Posthumous honour:The late Siobhan Dowd (below), born in London to Irish parents – and much of whose work is set in Ireland – this week won the prestigious Cilip (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Carnegie Medal in children's literature for her fourth and final novel, Bog Child.
It is the first time the award has been made posthumously in its 72-year history. She now joins a children’s literary hall of fame that includes such writers as David Almond, Anne Fine, CS Lewis, Mary Norton and Noel Streatfield.
Dowd died from breast cancer in August 2007. In an emotional ceremony in London on Thursday, her sister, Denise, accepted the medal on her behalf.
Her publisher and editor, David Fickling, said Dowd had the ability to take readers to the darkest places – and yet leave them feeling uplifted. He reflected on her strongly held belief that “if a child can read, they can think and if a child can think they are free” and talked of her despair that there are children in the UK and Ireland who have no access to books. It was this that led her to set up the Siobhan Dowd Trust in the last few weeks of her life to support disadvantaged young readers. She bequeathed her royalties from all her four books to the trust.
Bog Child is set in Ireland on the Border in the 1980s at the height of the Troubles. A portrayal of adolescence, it is told through the eyes of Fergus McCann as he struggles with issues of life, death, loyalty, politics and first love.
As a child, Dowd spent long holidays at her parents’ cottage at Aglish in Co Waterford, and in Wicklow town.
Banville’s Tipp trip
John Banville will be read the length and breadth of Tipperary in the coming months. Two of his novels, the 2005 Man Booker prize winning The Sea and the thriller Christine Falls, written under the name Benjamin Black, are available in public libraries throughout the county now that they’ve been selected as this year’s titles for the Tipperary Reads festival. The event will be launched by the author on Saturday July 11th at 3pm at Thurles Library in the Source Arts Centre. The writer will be returning to the county on November 14th to discuss his work with readers who should by then be well up on their Banville.
By then his new novel, The Infinities,will be out – his first writing as John Banville since The Sea. Published by Picador it is published in September.
Lunchtime verse
The National Gallery in association with Poetry Ireland has lined up a lunchtime poetry-reading series for the month of July, starting on Wednesday July 1st with Rita Ann Higgins. The series continues with Philip McDonagh, Paul Durcan, Ulick O’Connor and Enda Wyley. The readings take place at 1pm each Wednesday in the Gallery Lecture Theatre, followed by book signings in the Gallery Shop.
Kavanagh fellowship
The Trustees of the Estate of Katherine Kavanagh will offer one Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship of around €8,000 this year. The fellowship is specifically for Irish poets, in their middle years, who are in need of assistance. It will be awarded in October and the deadline for applications is August 24th. Details from the trustees at 3, Selskar Terrace, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
Meanwhile, the closing date for the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award for a first unpublished collection of poems in English is September 25th. The prize is open to poets, born in Ireland, or of Irish nationality, or long-term resident here. The winner will receive €1,000. The award will be presented on November 27th at the opening of the annual Patrick Kavanagh Weekend in Inniskeen, Co Monaghan. The poet’s heartland is also the location for a creative writing course, Finding a Voice, to be directed by Catherine Phil MacCarthy at the Patrick Kavanagh Rural and Literary Resource Centre in Inniskeen during the first weekend in August; see patrickkavanaghcountry.com.