Eriko Tsugawa-Madden was born in Kushiro city in Hokkaido, Japan, and has lived in Ireland since 1989. This is Eriko’s first solo poetry book published by Kinseido Press, Tokyo. It is a bi-lingual text with English and Japanese translation appearing side by side. While the poems were originally written in English by Eriko, their translation to the Japanese involved a collaborative work by several noted Japanese University Professors and Lecturers.

The book is named for one of her very first poems, ‘Bride of the wind’ which appeared in The Sunday Tribune in 2002. In the following year, that poem was short-listed for the Hennessy Literary Awards. Another poem ‘Fullness’ was selected for the Dublin writer’s festival of poetry and broadcast on the RTE Radio programme Rattlebag. In 2010, three of her poems were included in Landing Places, an anthology of poetry by Immigrant poets in Ireland, published by Dedalus Press. She has been in Dublin now for twenty-four years where she lives with her husband Tony and her son Taro.

‘The collection has an out-of-doors liveliness and brightness, even when the subject matter is loss or grief or a sense of the tragic. Eriko Tsugawa-Madden manages to convey the special moment of seeing with a genuine sense of surprise and wonder, from dancing with a stranger in a supermarket to the Throat Buddha, a revelatory poem of ceremonial poise; “the path is hidden”. This is a fine collection of lithe and thoughtful poems.’ -- Gerald Dawe

Join us for the launch of former Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair winner Marion Reynold's first book entitled A Soldier's Wife.

'An enjoyable, timely and easy read. Vivid pictures of life at the time, told with an innate human sympathy.' Senator David Norris, Joycean scholar and human rights activist

A Soldier's Wife is a compelling, dramatic exploration of love, loss, resilience and divided loyalties, which explores the effects that war and political upheaval have on an ordinary family.

Although A Soldier's Wife is a work of historical fiction, it is loosely based on the lives of Marion's grandparents. It is published by Indigo Dreams Publishing and will be released on 1 May.

We’re thrilled to kick-start Dublin City Writings this April; a series which elevates our capital city and its surroundings to muse-like status. We’ll be looking at how the city has inspired diverse and distinct voices and themes from its traditional cobbled stones and contemporary award-winning architecture, to its leafy green suburbs and rolling plains.

Each session will concentrate on a different theme and to launch the series we’re delighted to host first-time novelist Oona Frawley as she discusses her debut novel Flight – a story of four people whose journeys intersect one winter in Dublin.

Born in New York to Irish parents, Oona settled in Ireland in 1999 and, through Flight, offers a unique outsider’s insight into a Dublin of 2004.

Oona will also be joined by Lisa Coen, co-founder of Tramp Press. Lisa’s background spans from magazine production to academia where she achieved both an M.Phil and a PhD before joining the world of book publishing.

Be sure to join us on Saturday 26 April, 1-2pm

Novel Fair 2014 is only just finished and we’re already gearing up for the launch of Novel Fair 2015.
If you’re interested in submitting for next year’s competition, then do come along! We’ve invited former Novel Fair winner Daniel Seery to share his insights on what it’s like to submit, the do’s and don’ts of being a shortlisted winner and also how he scored his book deal for his debut novel A Model Partner (Liberties Press, 2014).

Eoin Purcell, Editorial Director at New Island, will also join us on the evening. He’ll be offering a different viewpoint of the Novel Fair, revealing how the Fair can enable unknown authors and afford career-making opportunities. New Island are publishers of Here in No Place by AW Timmons.

So, if you’re curious about how and when to submit but are equally interested in getting further insights and maybe even some invaluable advice, join us on Thursday 24 April at 7pm!

Want to know more?
The Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair aims to introduce up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of publishers and agents. It presents a unique opportunity to gain face time with some of the most influential people in Irish publishing, and could truly kick-start a literary career for this year’s winners.

The event was launched in 2011 and has seen the publication of an ever-growing number of novels as a direct result. Last year alone saw the publication of previous Novel Fair winners Niamh Boyce (The Herbalist), Janet E. Cameron (Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World), Ian Flitcroft (The Reluctant Cannibals) and Kevin Curran (Beatsploitation). Most recently, Daniel Seery’s A Model Partner has joined the list.

We'll be announcing details on how to submit on 24 April. The deadline for submissions is 24 October.

What is copyright and what does it allow and prevent? Is it a barrier to innovation or does it adequately protect creators' rights. The recent publication of the Copyright Review Committee's recommendations for change in Ireland and Judge Chin's decision favouring Google in the Google Books case make for interesting times in the world of copyright. If you want an understanding of where we are and where things might be heading or even just to ask some basic questions about copyright, this seminar is for you!

Samantha Holman has been CEO of the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency (ICLA) since 2001. ICLA represents authors' and publishers' rights particularly in relation to reprography. ICLA is also part of the ARROW + project providing a solution to orphan works and digitisation.Samantha is also on two national voluntary boards, the Copyright Association of Ireland and the Irish Visual Artists' Rights Organisation, the CMO for visual artists, (of which she is a founder member). In addition, she is the Irish national representative to the Executive Committee of ALAI (Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale).

For those interested in attending this course as well as the Mindshift Meet-up on the same day, we are offering the seminar at a reduced rate of €15 or €12.50 (IWC members). To avail of this special offer, please ring Brendan at 01- 872 1302. Offer ends on Tuesday April 8th.

The Irish Writers' Centre welcomes one and all to Takin the Mic. The open mic is for both experienced writers, poets and musicians to come and perform and hopefully try out new material, and also to provide a welcoming environment for new artists to come and perform their work in the company of others. The event starts at 7 pm and ends at 9. Each writer is allowed 5 minutes to perform. A number of short breaks form part of the evening. This is a BYOB event. Tea/Coffee downstairs. This is a free event though donations are greatly welcomed, suggested 5 euro.

For more information on the night—particularly if you want to perform—click here.

Novel Fair Day

The Irish Writers' Centre presents the culmination of the 3rd annual Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair Competition. The Novel Fair aims to introduce up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of publishers and agents.

Last year’s Fair was attended by representatives from Penguin Ireland, Hachette Ireland, Transworld Ireland, Picador, New Island, O’Brien Press, Lilliput Press, Liberties Press, Curtis Brown, The Book Bureau, Marianne Gunne O’Connor Literary Agency, Jonathan Williams Literary Agency and Lisa Richards Agency. For more info, click here.

Hosted by Laurence Mackin, Arts Editor of The Irish Times, this panel gathers together some of the most celebrated writers and film-makers working in Ireland to discuss the relationship between books and film and how a literary voice translates to the screen. They will also pick out their own personal favourite scenes of dialogue from film in a celebration of screenwriting as fans and not just as professionals.

The panel will include acclaimed Irish author (and film festival regular) John Connolly; British screenwriter Malcolm Campbell, who has written for Skins and Shameless, and who wrote the screenplay for What Richard Did, loosely based on Kevin Power’s novel A Bad Day in Blackrock; Irish film-maker and lecturer Pat Murphy, celebrated for her films Maeve, Anne Devlin and Nora; Irish writer-director Michael Kinirons, well known for his short film Lowland Fell, among many others; and Darren Thornton, another successful Irish writer-director who received critical acclaim for his short films Frankie and Two Hearts and the TV series Love is the Drug.

For more information, click here. The event is free but ticketed.

Litríocht na Gaeilge ar fud an Domhain

An evening of poetry and prose with leading writers and poets including Pádraig Ó Siadhail and Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh. This event is part of a conference titled 'Litríocht na Gaeilge ar fud an Domhain' (Irish language literature around the world) which will take place in Dublin from Thursday, 20–22 February 2014.

This is a free event. BYOB. For more information, click here.

Launch: Haiku, más é do thoil é! by Gabriel Rosenstock

Is é Gabriel Rosenstock údar an leabhair Haiku, más é do thoil é! atá foilsithe ag An Gúm. Mar chuid d'ócáid litríochta IMRAM atá á reáchtáil in Áras na Scríbhneoirí ar an Aoine, 21 Feabhra ar 8p.m. déanfaidh Alan Titley an saothar nua seo a sheoladh. Fáilte romhat bualadh isteach.

Gabriel Rosenstock is the author of Haiku, más é do thoil é! published by An Gúm. As part of the literary event organised by IMRAM in the centre on Friday, 21st February at 8 p.m. Alan Titley will launch this new title. You are welcome to attend.

Mindshift Professional Development Day for Writers and Illustrators of Children's Books:My Public Image as a Children's Author or Illustrator

in partnership with Children's Books Ireland

Schedule

10:30 Registration
11:00 Welcome and Plenary session concerning brand building, successful events for children, good PR and envisaging yourself as a children's writer/illustrator

1:00 Lunch (not included in fee)
2:00 Choice of Workshop
Workshop Session 1 – How to build your brand, the importance of good PR, how to attract media coverage, creating an online presence as an author/illustrator of children's books
Workshop Session 2 – Events for children, how to prepare, what to expect, what works and doesn't work when dealing with a family or child audience

4:00 Tea, coffee & networking
4:15 Feedback session: What Other supports do Children's Writers and Illustrators Need?
5:00 Close

Booking:
For morning plenary only: €25, €20 to CBI or IWC members- pay by phone only.
For the whole day (for published writers & illustrators), €60 or €50 CBI or IWC members

For more information and booking click here

The Cáca Milis Cabaret has been on the go for nearly five years now, adapting a vaudevillian format for its presentation of "a little of each of the arts." The event, originally based in Wexford, but now in Dublin too, has delivered everything from dark songsters to Burlesque babes, new drama, mime, short film and an actual "Dog Act" with live guitar-playing canine. But it has also played host to some of Ireland's foremost voices in writing, poetry and spoken word, from emerging sparklers like Sarah Maria Griffin to the venerable Mr. Colm Toibín. This anthology, edited by Helena Mulkerns and with a splendidly wild intro by Patrick McCabe, gives a sweet taste of the Cabaret's literary delights.

