A literary round-up
Van Booy awarded
The short story collection, Love Begins in Winter, by Anglo-Welsh author Simon Van Booy (pictured below) is the winner of the 2009 Cork City - Frank O'Connor Short Story Award.
“While we believe that this was the most evenly-matched shortlist ever in the award’s history, containing six brilliant books by accomplished authors, after much re-reading and long discussions, the jury was convinced by one title in particular,” says Patrick Cotter, artistic director of the Munster Literature Centre, in the judges’ citation on Van Booy’s book.
It won, adds Cotter, because of its consistently positive and optimistic approach to examining the travails of human experience – it was an emotionally warming book that will easily win a place in the heart of the reader.
“His language is lyrical and sings off the page,” says Cotter. “His stories are full of the most exquisite insights, aphoristic without ever seeming like mere conveyances for ideas.”
Love Begins in Winteris published by Beautiful Books (£7.99).
Van Booy won from a shortlist that included Irish writer Philip Ó Ceallaigh, as well as Wells Tower, Charlotte Grimshaw, Shih-Li Kow and Petina Gappah.
The €35,000 prize, now in its fifth year, is administered by the Munster Literature Centre in Cork, with sponsorship from Cork City Council. Previous winners include Haruki Murakami, Jhumpa Lahiri and Yiyun Li.
Van Booy (pronounced "boy"), whose mother came from Co Wicklow, was born in London. He grew up in Wales and his debut collection, The Secret Lives of People in Love, has been much translated.
A single father, Van Booy lives in New York with his four-year-old daughter Madeleine, who was the subject of a memorable non-fiction piece on fatherhood he wrote in last month's Daily Telegraph( Childhood: A fleeting beauty not to be missed, August 15th, 2009). Explaining their lives together he said: "Our jokes and conversations, our squabbles and arguments, our maxims and passing words of advice, are simply the useless ramblings of two people who don't really know anything, except their blind devotion for one another."
As well as journalism, Van Booy works as a teacher and is involved in the Rutgers Early College Humanities Program for young adults living in deprived communities.
Whether it's that it suits the frenzied pace we now live at, or because it's a form suited to a fractured age, the short story – whose swan song has often been sung in the past – is thriving at the moment. The most recent manifestation of this is the advent of the new £25,000 Sunday TimesEFG Private Bank Short Story Award. It's a development welcomed by Cotter. "It's not direct competition because it's for a single short story, whereas ours is for a full collection, and I'd like to believe that the years we have put into holding the Frank O'Connor International Short Story festival, founded in 2000, and the award, which started in 2005, have contributed to this heightened awareness of the short story form's artistic importance."
Ó Ceallaigh was also a judge for the smaller, ancillary €1,500 Seán Ó Faoláin prize at this year's festival, the winner of which was Londoner Alexa Beattie, for her story, Cold Cuts. Beattie currently lives in Connecticut, where she is completing her first collection of stories. Second place, and a prize of €500, went to David Mohan of Co Dublin for My Friend Joe.
Talking about terror
Terrorism is on the agenda on Wednesday when Queen's University historian Richard English will talk about his book, Terrorism: How to Respond,at the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, at 6pm.
English will be in conversation with journalist Mark Little. It’s free but places must be reserved by e-mailing terrorism@ria.ie.