creatives writing at UCD and is an Irish Times columnist. Moss’s latest book, My Good Bright Wolf: A Memoir, will be published on August 29th.
Adapted by John Donnelly, directed by Robert McKillop and produced by Freedom Scripted, the show is set against the backdrop of a remote loch-side Scottish holiday cabin park and set over the course of one single rainy summer’s day.
Catherine Taylor has won the TLS Ackerley Prize 2023 for The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). The other two shortlisted books were Monique Charlesworth’s Mother Country (Moth Books) and Jeremy Seabrook’s Private Worlds (Pluto Press).
The TLS Ackerley Prize is the UK’s only literary prize dedicated to memoir and autobiography. The winner of the £4,000 prize, now in its 42nd year, was announced at a special event featuring the shortlisted authors in conversation with the chair of the judges, Peter Parker, last week.
The Ackerley Prize was established 42 years ago in memory of Joe Randolph Ackerley (1896–1967), the author and long-time literary editor of The Listener magazine, and is now awarded in partnership with the Times Literary Supplement. The prize is given annually to a literary autobiography of outstanding merit, written by an author of British nationality, and published in the UK in the previous year.
The prize is judged by biographer and historian Parker, writer and editor Michael Caines, and writer and critic Claire Harman.
Taylor, who reviews fiction in translation for The Irish Times, said: “I’ve never won anything, actually, so I’m really pleased. It’s an amazing pedigree, the Ackerley Prize, and I am following in the footsteps of Lorna Sage and Blake Morrison, for example, who are two of my favourite writers. I’m not going to say anything else, except that my mother probably wouldn’t have wanted me to write the book, but I think she’d have been – not surprised that I wrote it, but I know she’d have been proud this evening. Thank you so much.”
Parker said: “Our shortlist this year consisted of three very different, wholly involving, startlingly candid and beautifully written memoirs. We hope that by drawing attention to these books we will encourage everyone to buy and read all three of them.
“The Stirrings is a frank and furious account of the author’s political and sexual awakening, set largely in Sheffield in the 1970s and 1980s. This was the period of Britain’s industrial decline, the murders of the Yorkshire Ripper, Greenham Common, the threat of nuclear war and the Miners’ Strike, and against this backdrop Catherine Taylor describes the break-up of her family, the onset of serious illness, the death of a close friend, and the dangers to which young women are routinely exposed. The past is brilliantly evoked by an accumulation of precise and minutely observed details of the everyday things that shape adolescent lives – particularly clothes, food, drink and music. Rarely does a book convey so viscerally, unsentimentally and with such dark humour, the exhilarating and terrifying experience of being young.”
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Now in its eleventh year, the prestigious Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition attracts hundreds of entries from all across the island of Ireland annually. This year, award-winning poet Patrick Deeley will judge the competition entries. The closing date for entries is Monday, September 16th, the shortlist will be announced on October 2nd and the winner will be announced during the Red Line Book Festival which runs from October 14th to 20th. Entry forms and competition rules can be downloaded from redlinefestival.ie and all entries must be emailed to poetrycompetition@sdublincoco.ie. Shortlisted poets will be invited to read their poem as part of the festival and the winning poet will receive a cash prize of €300. There is also a cash prize of €200 for second place and €100 for third place.
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Castlebar’s Linenhall Arts Centre hosts two big literary events this September.
Three Mayo-based authors, Anne Walsh Donnelly, Fiona Wilde and Fiona Neary, reveal how they progressed from completing a manuscript to becoming a published author, on quite different pathways at Let’s Talk Publishing on Wednesday, September 18th.
John Tuomey’s First Quarter navigates the places and memories of his life over 25 years, in a personal and poetical account of childhood in Irish villages and country towns, student life in Dublin and youthful employment in London. It will be celebrated on Friday, September 27th with First Quarter – An Evening of Conversation, Reading and Song. thelinenhall.com
The Arts Council and Westmeath County Council held a special event this week to commemorate the centenary of author and Athlone native, John Broderick in the town’s Luan Gallery. The evening was a tribute to Broderick’s life, his influential work, and his enduring legacy in the Irish literary canon and LGBTQ+ fiction. Eithne Shortall was announced as this year’s recipient of the John Broderick writer’s residency. This was accompanied by the relaunch by Lilliput Press of his acclaimed novel, The Waking of Willie Ryan in print and for the first time, as an audio book.
Broderick was born on July 30th, 1924, in Athlone and wrote 12 novels, including The Waking of Willie Ryan and the once-banned, The Pilgrimage. Broderick passed away in Bath, England, in 1989.
Broderick bequeathed his estate to the Arts Council for “the benefit and advancement of the arts in Athlone”. This generous endowment has since established a writer’s residency in Athlone, benefiting writers Annemarie Ní Churreáin (2018), Martin Dyar (2019), and Keith Payne (2021), who have all deeply engaged with Broderick’s works during their residencies.
The 2024 recipient, Eithne Shortall, is an author, columnist and broadcaster. Her novels include Love in Row 27 and Grace After Henry, the latter winning Best Page Turner at the UK’s Big Book Awards.
Maureen Kennelly, director of the Arts Council, said: “We are thrilled with the selection of Eithne Shortall as the John Broderick Writer In Residence 2024. John’s work during the 1960s and 1970s inspired and challenged readers with its depth and honesty. He wrote about topics rarely expressed at the time and his generous legacy has profoundly impacted the arts in Athlone. The writer’s residency established through his bequest has nurtured remarkable talent, allowing writers to delve deeply into Broderick’s works and create new, resonant literature. This centenary celebration, including Eithne’s appointment, is a testament to his enduring influence and the vital role the arts play in our community.”
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Boundless & Bare provides an overview of Ireland’s literary and performance events for August. It details various activities, including regular open mic nights such as Dublin’s Smithfield Creatives and Sligo’s Illuminations, and speciality events like Prose & Woes and The Vintage Room Sessions, which combine poetry, spoken word, and live music. Notable comedy shows include Hysteria Comedy and Coven Comedy Club. The guide also highlights themed festivals like The Works Festival 2024, featuring Ó Bhéal’s 700th event and the Cork-Coventry Poetry Celebration. Additionally, it includes hybrid events like Lime Square Poets and community-focused gatherings like Castleisland Arts Night. boundlessandbare.com
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The Belfast launch of Dear Orson Welles & Other Essays by film-maker Mark Cousins, published this month by The Irish Pages Press, takes place at the QFT this evening, Friday, August 2nd, at 6pm, followed at 7.30pm by Mark’s “highlight reel of clips”. Book here: queensfilmtheatre.com/Whats-On/Dear-Orson-Welles
Following the reel of highlights, there will be a Q & A with Mark then refreshments and chat in the QFT foyer afterwards.
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