The book is launched by Dermot Bolger, who has also contributed a poem to the anthology – along with Emer Martin, Peter Murphy, six Welsh writers, Eoin Colfer and Susan Lanigan. The kick-off is at 7pm, and there will be music and dance to compliment the readings. For more see: www.tarapress.net or www.cacamilis.org

Join us for a Carcanet showcase at the Dublin Writers Centre with two exceptional Irish poets, Tara Bergin and Caoilinn Hughes. Travelling all the way from New Zealand and North Yorkshire, both poets will be giving a rare Dublin reading to launch their debut poetry collections on home ground. Caoilinn will read from her Patrick Kavanagh Award winning collection Gathering Evidence which traces the parallels between scientific exploration and poetic venturing: ‘Gathering the data and deciphering / inference is how I stay alive’. Whilst, Tara Bergin will be reading from This is Yarrow, a sensuous, supple debut collection with the unsettling familiarity of folklore, fairytale and dream. The event is free and all are welcome.

Caoilinn Hughes was born in Galway, Ireland. With BA and MA degrees from the Queen's University of Belfast, she moved to New Zealand and enrolled in a Ph.D. at Victoria University of Wellington. A selection of poems from her first book, Gathering Evidence (Carcanet) won the 2012 Patrick Kavanagh Award, the 2013 Cúirt New Writing Prize, the 2012 STA Travel Writing Prize and the 2013 Trócaire / Poetry Ireland Competition.

Tara Bergin was born and grew up in Dublin. She moved to England in 2002. In 2012 she completed her PhD research at Newcastle University on Ted Hughes’s translations of János Pilinszky. Her poems have appeared in New Poetries V and her debut collection This is Yarrow was published by Carcanet Press.  

The Radio was Gospel is born in Athenry among the sights and the sounds, the quirks and the traditions. The poet examines her childhood curiosity. This very powerful collection of juxtaposition of the way things should be against the way things are visits Venice, San Francisco, Spain, Salthill, the Aran Islands, the local church but mostly finds magic and secrets in the Front Garden. The certainty in paddling pools, bog fairies, yellow rose trees, sherbet dips, mass, horses and the radio; that mechanical throat in the kitchen, the ultimate escape. Then the contrasting uncertainty; the angst and confusion of growing up. This collection at times displays savage wit and then such startling beauty. At times elegant, at times brutal, a very captivating young voice in Ireland; The Radio was Gospel marks a coming of age.

On Corkscrew Hill, Stephen Murray's second collection, chronicles a journey through the contemporary landscape of a nation on its knees. As the dust settles on a country trying to pick itself up from precipice of economic annihilation, this collection examines the emotional and human cost that the recession has wrought upon the people and the landscape. From universal alcoholism to the suicide rate, from the decay of the health system to the emasculation of the Irish male, from the bankers to the builders to the politicians and back again to whatever it is that you find waiting for you on your doorstep, 'On Corkscrew Hill' asks, as we approach a century of independence, what it really means to be Irish.

Alan Jude Moore is from Dublin. Zinger is his fourth collection of poetry, following Black State Cars (2004), Lost Republics (2008) & Strasbourg (2010), all published by Salmon.

The story of The Priest's Wife plays out in the shadow of the Sugarloaf Mountain in the foothills of the Wicklow Hills. This powerful drama explores what happens when a young nun relinquishes her vocation to marry her priestly confessor. There is love, yes, but there is also tragedy and betrayal. The arrival of a younger woman making extraordinary demands presents Susan with a dilemma which causes her to come up with a proposal the sheer audacity of which may shock some readers.

PJ Connolly, formerly a trainee for the priesthood, spent many years as a school counsellor. Following his retirement he now devotes his time to writing and travel.  He lives with his wife Joan near Shankill in South County Dublin.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WRITING.IE AND DUBLIN UNESCO CITY OF LITERATURE

Have you always wanted to write a book but don’t know how to start? Then learn how from those who have done it. Developed by Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin at writing.ie and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, the National Emerging Writer Programme harnesses the experience and expertise of three of Ireland’s leading writers, Carlo Gébler, Sinéad Moriarty and Declan Hughes, and brings it via DVD and YouTube directly to those who can benefit from it most – emerging writers. Now is your chance to ask questions and meet the authors themselves. Ciaran Carty, editor of New Irish Writing and director of the Hennessy Literary awards, discusses the National Emerging Writer Programme and the tips given by the authors. Hear Carlo, Sinéad, Declan and Vanessa discuss starting to write, telling the story, revising, rewriting and overcoming obstacles.

Click here to book>>>

Emerging Authors Making a Stir with Ciaran Carty, Niamh Boyce, Gavin Corbett & Janet Cameron

IN ASSOCIATION WITH IRISH WRITERS’ CENTRE

Who are the writers who will help to shape the future literary landscape? If you’re interested in learning about new writers on the scene, how they got there and tips on how to succeed, then come meet some of our new voices. Niamh Boyce is the 2012 Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year and was shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story competition 2011, the Hennessy Literary Awards 2010, the Molly Keane Award 2010 and the WOW Award 2010. Gavin Corbett is the author of This Is the Way, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2013. Janet Cameron’s debut novel, Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World, won a place at the Irish Writers’ Centre’s inaugural Novel Fair.

Click here to book>>>>

Concerned Attentions is Knute Skinner's first book of poetry since his collected edition, Fifty Years: Poems 1957-2007, appeared from Salmon. As his readers may expect, the new work exhibits his artful and often moving, unnerving, or humourous turns of phrase. Moreover, it displays the poet's continuing fascination with the tenuous relationship between the quotidian and the otherworldly.

The Painter's House is poet and visual artist Jo Slade's fifth, full-length poetry collection. In 2010 she published a chapbook, The Artist's Room (Pighog Press, Brighton UK 2010.) In her latest collection of poems, Jo carries on the theme of "who is seen and who is seeing?" (Fanny Howe, 2010.) She traces identity through language and the image, from her experience of displacement and difference to a life lived in the presence and practice of art.

Further Thoughts in a Garden is bi-lingual poet Rita Kelly's sixth collection of poetry. This English-language collection exhibits a marked maturity. The title echoes Marvell's Thoughts in a Garden, the work winds its way to a Paradise, different from Marvell's, more of the author's time. There is a search for cultural identity in this work as well as thoughts upon cultural diversity. Like most of her poetry it is informed by the personal but the political is never far from her thoughts either even when she withdraws into happiness.

You are cordially invited to the Launch of Fateful Decisions by Enid O'Dowd. The Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald TD will launch the book on the night.

For an invitation email info@enidodowd.com
For more information visit Enid's website

Culture Night 2013 - TAKIN' THE MIC!

Doubleday Ireland invites you to a launch to celebrate the publication of The Convictions of John Delahunt by Andrew Hughes, from 6pm on Thursday 19 September at The Irish Writers' Centre. Andrew started the novel while attending a historical fiction workshop at the IWC led by the author John Givens, and is delighted to be launching it back where it all began.

A quite exceptional novel, let alone first novel. Ireland has produced more than its share of fine writers and Mr Hughes is another. The world he creates has echoes of Kafka and Orwell, all the more unsettling because it lies beneath a veneer of early Victorian respectability, and is totally convincing. It draws you in like a trap and the conclusion is unexpected and touching. C. J. SANSOM, author of Dissolution and Winter in Madrid

Earlier this year, Máire T. Robinson won first prize in the Doire Press International Chapbook Competition. Your Mixtape Unravels My Heart is the resulting book. Containing ten short stories based on song titles, it is by turns lyrical, unsettling or steeped in wry humour.

Here, a lonely Galwegian finds redemption with a rook; the mistakes of the past still haunt the present in a Japanese fishing village; a troubled woman tries to "disappear completely" in Berlin.

Sparky language and unexpected turns, pathos and humour, viciousness and emotional resonance, these are the hallmarks of Máire T. Robinson's fiction. In this collection, she follows Flannery O'Connor's dictum that stories should be 'short but deep'. This is a writer who is here to stay.
- Nuala Ní Chonchúir, author of Mother America and YOU

Join us to celebrate the launch of this debut collection. There will be wine, merriment, teeny-tiny cakes, and a SUPER FANTASTIC BONUS RAFFLE with prizes based on each story. The book will be launched by Jack Harte.

You're all welcome to join us at the Centre as we re-boot our Lunchtime Readings Series with readings by John Boyne and Kevin Maher. John and Kevin will stop by to read from their newest offerings, as well as to riff on the challenges facing new AND established writers.

