Titanic tale to launch Puffin Ireland’s first wave
Puffin Ireland, founded in 2009, rolls out its first titles this spring. First up this month is The Time Spell, for eight- to 12-year-old girls, by established writer Judi Curtin. It's about friendship, but, in a time-slip device, it leaps back to 1912 and the decks of the doomed Titanic, all in good time for next year's centenary of its sinking.
Next month will see the introduction of a debut author, Laura Jane Cassidy, a Trinity College Dublin student in her mid-20s who's taken time out to work on her supernatural crime fiction for teens. She blogs at laurajanecassidy.com, which was nominated for this year's Irish Blog Awards. Her first book, Angel Kiss, is published on May 5th by Razorbill, Puffin's teen imprint. It's a paranormal romance complete with visions, voices, signs and an old unsolved murder. Cassidy is already working on her second book, 18 Kisses.
The third title to be launched, Mark O'Sullivan's My Dad is 10 Years Old, a teen novel set in Co Tipperary, follows in June.
In the 18 months since Puffin Ireland was launched it has received more than 450 submissions. “Interest in the supernatural is still strong, though vampires seem to be waning. We’ve received a lot of romance for teen readers, and dystopian/ parallel worlds are popular,” says Puffin Ireland editor Paddy O’Doherty.
The good news is that Puffin Ireland is still accepting unsolicited manuscripts and is interested in ideas for both teenagers and eight- to 12-year-olds. See penguin.ie.
Ridgway offers guidance through his story maze
Although he is better known as a novelist, Keith Ridgway is also a fine short-story writer, and he has one, called Goo Book,in the current New Yorker– the April 11th issue – about a pickpocket who's a chauffeur for a London crime boss. On the magazine's website he answers questions about his writing, revealing that he doesn't revise much.
“I just write incredibly slowly, worrying over it one sentence at a time,” he says. “I try to be loyal to my characters. If it doesn’t sound too insane, I try to respect their privacy. In this story there are things going on which are hidden from the characters, sometimes by other characters and sometimes by the characters themselves. I try to take the reader through that little maze without blundering through too many of the half closed doors.”
Goo Bookis part of a collection he's working on. He also has a story, Rothko Eggs, in the current issue of Zoetrope: All-Story.
European fiction lost and found in translation
Literary dialogue between Bosnian author Aleksandar Hemon and Irish writers Kevin Barry and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne will be on offer at the launch of the Best European Fiction 2011anthology, edited by Hemon. It takes place in Trinity College Dublin's Long Room Hub on Tuesday, April 19th, from 6pm to 7pm, and is open to the public. Both Ní Dhuibhne and Barry are represented in the book.
"Best European Fiction 2011is in part a response to the dramatic decrease in literary translations into English, currently accounting for only approximately one-tenth of a per cent of all books published in English-speaking countries," says the anthology's publisher, Dalkey Archive Press
Dalkey Archive, which has offices in Dublin, plans to work with schools and festivals to bring more international literature to readers here, plus opportunities for young translators and people who want experience in literary publishing.
