A literary roundup
Debating the debacle
One good thing about our fiscal calamity has been the entrance, centre stage, of the nation's economists, talking us through it. Now it's the turn of journalists. The National Concert Hall in Dublin is the venue on November 4th at 7.30pm for a public debate featuring Matt Cooper, Pat Leahy, Fintan O'Toole and Shane Ross, who will look at the current crisis and where we should go from here. The debate is organised by Penguin Ireland and Faber & Faber, and is billed as A Room With Four Views.
Although the panellists all write for different newspapers, they are crossing party lines for the occasion. All are writing, or have written, books on the debacle. Cooper's Who Really Runs Ireland?: The Story of the Elite Who Led Ireland from Bust to Boom . . . and Back Againand Pat Leahy's Showtime: The Inside Story of Fianna Fáil in Powerare already out, while OToole's Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Killed the Celtic Tigerand Shane Ross's The Bankers: How the Banks Brought Ireland to Its Kneeswill be published next month.
Says publisher Faber of O’Toole’s book, which charts Ireland’s “dizzying rise and sickening fall”: “For 20 years Ireland’s economic miracle was supposed to be the envy of the world . . . Intel, Dell and Apple built factories in small towns. Churches were turned into swanky hotels; SUVs clogged the roads; croissants came to every rural village; Irish rock groups dominated the international charts; emigration stopped and Poles came to serve the drinks and build the ugly new houses mushrooming up all over the landscape . . . And then, like Iceland’s, the glittering palaces vanished in the heat of the global financial meltdown. For years, those with economic power had been investing in a gigantic property bubble.”
To book tickets for the debate, go to nch.ie or phone 01-4170000.
Reading for the centre
Seamus Heaney and John Banville are among the throng of writers trying to keep the Irish Writers’ Centre afloat by giving public benefit readings there. The gala event featuring Heaney and Banville is at the centre, on Dublin’s Parnell Square, on November 19th at 7.30pm. The readings – some in English, others in Irish – will take place on six Thursday nights between now and Christmas. The series starts next Thursday, October 8th, with Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Pádraig Ó Snodaigh and Aifric Mac Aodha. Future participants include Gerard Smyth, Claire Kilroy and Padraig J Daly (all October 22nd); Gabriel Rosenstock, Celia de Fréine and Seán Mac Mathúna (November 5th); Paddy Bushe, Áine Ní Ghlinn and Gréagóir Ó Dúill (December 3rd); and Peter Sirr, Enda Wylie and Hugo Hamilton (December 10th). Writers John F Deane and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill will be chairing proceedings on alternate nights.
To book, ring (01-8721302, or visit the centre between 10am and 6pm on weekdays. Tickets cost €20 , except for November 19th, which costs €50. See writerscentre.ie.
Little people, big plans
Although British children’s publishers have been cutting acquisitions due to recession and to a narrowing of range among high-street chains (with a focus on bestsellers such as Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books), in Ireland the category is getting a boost. Apart from the recent launch of Puffin Ireland, New Island has launched an imprint, Little Island, dedicated to translations of children’s literature and to new books and reprints by Irish writers, presided over by author Siobhán Parkinson. Little Island will start publishing next spring.
Meanwhile, Irish Pen is holding an event called New Kids on the Block! Writing and Publishing for the Children's Marketon October 8th. It features Parkinson; editor of Puffin Ireland Paddy O'Doherty; agent and Author Rights Agency director Svetlana Pironko; and children's author Sarah Webb.
The venue is the United Arts Club, 3 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2, at 8pm. For details, e-mail irishpen@ireland.com or phone 087-9660770.