John's 2006 novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, was made into an award-winning Miramax film. The novel itself won 2 Irish Book Awards, the Bisto Book of the Year, and was shortlisted or won a host of international awards. It spent more than 80 weeks at no.1 in Ireland, topped the New York Times Bestseller List, and was the bestselling book in Spain in both 2007 and 2008. Worldwide, it has sold more than 5 million copies.John’s most recent novel for adults is This House is Haunted.

Kevin Maher was born and brought up in Dublin, moving to London in 1994 to begin a career in journalism. He wrote for the Guardian, The Observer and Time Out, and was film editor of The Face until 2002, before joining The Times where, for the last eight years, he has been a feature writer, critic and columnist.The Fields has been longlisted for The Desmond Elliott Prize, which celebrates and champions the very best in debut fiction.

Who am I, and more important, where am I and why? 'This Never Was My Town' is a series of prose and poetry readings that tries to evaluate the question of how much your identity is linked with the place you live in. Is a city adding to your personality, or does location have no influence whatsoever in our globalised and interlinked world any more? A group of expat writers from Dublin and other cities in Europe (patched in via screen) will read from their works and reflect on placelore, identity and if it's really possible to make a place 'yours'.

Presented by German Dubliner Marcel Krueger together with the Irish Writers' Centre and Storymap Dublin, each reading will feature a curated story from storymap.ie with added commentary by story/filmmakers Tom and Andy, and readings from both authors at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square and authors and poets patched in via Skype from all over Europe.

With Kit Fryatt (Aberdeen), Marcel Krueger (Dublin/Berlin), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin/Nicosia), Anna Byrne (Cork/Berlin), Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway/Dublin), Stu Anderson (Edinburgh) and Au Ngog Dunc (Dublin), more tba.

Who am I, and more important, where am I and why? 'This Never Was My Town' is a series of prose and poetry readings that tries to evaluate the question of how much your identity is linked with the place you live in. Is a city adding to your personality, or does location have no influence whatsoever in our globalised and interlinked world any more? A group of expat writers from Dublin and other cities in Europe (patched in via screen) will read from their works and reflect on placelore, identity and if it's really possible to make a place 'yours'.

Presented by German Dubliner Marcel Krueger together with the Irish Writers' Centre and Storymap Dublin, each reading will feature a curated story from storymap.ie with added commentary by story/filmmakers Tom and Andy, and readings from both authors at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square and authors and poets patched in via Skype from all over Europe.

With Kit Fryatt (Aberdeen), Marcel Krueger (Dublin/Berlin), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin/Nicosia), Anna Byrne (Cork/Berlin), Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway/Dublin), Stu Anderson (Edinburgh) and Au Ngog Dunc (Dublin), more tba.

Who am I, and more important, where am I and why? 'This Never Was My Town' is a series of prose and poetry readings that tries to evaluate the question of how much your identity is linked with the place you live in. Is a city adding to your personality, or does location have no influence whatsoever in our globalised and interlinked world any more? A group of expat writers from Dublin and other cities in Europe (patched in via screen) will read from their works and reflect on placelore, identity and if it's really possible to make a place 'yours'.

Presented by German Dubliner Marcel Krueger together with the Irish Writers' Centre and Storymap Dublin, each reading will feature a curated story from storymap.ie with added commentary by story/filmmakers Tom and Andy, and readings from both authors at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square and authors and poets patched in via Skype from all over Europe.

With Kit Fryatt (Aberdeen), Marcel Krueger (Dublin/Berlin), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin/Nicosia), Anna Byrne (Cork/Berlin), Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway/Dublin), Stu Anderson (Edinburgh) and Au Ngog Dunc (Dublin), more tba.

Who am I, and more important, where am I and why? 'This Never Was My Town' is a series of prose and poetry readings that tries to evaluate the question of how much your identity is linked with the place you live in. Is a city adding to your personality, or does location have no influence whatsoever in our globalised and interlinked world any more? A group of expat writers from Dublin and other cities in Europe (patched in via screen) will read from their works and reflect on placelore, identity and if it's really possible to make a place 'yours'.

Presented by German Dubliner Marcel Krueger together with the Irish Writers' Centre and Storymap Dublin, each reading will feature a curated story from storymap.ie with added commentary by story/filmmakers Tom and Andy, and readings from both authors at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square and authors and poets patched in via Skype from all over Europe.

With Kit Fryatt (Aberdeen), Marcel Krueger (Dublin/Berlin), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin/Nicosia), Anna Byrne (Cork/Berlin), Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway/Dublin), Stu Anderson (Edinburgh) and Au Ngog Dunc (Dublin), more tba.

Doire Press launch of Galway Stories featuring readings by Mary Costello, Alan McMonagle
and Nuala Ní Chonchúir

By touching the pulse of some of the highways and byways of the city and county, the authors of these twenty stories bring into sharp relief Galway's human heart and soul in all its joy and sorrow, in all its aspirations and disappointments, in all its victories and defeats. It is, in effect, the alternate guide to this beloved city and county of ours, filling in all the gaps left out by the official guides, giving a real sense of what makes it the magical place it is to live in. Des Kenny

Galway Stories, featuring many of Ireland's best contemporary writers, takes the reader on an intimate tour of the city and county of Galway.The launch will feature readings three authors in the anthology: Mary Costello, author of 'Sleeping with a Stranger' (also featured in her collection The China Factory, Stinging Fly, 2012); Alan McMonagle, author of 'Women Drivers on Taylor's Hill (also featured in his collection, Psychotic Episodes, Arlen House, 2013); and Nuala Ní Chonchúir, author of 'Cri de Coeur' (also featured in her collection Mother America, New Island, 2012).

The collection includes stories byAileen Armstrong, Celeste Auge, Kevin Barry, Edward Boyne, Ger Burke, Mary Costello, Susan Millar DuMars, Lisa Frank, Julian Gough, James Martyn Joyce, Hugo Kelly, Mike McCormack, Alan McMonagle, Geraldine Mills, Conor Montague, Jim Mullarkey, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Moya Roddy, Olaf Tyaransen and John Walsh.

The Real Story: The Challenges Facing New Authors and the Myths Surrounding Book Deals
Paul Lynch, Gavin Corbett & Peter Murphy offer their Perspectives

For many years Gavin Corbett and Paul Lynch worked in The Sunday Tribune, both struggling through multiple rejections as they sought to get agents; until suddenly they found themselves in big London auctions that resulted in “big” deals with top literary houses.

It was in late 2011 when Gavin Corbett sparked a four-way bidding war, with a number of UK publishers vying for his second novel, This Is The Way. Such pursuing from big UK publishers are rare. However mere months later, Gavin’s colleague at the Tribune, Paul Lynch similarly found himself in a similar position, with UK publishers clambering to acquire his debut Red Sky in Morning. To much fanfare, both authors signed what might be considered "lucrative" deals.

Peter Murphy's 2009 debut novel John the Revelator (Faber & Faber) was one of the most acclaimed Irish debuts of recent years. It was nominated for the 2011 IMPAC literary award, and shortlisted for both the 2009 Costa Book Awards and the Kerry Group Fiction prize. Ealier this year, Peter's second novel Shall We Gather At The River (Faber & Faber) was greeted with similarly high acclaim. As a regular contributor to RTE's The Works, and a journalist whose work has appeared in in Rolling Stone, the Irish Times, the Sunday Business Post, and Hot Press magazine, Peter is well placed to comment on the media's role in promoting new work.

So what happens after signing the "big deal" given that success for a new writer is increasingly elusive. All too often new books are launched only to sink without a trace. Why is this? Are writers expectations unrealistic? Does the mainstream media do enough for emerging writers? And what about readers and their attitudes?

On the night, Gavin, Paul and Peter will read and compare experiences to tease out the challenges facing new writers and a sense of the climate into which they, and their novels are facing into.

Click here to book and find out more>>>>

The Italian Institute of Culture-Dublin,  Trinity College Dublin Department of Italian, Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute, Irish Writers’ Centre, cordially invite you to the event:

Claudio Magris in conversation with John Banville.
& A presentation of Blindly by Claudio Magris

The authors will be introduced by Professor Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, Head of the Department of Italian at Trinity College Dublin.To celebrate the publication in English of Italian novelist Claudio Magris’ innovative novel, Blindly, translated by Anne Milano Appel, we are pleased to present a conversation between the author and the writer John Banville.

Hailed as a masterpiece when first published in Italy, the book twists through time and space, recounting the horrors, the hopes, and the revolutions of the last century.

This event will take place in Long Room  Hub at Trinity College Dublin and will be conducted in English

All Welcome!!!
Italian Refreshments

To RSVP>>>>

Doire Press cordially invites you to the launch of Consent, a collection of poems by Kimberly Campanello. The book will be launched on the night by Evelyn Conlon. 

