A literary round-up
Tangled up in Dylan’s poetry of the road
Bob Dylan's 70th birthday, in 10 days' time, is one of the landmark events of the year, and Poetry Ireland Reviewis among the publications saluting him this month. In the latest issue, Liam Carson, author and director of the Imram Irish Language Literature Festival, writes a tribute essay focusing on one song, Tangled Up in Blue. "Listen again," he urges. "The song contains multiples."
Carson recalls attending his first Dylan gig, at Slane Castle on July 8th, 1984, at a time when there were no jobs to be had in Dublin and a tide of emigration to England was swelling, much as it is now. It was a tide Carson joined that autumn, so it’s clear why the song resonates for him.
“Tangled Up in Blue is long, often taking 10 minutes to perform on stage, but its musical and narrative drive never flags,” he writes. “It echoes Kerouac’s vision of writing that ‘went fast because the road is fast’.” It’s a song, adds Carson, that takes us in every direction, traversing the American landscape in a breathless account of loves won and lost. “If ever there was an artist who defines himself in terms of the road, of the concept of the road, it is Dylan.”
The journal (issue 103, €9.99), edited by Caitríona O’Reilly, has other essays, including What is Eco Poetry?, by the poet Seán Lysaght, and new poems by Derek Mahon, Thomas Dillon Redshaw, Tom French, Nick Laird and others.
Looking for the next Dervla at Immrama
The legendary travel writer Dervla Murphy was 10 when she was given the second-hand bike that made her decide to cycle to India when she grew up. She did so, and the result was Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle, published in 1965. It was the start of a decades-long writing career, for which she has won many awards. Now, imaginatively, a Dervla Murphy Award for Teenage Travel Writing has been inaugurated by the Immrama Festival of Travel Writing in her native Lismore, in association with Waterford County Council's library service. The only catch is that you have to be a Co Waterford teenager, aged between 13 and 18, to enter, with a piece of up to 500 words. The closing date for entries is May 27th, the first prize is €100 and the winning entry will be published on the library-service website.
Immrama runs from June 9th to 12th, and writers taking part include Anthony Sattin, William Blacker, Conor O’Clery, Alex von Tunzelmann, Theo Dorgan and Sara Wheeler. A new addition is a bloggers’ forum led by Manchán Magan, with guests Rolf Potts, Áine Goggins of TG4’s Ó Tholg go Tolg, and Darragh Doyle of boards.ie.
See lismoreimmrama.com or waterfordcountylibrary.ie.
Keane retreat a cause for celebration
Molly Keane’s home overlooking Ardmore Bay, Co Waterford, where the novelist lived for half a century and created her magnificent garden, is now a writers’ retreat. Her life and work will be feted there in June, when the writers Robert O’Byrne and Polly Devlin will talk about the author, who is best known for her novel Good Behaviour, over the weekend of June 3rd to 5th. Waterford County Council and the Keane family have been developing the retreat since last year, and a number of events have already taken place there. It’s great to see a writer’s home preserved in this way. See mollykeanewritersretreats.com.
Tea, cake and DBC Pierre on offer from Young Hearts
Regret and New York Jewishness are the themes of the next event in the Young Hearts Run Free literary series tomorrow week at the Unitarian Church on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. Proceeds from the €10 tickets go to the Simon Community. DBC Pierre, who won the Booker prize for Vernon God Little in 2003, will be reading. Other participants include Senator Ivana Bacik, the musician Adrian Crowley and the comedian Maeve Higgins. The event starts at 3pm and, in a most civilised twist, there’ll be tea and cake.