The dark satiric edge of these poems compels us to see eros and thanatos, submission and coercion, as entangled —so that the whole world, from its shit to its lyric shine, is compromised and complicit… Campanello has given us a post-feminist classic, undeceived and sharp as knives in a drawer.
Todd Swift, author of When All My Disappointments Came at Once (Tightrope Books)

...this collection keeps shocking the reader awake in the best possible way, in the way that makes us suddenly alert
against the malicious banality of our ad-jingle planet... These poems are a clarifying antidote to all that poison and
guff, awakening us to the horrible thrill of our existences in the way that all the freshest, coolest new writing should.
— Dave Lordan, author of Invitation to a Sacrifice (Salmon Poetry)

Click here for more information>>>>

Diane Fahey grew up in Melbourne, and has also lived in Adelaide, London and Colchester. She now lives in Clifton Springs on the Bellarine Peninsula in south-eastern Victoria. Diane's poetry features both distinctively Australian, and European settings and preoccupations. She has written individual poetry collections on Greek myths, fairy tales, and insects. The poetry of place and nature writing, with a special emphasis on birds are abiding creative concerns.

Ali Cobby Eckermann is a celebrated poet and writer. She lives in Koolunga, South Australia, where she has established an Aboriginal writer’s retreat. Ali has won several awards including First Prize in ATSI Survival Poetry competition in 2006, First Prize Dymocks Red Earth Poetry Award NT in 2008, and was Highly Commended for the Marion Eldridge Award in 2009. She has performed at prominent literary festivals in Australia and also overseas, including Ubud  Writers & Readers Festival in Bali in 2010 and Reaching the World Asia Pacific Summit in Bangkok in 2012 and has published poetry collections, verse novels and her poetic memoir, Too Afraid To Cry, is being released in 2013.

Bealtaine Writers group was formed from a series of workshops organised by Age and Opportunity at IWC and led by Eithne Strong as part of 1999 Festival.  The group chose to continue meeting here once a month and 13 years later is still going strong and includes some of the original members. As a group they write and workshop together, give readings in partnership with IWC, Poetry Ireland, National Gallery, Irish Writers' Museum, Culture Night, Amnesty International and are writers in residence at the Hugh Lane Gallery.

Music will be by award-winning  guitarist Eoin Flood.
For moe information click here>>>>

Gathering around the table these three writers will discuss their work and ponder what the concerns for different generations of writers are - do they differ over time?

This event is part of the 2013 Bealtaine Festival In keeping with theme of this year's festival; the Irish Writers' Centre will celebrate "growth, spring and positivity by focusing on the sharing of influences and experiences.

As well as at shared looking literary influences, the trio will explore how writers engage with contemporary issues from different perspectives. These are issues like the economy (the "Boom-Bust Cycle"), aging and health. Writing has proven itself to be a powerful tool with which to share experience and communicate accumulated wisdom across the generations - we hope to tap it into this rich vein. Any instance of sharing insight is all to the good, providing as it does the entire community with the perspective necessary to face up to the today's challenges.

Admission is €5. To book call the Centre on 01-8721302
Or email info@writerscentre.ie

Click here for More information and to book >>>>

UNESCO World Book Night - Sharing Literature with Free Books & A Simultaneous Global Book Launch

It is our great pleasure to invite you to another Lunchtime Reading, this time with poet Gerry Murphy.

Gerry Murphy was born in Cork in 1952. He has published seven collections of poetry, including End of Part One: New and Selected Poems (2006) and My Flirtation with International Socialism (2010). In 2008 his work was adapted for actors and musicians by Crazy Dog Audio Theatre as The People’s Republic of Gerry Murphy. He also published a volume of versions of the Polish poet Katarzyna Borun-Jagodzinska (2005).

“Murphy’s poetry is of that apparently-effortless kind that offers the pleasures of instant recognition and the consolation of certainty of touch.” 
Fiona Sampson, The Irish Times

This reading is part of a series of Lunchtime Readings at the centre. Organised in association with Poetry Ireland, these readings are a offer even the busiest of book-lovers a bite-sized opportunity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing.

Click here to find out more about this series and the authors and poets taking part>>>>

It is our great pleasure to invite you to a reading by the critically award-winning author Donal Ryan.

Donal's first novel, The Spinning Heart, co-published by The Lilliput Press and Doubleday Ireland, won both Newcomer of the Year and the overall Book of the Year at the Bord Gais Irish Book Awards 2012. Declan Hughes has praised The Spinning Heart, saying “Sometimes people say, having praised a debut novel, that they look forward to what the writer does next, as if there is always room for improvement. Given a novel as brilliantly realised as The Spinning Heart, I see no reason to look anywhere but the present. For Donal Ryan, the future is now.” (The Independent). John Boland has also praised the book, describing it as a " savagely funny, vision of a rural Ireland” that is "up-to-date in its concerns"(The Independent).

His second, The Thing About December, will be published in September 2013. Tipperary-born Donal now lives close to Limerick city with his wife and two young children.

This reading is part of a series of Lunchtime Readings at the centre. Organised in association with Poetry Ireland, these readings are a offer even the busiest of book-lovers a bite-sized opportunity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing.

Click here to find out more about this series and the authors and poets taking part>>>>

Scallta Media Launch: Other Things I Didn’t Tell By Maggie Breen
& Gathering the Dead in the Garden By John Kelly

Scallta Media cordially invites you to the launch of two new publications Other Things I Didn't Tell by Maggie Breen and Gathering the Dead in the Garden by John Kelly.

Maggie Breen, originally from Crane in Monageer, Co. Wexford, has published in The Scaldy Detail and The Stinging Fly. In this her debut collection of poetry, she delves into memories and thoughts, exploring themes of depression, dreams, loss of innocence and love. Her collection will be launched by Angela Bourke.
Maggie Breen digs deep into personal memory to unearth a vivid picture of a rural childhood, to reclaim that childhood in language, and to reinhabit with power and grace the landscape of those early years. She shines light into the darkest reaches of community and family life and celebrates the tenacity and endurance of the child self. She gives us poems rich in promise: even as she unpacks the complex baggage of a young Irishwoman determined to take the world on her own terms, she succeeds in celebrating the very blessings of that difficult path. These poems bring to mind Kavanagh’s beautiful phrase — To look on is enough / In the business of love."  Paula Meehan

John Kelly, Enniscorthy native, now living and working in North County Dublin, is a regular contributor to Wexford publications and several others including The Stony Thursday and Cyphers.
Throughout Gathering the Dead in the Garden John Kelly exhibits an uncanny ability to weave into a coherent whole the many strands of a seemingly discordant world. From the deep ecology that underlines his work, we first observe and then embrace the bright connections that are made: between interiors and exteriors, butterflies and humans, oceans and the cities, and homes and schools. John Kelly handles the lyric form deftly and confidently and is possessed of a poetic voice that is full of tonal variation and crystal-clear clarity.  Eamonn Wall

For more information see www.scalltamedia.com

Savage Solitude
Reflections of a Reluctant Loner
by Máighréad Medbh

Groundswell
New and Selected Poems
by Patrick Deeley

For more information click here>>>>

Becoming a successful author does not just depend on your writing skills, but also on your understanding of the ins and outs of the publishing process. The one-day seminar From Novice to Novelist covers various aspects of the writing and publishing process. With top industry professionals on hand to guide you, this event gives you the tools to identify a market for your writing, how to work with an editor, as well as current trends nad developments in the publishing industry. The day will feature talks with novelist Belinda McKeon, literary agent with Curtis Brown, Sheila Crowley, publisher Brendan Barrington, editor and digital publishing expert Eoin Purcell and a publicist TBC.

The day will start at 11.00am (registration is at 10.30am sharp!) and runs until 4.30pm. Tickets are €60 (€50 for Members) and can be booked by paying online or calling the Centre 01-8721302.

For more details and to book your place click here>>>>

It is our great pleasure to invite you to another Lunchtime Reading with Eugene O' Connell.

Cork native Eugene O' Connell has published a number of chapbooks, two collection of poems, One Clear Call (Bradshaw Books, 2003), and Diviner (Three Spires Press, 2009). He has also published a book of translations, Flying Blind (Southword Editions), which was volume 12 of the Cork European City of Culture Translation Series. He is editor of The Cork Literary Review.

This reading is part of a series of Lunchtime Readings at the centre. Organised in association with Poetry Ireland, these readings are a offer even the busiest of book-lovers a bite-sized opportunity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing.

Click here to find out more about this series and the authors and poets taking part>>>>

Emu Ink is Ireland's newest self publishing company aimed at helping authors to realise their dreams in seeing their work published in print and online, available worldwide - but there are many more elements to it and something brand new to the industry is coming your way! The Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan will officially launch Emu Ink.

Also speaking on the night will be Founder, Emer Cleary, Eamonn Maloney TD, award-winning Crime Writer Louise Phillips and 9-year-old Joe Prendergast who will be reading an extract from his book. It's set to be a night to remember and one where publishing takes a new and very exciting turn.

It is our great pleasure to invite you to a reading by the critically acclaimed David Park.

David's current novel The Light of Amsterdam was shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year at the 2012 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. Of this novel, Steve Davies of The Guardian has said “…the humanity of Park's writing is such that even at the most prosaic of moments, unique insights quiver into life.”
His novel The Truth Commissioner, which has been described by Joseph O’ Connor as yielding “moments of heart-shivering beauty”,  was awarded the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize.He has also received the American Ireland Literary Fund Award and a Major Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. David Park has written one collection of short stories and seven novels.

This reading is part of a series of Lunchtime Readings at the centre. Organised in association with Poetry Ireland, these readings are a offer even the busiest of book-lovers a bite-sized opportunity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing.

Click here to find out more about this series and the authors and poets taking part>>>>

Short Sharp Shocks and Chekhovs - An Evening Dedicated to the Short Story

Anton Chekhov championed the short story in the 19th Century, a literary baton picked up from the Russian master and carried forward in the 20th by Irish literary figures from Seán Ó Faoláin and Frank O'Connor to John McGahern and Mary Lavin. Irish writers have traditionally utilised this genre to record the lives and thoughts of ordinary people, their struggles and desires. The Irish Writers’ Centre is delighted to present an evening celebrating the short story with four contemporary authors maintaining that tradition: Louise M. Phillips, Jack Harte, Ferdia Lennon and Mia Gallagher. [Refreshments served and live music with historical harpist Brenda Malloy!]

Click here for more>>>>

It is our great pleasure to invite you to another Lunchtime Reading by Kathy D'Arcy.

Kathy D'Arcy is writer in residence with Cork literary organisation Tigh Fili (Poets' House).  Her first collection, Encounter, was published by Lapwing Publications in 2010, and a second, The Wild Pupil, was published by Bradshaw Books in 2012.  She currently studies and teaches Irish women's literature, runs writing workshops (www.kathydarcy.com) and works with homeless teenagers, but she originally qualified and worked as a doctor.  She is also a playwright; her plays 'Retreat' and 'This is my Constitution' have been staged in Cork, and the latter appeared recently at a Dail Eireann briefing on constitutional change.  This year she was awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary to develop her third collection. 

This reading is part of a series of Lunchtime Readings at the centre. Organised in association with Poetry Ireland, these readings are a offer even the busiest of book-lovers a bite-sized opportunity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing.

Click here to find out more about this series and the authors and poets taking part>>>>

It is our great pleasure to invite you to a reading by the critically acclaimed Selina Guinness.

Selina's memoir The Crocodile by the Door, her first novel novel, recounts the trials and tribulations of farming valuable land on the edge of Dublin at the height of the property boom. Published in 2012 by Penguin it has received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for both the 2012 Costa biography award and the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year. Selina has also edited an anthology of Irish poetry published by Bloodaxe, The New Irish Poets. 

This reading is part of a series of Lunchtime Readings at the centre. Organised in association with Poetry Ireland, these readings are a offer even the busiest of book-lovers a bite-sized opportunity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing.

Click here to find out more about this series and the authors and poets taking part>>>>

Mar chuid d’imeachtaí Sheachtain na Gaeilge, beidh Oíche Filíochta agus Ceoil ag Áras na Scríbhneoirí ar 7pm, 5 Márta 2013 le mórfhilí na Gaeilge Gabriel Rosenstock agus Aifric Mac Aodha  ag léamh dánta dá gcuid féin.
Beidh ceol traidisiúnta le ceoltóirí le Gaeilge, soláistí agus craic den scoth ann chomh maith!
Beidh an t-údar Mícheál Ó Ruairc ina fhear a’ tí.
Fáilte roimh chách!

As part of Seachtain na Gaeilge, the Irish Writers’ Centre are proud to announce an Evening of Poetry and Music, at 7pm on the 5th of March 2013, featuring poets Gabriel Rosenstock and Aifric Mac Aodha reading their work.
We will also have music with Irish-speaking musicians, light refreshments and it will be great craic!
The author Mícheál Ó Ruairc will be our MC.
All welcome!

It is our great pleasure to invite you to a reading by award-winning poet Rosemarie Rowley.

In her work as a poet and essayist, she is a pioneering voice in the fields of ecocology and women's issues -The Sea of Affliction (1987), being one of the first works in eco-feminism. To date Rosemary has published five collections and is the four time winner of the Epic award in the Scottish International Poetry Competition. Her most recent books are “Hot Cinquefoil Star” (2002) and “In Memory of Her” (2004) and (2008) both published by Rowan Tree Press, Dublin.

This reading is part of a series of Lunchtime Readings at the centre. Organised in association with Poetry Ireland, these readings are a offer even the busiest of book-lovers a bite-sized opportunity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing.

Click here to find out more about this series and the authors and poets taking part>>>>

Dedalus Press cordially invite you to their first launch event of 2013, the publication of books by Harm's Way by Conor Carville and Mysteries of the Home by Paula Meehan.

Conor Carville is currently Associate Professor in English and Creative Writing at the University of Reading. His critical work on cultural theory and Irish writing, The Ends of Ireland: Criticism, History, Subjectivity, was published in 2012. In 2006 he received the Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry.

Paula Meehan has received many awards, including the Marten Toonder Award for Literature, The Butler Literary Award for Poetry, the Denis Devlin Memorial Award and the PPI Award for Radio Drama. She has published five collections of poetry, the most recent being Painting Rain (Carcanet, 2009). Mysteries of the Home is the first generally available edition of a book originally published for UK readers only. It gathers into a single volume poems from Meehan's seminal mid-career collections, The Man who was Marked by Winter (1991) and Pillow Talk (1994).

For more information click here>>>

It is our great pleasure to invite you to a reading by the enormously prolific, and celebrated author of crime-noir fiction Ken Bruen. He is the author of the award-winning “Jack Taylor” series which have been recently adapted for a series of TV movies His novel Blitz was also adapted for the screen in 2011 starring Jason Statham, Aiden Gillen and Paddy Considine. In 2010, London Boulevard was turned into a film starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley.

Ken’s White Trilogy has recently been published and he has two more books on the way in 2013.

This reading kicks off a series of Lunchtime Readings at the centre. Organised in association with Poetry Ireland, these readings are a offer even the busiest of book-lovers a bite-sized opportunity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing.

Click here to find out more about this series and the authors and poets taking part>>>>

Dancing with Chaos—Remembering Patricia Monaghan

Kevin O'Connor, author of forthcoming biography of the artist Harry Kernoff - This is the first biography of this artist who made Dublin his home and chronicled itspeoples and vistas more than any other artist, except James Joyce whose portrait he painted - and with whose character Bloom he identified, being himself a Jewish wanderer in Dublin.

Published in hardback by Liffey Press and is lushly illustrated.

Seven Towers are delighted to announce the launch of Cut and Run in the Bronx by John Liam Shea. The novel will be launched by Helena Mulkerns.

This fluidly written, erudite, comic novel deals with the deeply serious subject of the darker side of the vast urban landscape of New York, and how one might find a moral compass to navigate and deal with the types of carnage and bloodshed that constitutes the experience of the NYPD. This is an intelligent writer, with a feel for words, with a tremendous lyrical flow, a rich humanity, and a feel for his subject.
 
Extremely funny, smooth, and well written.
Colum McCann, IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner, and author of Let the Great World Spin, 

...the funniest book since "A Confederacy of Dunces".
Author Billy Barrett calls Cut and Run in the Bronx

 John Shea is a novelist from Queens, New York His second novel, Cut and Run in the Bronx, is a comic cop thriller set in modern day New York. John Shea taught at Rice High School in Harlem for 17 years until its closing in June 2011. He is the father of Patrick, 10 years old, Caragh, 7 years old, and the husband of Sheila.

Liffey Press cordially invite you the launch of Academic Armageddon by Mary Gallagher. Across the English-speaking world a storm of words has been written about the apparently terminal decline in academic values and standards in today's colleges and universities. For many insiders, the inherent worth of Higher Education has been entirely subordinated to business objectives and market forces. Is this so? And if it is, who gains and who loses?

Academic Armageddon reports on this global storm. It explains why the more Higher Education is re--formatted along commercial rather than academic lines, the greater the risk that – eventually – the only truly 'high' or elevated thing about it will be its price.

The commercialist pressuring of academic principles has spread from the USA and the UK to Irish Higher Education. Mary Gallagher argues that – far more deeply and irreversibly than economic duress – the educational bankruptcy of the corporate model risks undoing the integrity and reputation of the 'Isle of Saints and Scholars'. Academic Armageddon provides trenchant reading for educators, students, graduates, policymakers, parents and anyone who cares about the principles and standards that colleges and universities should stand.

Belfast native, now living in Hickory, North Carolina, Adrian Rice’s publications include Muck Island (MP),co-authored with artist, Ross Wilson – collected by the Tate Gallery, and Boston Museum of Fine Arts – and The Mason’s Tongue (Abbey Press).  The Clock Flower is Rice’s much anticipated new collection. As poet-in-exile, Rice memorably muses on the new world from ‘the kingdom of porch’, but never loses sight of the people and places of home.  From moving, elegiac sonnets for a beloved H&W shipyard man, through telling meditations on life in the Carolinas, to stirring concluding poems from a ground-breaking ‘Troubles’ autobiography in verse, The Clock Flower (Moongate Publications) is a tour de force which returns Rice to prominence in contemporary Irish poetry.

“The Clock Flower demonstrates poetry's ability to be breaking news, as Rice's carefully tuned cultural antennae enable him to speak to what is past, passing, and yet to come in our fluid world.”
Richard Rankin Russell (Author of Poetry and Peace: Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, and Northern Ireland.)

Building on the acclaim of ‘When Love is Not Enough: New & Selected Poems’ (Salmon Poetry, 2010), Maurice Harmon writes with confidence and strength in this new collection. ‘Loose Connections’ shows us a man who has come through vicissitudes and now re-examines issues that have been satisfying or disturbing in the past. The strength that comes from endurance is heard in a voice that is detached but focused on particular experience: This, as one of the villanelles say, is the way we are. The idea of breakdown, of loosening connections runs like a tide through the collection. It is offset by positive values. The woman who shows her thighs in a Dublin café is celebrated in a well-known song, a ditch in Achill proliferates with flowers, horses embody qualities of endurance and grace, new lenses reveal the renewed beauty of the world, and a snow-capped mountain rises like a monstrance. Throughout the collection a style, lively, nuanced, and humane, records the drama of existence.

It is our great pleasure to invite you to hear a reading by award-winning author Keith Ridgway. His most recent novel, Hawthorn & Child, published by Granta has been met with huge acclaim. His novella, Horses, was published by Faber & Faber in 1997, and was followed in 1998 by the novel The Long Falling (which was awarded both the Prix femina étranger and Prix du premier roman étranger in France). He won the Rooney Prize for Irish literature in 2001 for his short story collection Standard Time. His novel The Parts followed in 2005, and Animals in 2007. His stories have appeared in various anthologies and periodicals in Ireland, Britain and the United States, including The New Yorker, Dublin Review, Zoetrope, and Granta.

Ridgway doesn't so much as redraw the map as show us what was there in the first place.He writes as though he has uncovered something, not invented it; as though these tales, so completely new, have been around for a long time.
Anne Enright

The Lunchtime Readings are a FREE bite-sized oportuninity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing and will run on Fridays throughout October and November.

For more information please click here>>>>

Beidh Oíche Ómóis don mhórfhile Máire Mhac an tSaoi ina ndéanfar a saol agus a saothar filíochta a cheiliúradh ar siúl in Áras na Scríbhneoirí.

Is é seo a leanas an painéal de na haoichainteoirí a bheidh i láthair:
- An Dr Louis de Paor, An Coláiste Ollscoile, Gaillimh.
- Biddy Jenkinson, file, úrscéalaí, drámadóir.
- Cathal Ó Searcaigh, file agus drámadóir.
- An Dr Máire Ní Annracháin, An Coláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath.
- An Dr Regina Uí Chollatáin, An Coláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath.
- Gabriel Rosenstock, file, scríbhneoir, drámadóir.
- Aifric Mac Aodha, file agus eagarthóir ‘Comhar’
- An Dr Máirín Nic Eoin, Coláiste Phádraig, Droim Conrach.
- An Dr Ríona Ní Fhrighil, Coláiste Phádraig, Droim Conrach.
- Liz O' Droma, múinteoir agus dlúthchara.

Verona Pentony is a poet with a love of humanity and of nature. She experienced life on a farm from her childhood days in north Co. Dublin and from summer holidays in Leitrim.  Born the middle child of six children, she was educated as a boarder in the Ursuline Convent, Sligo and later at Loretto Abbey, Rathfarnham.  
Verona has an outgoing bubbly personality; she is a true people person at heart. She has a keen interest in travel, and due to the nature of the family business had the opportunity to travel abroad from an early age. 
Reflections from the Heart is her first published collection of poetry. She wrote Love Me, For Me while on holiday in Los Suenos, Costa Rica. Footsteps on Sandpiper Beach was written in Stuart, Florida, USA. She also wrote whilst in London and more recently in Dublin. She is inspired by the experiences of life – her own and other peoples’

I rith na seachtaine dar tús 6 Samhain beidh Liam Mac Cóil agus Darach Ó Scolaí ag léamh a saothar. Beidh siad ag léamh in Áras na Scríbhneoirí ar 6 Samhain, ar an 7 Samhain in Ionad Ealaíon Bhéal an Átha agus ar an 8 Samhain i Leabharlann na Ceathrú Rua. Tosóidh na léamhanna in Áras na Scríbhneoirí ag 7.30 p.m, ag 7.30 in Ionad Ealaíon Bhéal an Átha, agus ag 6.30pm i Leabharlann na Ceathrú Rua.

This week's Peregrine offering will see readings from Liam Mac Cóil and Darach Ó Scolaí. The writers will be at the Irish Writers' Centre on Tuesday, November 6th. The peregrination will continue to Ballina on Wednesday November 7th and Leabharlann na Ceathrú Rua in Co. Galway on November 8th. The IWC reading will commence at 7.30 p.m. with the reading in Ballina Arts Centre commencing at 7.00pm and in Carraroe Library at 6.30 p.m.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

It is our great pleasure to invite you to hear a reading by Dublin-born author Sinéad Moriarty, whose last three novels all went straight in at number 1 in the Irish charts. Her first novel The Baby Trail depicting a couple struggling to conceive hit a nerve in publishing circles and was snapped up by Penguin Publishing in the UK and Ireland and has been translated into twenty-five languages. Her second book A Perfect Match has been published worldwide. The US version of A Perfect Match is called The Right Fit. Her third novel  From Here to Maternity is the final instalment of the Emma and James trilogy. Her fourth book In My Sister’s Shoes is about two sisters who help save each other. Her fifth book was Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Her sixth book, Pieces of my Heart, about a family dealing with a terrible crisis, went straight in at number 1 in the Irish charts and was nominated for an Irish Book Award.
Her seventh book Me and My Sisters went straight in at number 1 in the Irish charts and remained in the top five for 13 weeks. It was also nominated for an Irish Book Award.
Her eighth novel, This Child of Mine also went straight in at number 1 in the Irish charts.

The Lunchtime Readings are a FREE bite-sized oportuninity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing and will run on Fridays throughout October and November.

For more information please click here>>>>

Morgan Llywelyn and Mike McCormack will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to the Anam Cara, Eyeries, Cork and then to the Dingle Bookshop, Kerry

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

It is our great pleasure to invite you to hear writer and director Gerard Stembridge. Born in Limerick and having worked as a secondary school teacher for five years Gerard give it all up to pursue his dream of working as a writer and director. He wrote the screenplay for Ordinary Decent Criminal (starring Kevin Spacey Linda Fiorentino) and co-wrote Nora, a film about James Joyce and Nora Barnacle Starring Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch. He has directed the films Guiltrip, Black Day at Black Rock, Alarm and About Adam. As a television producer he bought us Nitehawks and with the late Dermot Morgan he was the driving force behind the radio series Scrap Saturday.

Gerard has written three novels, According to Luke (2006), Counting Down (2010), with his  third novel Unspoken having been launched earlier this year. This novels has been described in The Irish Times, as:
  “…a cheerfully rambling tale, with an old-fashioned tone that focuses on five Limerick children – born on the same day in 1959 – and their families. Reading it is a little like watching Reeling in the Years.”

The Lunchtime Readings are a FREE bite-sized oportuninity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing and will run on Fridays throughout October and November.

For more information please click here>>>>

Declan Burke and Arlene Hunt will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to the Tramore Library, Waterford and then to the Triskel Christchurch, Cork.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

The Migrant Writers & Performing Artists Ireland in partnership with New Communities Partnership invites you the launch of Embers of Words a new anthology of migrant poetry from poets from all over the world living in Ireland.

Sixteen migrant capture many themes, such as the exilic condition, migration, the journey of self -discovery, oppression, the demand of double identity, conflict and violence.

Contributors to the anthology come from various national and ethnic backgrounds, and they include: Russian, Nigerian, Indian, Italian, Irish British, Congolese, Polish, Malaysian, Zimbabwean, Indian and Iraqi among others.   

Embers of Words, illuminates the thoughts, feelings, personal experiences and longings of migrant poets from  different backgrounds in a new Ireland. The poems are written in a variety of imaginative and scintillating styles that enrich contemporary Irish poetry.

It is our great pleasure to invite you to a reading by Kathleen MacMahon, author of the highly acclaimed This Is How It Ends. This reading kicks off another series of Lunchtime Readings at the cente. Kathleen is a writer and a journalist with Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE and This Is How It Ends is her first novel. It became the sensation of London Book Fair in April 2011 when it was bought by the Little, Brown Book Group in the UK and Grand Central Publishing in the US. Since then, translation rights have been sold for twenty-five languages.

Kathleen MacMahon writes with a confidence and ease and with an unerring sense of timing. ... There are no cardboard characters here; everyone is three-dimensional and presented with their flaws well in evidence. They may annoy you from time to time, but then isn’t that what happens in real life too?"
Maeve Binchy, author in Irish Times Review

The Lunchtime Readings are a FREE bite-sized oportuninity to experience the best in contemporary Irish writing and will run on Fridays throughout October and November.

For more information please click here>>>>

Launch of New & Selected by PATRICK CHAPMAN and the debut collection from DAVID McLOGHLIN

Paul Murray and Val Mulkerns will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to the City Library, Kilkenny and then to the Church of Ireland, Portumna , Galway.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Karen Gillece and Sean O' Reilly will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to the Yeats Memorial Building, Sligo and then to Ballymahon Library, Longford Church.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Cló Iar Chonnacht invite you to the launch of The Colours of Man, A collection of twenty-six stories by acclaimed Irish novelist Micheál Ó Conghaile.  From ‘Death at a Funeral’ to ‘The Man Who Exploded’ to ‘The Stolen Answer Bag’, Ó Conghaile has created a world where stress, worry, irrationality – and wit – abound. In his inimitable style, Ó Conghaile explores self-identity and man’s raison d’être. The collection will be launced by Dermot Healy prior to the opeining of our Peregrine Readings series.

‘Powerful, artistic, articulate writing…if good short story writing was lagging in recent times this should awaken a crowd from their slumber!’ – Books Ireland  

Cló Iar-Chonnacht will also announce the translators of Máirtín Ó Cadhain's classic novel Cré na Cille. (Churchyard Clay) first published in 1947. Recognised almost immediately as a classic, Cré Na Cille is the darkly humourous tale, portraying the intense jealousy and hatred between two sisters, Caitríona and Nell which worsens with age and continues into the afterlife.

Dermot Healy and Cláir Ní Aonghusa will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, kicking off our Autumn series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to the County Library Longford and then to the County Library in Cavan.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

100 Thousand Poets for Change

700 events happening in over 100 countries as part of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change Global Event

Poetry and peace gatherings are planned in Kabul & Jalalabad in Afghanistan while in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt, poets, musicians and mimes will perform in public spaces and theatres. Week long festivals are taking place in Jamaica and Greece and events are happening all over the US where the movement originated. An Occupy Wall Street poetry group will kickoff a weekend of events in New York City with 25 events planned for San Francisco where readers include former US laureate Robert Hass. All events will be live streamed here.

Readers include Noel Duffy, Iggy Mc Govern & Nell Regan with music from folk group 'The Pigeons', Mary Barnecutt, Max Greenwood & guests.

In his second collection of short stories, Mike McCormack joins head and heart in a series of tales which weave a fluid vision of a world morphing between the real and the hyperreal. In twelve stories McCormack's characters find themselves trying to hold onto their identities in a world where love is too often and too easily obscured.

From Scattered Seed: Readings and Conversation

Poetry, prose and conversation with the audience from award-winning Australian writers Andy Kissane, Alex Skovron, Alison Wong and Robyn Rowland, growing out of Irish, Polish-Jewish, Chinese and New Zealand soils, addressing that essential issue of where we belong, where we fit.

The tour of From Scattered Seed is supported by the Australian Embassy Ireland.

For more information about the poets click here>>>>

Salmon Poetry Launch of collections by Anne Fitzgerald, Michael Heffernan
and Thomas Lynch

The Irish Writers Centre in association with the Ireland  Japan Association and Poetry Ireland presents the launch of The Japanese Effect in Contemporary Irish Poetry by Irene De Angelis.  

As part of the event the author will give a brief talk about the book.

For more information click here>>>>

Windows Publications are celebrating 20 years of publishing emerging and established writers. To mark the occasion  editors: Heather Brett  and Noel Monahan are publishing a special Anthology with poems from many of Ireland’s major poets. The Anthology will be launched in The Irish Centre with readings by Iggy McGovern, Philip Casey, Elaine ni Chuilleanáin, Gerard Smyth, Alan Jude Moore, Joe Woods, Macdara Woods and many more.

For over 3 years, photographer Heike Thiele and writer Winifred McNulty have captured images and stories from the last traditional shops in the North West of Ireland. Their journey across Donegal, Leitrim, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Sligo and Cavan has taken them through an Aladdin’s Cave of drapery and hardware, to abandoned creameries and shops where empty shelves are filled only with the stories of different times.

Based on a series of highly successful exhibitions across the North West, this book is a highly visual record of the stories of changing face of rural Ireland.

The Irish Writers' Centre is hosting an information day on publishing. The day will feature talks from industry experts and will offer the opportunity to pose questions to the speakers.

The day will feature talks with: Novelist, Arlene Hunt; Editorial Director with Hachette Ireland, Ciara Doorley; Publicity Director of Penguin Ireland, Cliona Lewis; Literary Agent with Walsh Communications, Emma Walsh; and CEO of ePub Direct, Gareth Cuddy.

The day will start at 11.00am and run until 4.30pm. To find out more information click here>>>

The Silent Notes – Seán Ó Ríordáin comes to the Dublin Writers Museum
Taispeántas bunaithe ar fhilíocht Sheáin Uí Ríordáin i Músaem na Scríbhneoirí, BÁC

A unique exhibition based on the poetry of Seán Ó Ríordáin is coming to the Dublin Writers Museum in July. The writer and poet, Liam Ó Muirthile, will launch the exhibition, Nótaí Ciúnais (The Silent Notes), by the Aran Islands’ artist, Seán Ó Flaithearta. The opening event on Thursday, the 5th of July at 7.00 p.m., is being run in association with the Irish Writers Centre as part of a series of readings celebrating Irish-language literature. The exhibition was commissioned by the publishing house, Cló Iar-Chonnacht, for the book, Seán Ó Ríordáin: Na Dánta, (CIC, 2011), published by the Connemara-based company in 2011.

Beidh deis ag muintir na hardchathrach taispeántas fíorspeisialta bunaithe ar fhilíocht Sheáin Uí Ríordáin a fheiceáil i Músaem na Scríbhneoirí i mí Iúil.  Seolfaidh an scríbhneoir agus file, Liam Ó Muirthile, an taispeántas, Nótaí Ciúnais, leis an ealaíontóir Árannach, Seán Ó Flaithearta, ag ócáid sa Dublin Writers Museum, 18 Cearnóg Parnell, Baile Átha Cliath, ar an Déardaoin, 5 Iúil ag 7.00 i.n.

Tá an ócáid á reáchtáil i gcomhair le hÁras na Scríbhneoirí mar chuid de shraith imeachtaí ag ceiliúradh litríocht na Gaeilge. Beidh deis ag an bpobal na pictiúir a fheiceáil sa Dublin Writers Museum ar feadh tréimhse míosa.

The book will be launched by his Excellency, Debashish Chakravarti, Ambassador of India

Sudeep Sen is widely recognised as a major new generation voice in world literature and “one of the finest younger English-language poets in the international literary scene” (BBC Radio). He is “fascinated not just by language but the possibilities of language” (Scotland on Sunday). He is the director of the Delhi International Literary Festival, editorial director of Aark Arts publishers, and editor of the leading international magazine Atlas. www.atlasaarkarts.net

Janet Pierce is a leading Irish artist who had her first solo exhibition in the Everhart Museum, Pennsylvania in 1973 and after four years in America she moved to Ireland where she has since lived and worked. She has won numerous awards, recently including three from Culture Ireland (2007/10), Banff Residency Award Canada (2010), Sanskriti Foundation New Delhi (2003), Fundaction Valpairiso Spain (2002) and has achieved the major award of member of the Aosdana for her life time achievement in Ireland. She exhibits in many galleries throughout Ireland, her main gallery being the Taylor Galleries in Dublin.

To celebrate the launch of Volume II of our Broadsheet The Mews,  Airfield  Writers are holding an open-mic  night at 8.p.m.
Bring your poem/flash fiction, no longer than  2 minutes. Doors open at 7.30p.m.

Admission  €5 includes a glass of wine and a copy of The Mews. If you would like to perform please be prompt to sign in from 7.30.

111 Writers, 28 Hours, One Venue!!!

The Irish Writers’ Centre will attempt to make history this Bloomsday by claiming the Guinness World Record for ‘Most Authors Reading Consecutively From Their Own Books’.

Senator David Norris will open proceedings in the Irish Writers’ Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin, at 10am on Friday, June 15th and the first reader will be best-selling novelist, John Boyne.  The readings, of 15 minutes each will run for 28 hours, all through the night, culminating at 2pm on Bloomsday. The current record of 75 is held by the Berlin International Literature Festival.

The readings will be open to the public and the worldwide audience can join in too, as the whole event will be streamed live on the Irish Writers’ Centre website.  There will be a broad range of texts and tastes, and audience members are invited to stay all night and cheer on the writers reading into the small hours.

T o view the schedule of readings, click here>>>

Launch of Obscure Classics of English Progressive Rock by Quincy R. Lehr

Obscure Classics of English Progressive Rock, Quincy R. Lehr’s first collection of poems since 2008’s critically acclaimed Across the Grid of Streets,  extends and subtly alters that volume’s vision. By turns witty and serious, gentle and acerbic, concise and expansive, this volume is a deeply personal collection, drawing both on Lehr’s years in Ireland and in Brooklyn. Obscure Classics of English Progressive Rock confirms its author’s stature as an important up-and-coming American poet.

―Gifted with truly biting wit, Quincy R. Lehr is equal parts Beau Brummel and Jacques Brel, Lord Byron and John Dryden, Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce. He is an Augustan satirist, of both the Roman and British varieties, with the dash and thrust of a Turkish corsair out for blood. Lehr’s verse amuses, stirs, and wounds all at once. His addictive stanzas—ironic, sophisticated, precise and profoundly moral, always venomous but buoyed by wisdom—serve as splendid and welcome antidotes to the suffocating naivety, sameness, and self-indulgence of so much American poetry. With a Luciferian glint in his eyes, he pierces everyday pieties and commonplace pompousness with a well-honed blade!‖ – Ernest Hilbert

Quincy R. Lehr was born in Oklahoma City, and he lives in Brooklyn, where he teaches history. His poems, criticism, and essays have appeared in numerous journals in North America, Europe, and Australia. He is the associate editor of The Raintown Review, and his first book, Across the Grid of Streets  , appeared in 2008.

Launch: What's Not Said by James Martin Joyce,
In Castlewood: An Ghaoth Aduaidh by Colette Nic Aodha,
& Snow Shoes by Eileen Casey

Dublin Writers Festival 2012

Reading Stories: Dubravka Ugres?ic on Too Loud a Solitude by Bohimil Hrabal

In the return of this popular festival strand, two contemporary authors choose a favourite literary work (or works) that have inspired or influenced their own writing and reading. Join them for these intimate and engaging conversations as they celebrate and explore their treasured texts.

In the second event, Croatian-born novelist, essayist and scholar Dubravka Ugrešić elects the suitably themed short novel, Too Loud a Solitude, by the late great Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. A Kafkaesque tale of one man’s resistance to a totalitarian regime, this darkly comic and eccentric romp celebrates the indestructibility – against censorship and oppression – of the written word.

*To participate in these events please read the selected book in advance of the event. Capacity is limited to 50. Books are available for sale from The Gutter Bookshop (our dedicated Festival Bookseller) located on Cow’s Lane in Temple Bar.

Launch of The Lucky Star of Hidden Things by Aifric McGlinchey
and Home More or Less by Paul Casey

Irish-born Afric McGlinchey grew up in various countries in Africa, returning to Cork in 1999. Afric is a Hennessy Award winner and is a poetry reviewer for Southword and Sabotage. She also reviews books for the Irish Examiner and is an editor and online poetry tutor at www.africmcglinchey.com.

Her debut collection, The Lucky Star of Hidden Things, is published by Salmon.

Cork poet Paul Casey grew up between Ireland and Africa, living over thirty years abroad and working in multimedia, teaching and film. Paul’s chapbook of longer poems It’s Not all Bad (Heaventree Press) was published in 2009 and his poetry-film The Lammas Hireling (after the poem by Ian Duhig), premiered at Berlin’s Zebra Poetry-Film festival 2010.

He is the founder and organiser of the Ó Bhéal weekly reading series in Cork His debut collection home more or less is published by Salmon.

Best known for his dark, satirical poems, Kevin Higgins published his first book review in The Galway Advertiser in June 1999. Reading Mentioning the War, it becomes obvious that Higgins is not like other critics. An enthusiastic advocate for the work of the new generation of poets who have emerged from Ireland’s thriving live poetry scene; he is also a merciless opponent of hypocrisy and pretentiousness wherever he finds it. His writing is overtly political in a way that draws comparison with George Orwell – the subject of two extended essays here. It would be impossible to agree with everything in this book; it is a book which often disagrees with itself. But on subjects as diverse as socialist poetry and neoconservatism, funding for the arts and the anti-war movement, Higgins informs, infuriates and entertains, as any good critic should. 

The book will be launched by Clare Daly T.D. For more info click here>>>>

The next Lonely Voice Short Story readings will take place on Thursday, 31st April, where the four short-listed writers, will read from their winning stories. The readers will be selected anonymously by a guest judge.

For details of the ongoing Lonely Voice competition and past winner click here>>>>

'Ah, it’s a long story. Let’s just say that I’m temporarily missing the use of my hands.'

Arthur Casey wakes with the mother of all hangovers, a scrap-book glued to his left hand and a vase stuck on his right. He is trapped. In more ways than one. 
This is how it all began...

There will be two performances of the play 'The One We Left Behind' on Wednesday the 23rd of May and on Friday the 25th of May in the Irish Writers' Centre. Admission is free so why not come along and prepare to be entertained. 

The One We Left Behind
Written and directed by Daniel Seery
Performed by Anthony Seery

Poetry Ireland Introductions Reading

The Poetry Ireland Introductions Series, offering a showcase reading to poets working towards a first collection (or with a first collection already published), this evening features Michael J Whelan, Doireann Ní Ghríofa,  Kevin Graham and Patrick Toland.

T: 01 6789815 / 8721302
E: info@poetryireland.ie
poetryireland.ie

'Ah, it’s a long story. Let’s just say that I’m temporarily missing the use of my hands.'

Arthur Casey wakes with the mother of all hangovers, a scrap-book glued to his left hand and a vase stuck on his right. He is trapped. In more ways than one. 
This is how it all began...

There will be two performances of the play 'The One We Left Behind' on Wednesday the 23rd of May and on Friday the 25th of May in the Irish Writers' Centre. Admission is free so why not come along and prepare to be entertained. 

The One We Left Behind
Written and directed by Daniel Seery
Performed by Anthony Seery

Poetry Ireland Introductions Reading

The Poetry Ireland Introductions Series, offering a showcase reading to poets working towards a first collection (or with a first collection already published), this evening features Derek Coyle, Cal Doyle, Gerry Galvin and Judy Russell.

Don't miss the second in the series - on 24 May - with  Michael J Whelan, Doireann Ní Ghríofa,  Kevin Graham and Patrick Toland.

 The Lithuanian Association of Writers, the Lithuanian Club of Writers, and the Lithuanian Association in Ireland invites you to an evening of readings and talks at the Irish Writers' Centre. These meetings will be bilingual: Lithuanian and English and all are welcome!

This year we will be visited by:
Poet, essayist, translator Marcelijus Martinaitis
Poet, translator, Chairman of Lithuanian Writers Union Antanas A. Jonynas
Poetess, play writer, actress Daiva Čepauskaitė
Poetess, translator Laima Vincė Sruoginis

We are delighted to present a very special event in conjunction with the Bulgarian Embassy. The poet, singer/songwriter, artist, Svetla Georgieva will give a concert of her own songs, accompanied by flautist Kristian Simeonov. Svetla has given her concert all over Europe and further afield.

Svetla Georgieva is an author of poetry and fiction. Among her publications are the volumes of poetry “A She-Wolf in the Temple”, “Non-Drunken Sea”, “Stars and Weeds”, as well as numerous short stories in collections and in the press.

For more about Svetla Georgieva, click here>>>>

The book explores new research that film director and author Gabriel Murray has discovered while writing a new screenplay on Bram Stoker. In the process he has discovered a wealth of fascinating new facts. 
For more information visit  www.bramstokerestate.com

Presentation by Tom Scott, President of the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club, of a new portrait of Bram Stoker by Aidan Hickey, to the Irish Writers’ Centre.

Bram Stoker - The Dublin Years

Dr Thomas Ryan, PPRHA - Bram Stoker and his interest in art
Professor Davis Coakley, TCD - Bram Stoker and his contemporaries in Trinity
Mr Dacre Stoker (great grand nephew of Bram Stoker) - A glimpse at The lost journal of Bram Stoker

This event is free, however places are limited and must therefore be booked in advance. Reservations must be made by 4th April. You may do so by email or by telephone (01-8721302)

The book titled Co-mediation: using a psychological, paired approach to resolving conflict looks at the emerging and rapidly expanding new area of mediation. It focuses on the less well known process of co-mediation which according to its editor, Monica Hanaway, explores ‘ how using a co-mediation model brings a unique and valuable element to the mediation process.

This collection features contributions by authors: Monica Hanaway, Tricia Hayes, Judith McKimm-Vorderwinkler, Diana Mitchell, Mary Lou O’Kennedy, Phil O’Hehir, Paul Randolph and Jamie Reed

Irish Writers' Union A.G.M. and Open Day for Writers

Denise Blake will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

For more information click here>>>>

Glenn Patterson, Lucille Redmond, James Ryan will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to Longford and Cavan.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Mary Costello will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

For more information click here>>>>

Ita Daly, Frank Ronan, Peter Cunningham will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to Anam Cara Retreat and Triskel Christchurch

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Paul Perry will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

For more information click here>>>>

I rith na seachtaine dar tús 13 Márta beidh Catherine Foley, Brian Ó Dochartaí agus Ré Ó' Laighléis ag léamh a saothar. Beidh siad ag léamh in Áras na Scríbhneoirí ar 22 Márta, ar an 14 Márta in Ionad Deirbhile: Ionad oidhreachta na hEachleime agus ar an 15 Márta i Leabharlann na Ceathrú Rua. Tosóidh na léamhanna in Áras na Scríbhneoirí ag 7.30 p.m., i Leabharlann na Ceathrú Rua agus in Ionad Deirbhile ag 6.30 p.m. a thosóidh siad.

This week's Peregrine offering will see readings from Catherine Foley, Brian Ó Dochartaí and Ré Ó' Laighléis. All three will be at the Irish Writers' Centre on Tuesday, March 13th. The peregrination will continue to Mayo on Wednesday March 14th and Leabharlann na Ceathrú Rua in Co. Galway on March 15th. The IWC reading will commence at 7.30 p.m. and the readings at Ionad Deirbhile and Leabharlann na Ceathrú Rua at 6.30 p.m.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Anne Sharpe will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

First Dublin Performance!

Free event, donations to RUHAMA appreciated Ruhama-Supporting women affected by prostitution and trafficking www.Ruhama.ie

Catch the Moon is a poetry ensemble of four contemporary poets – Jane Clarke, Kathy D’Arcy, Shirley McClure and Tina Pisco – and one talented traditional harper, Anja Bakker. Theypresent a performance of poetry and music which flows between their unique voices, addressing a range of themes: from love and sex to loss and death; from yoga and shopping to food and sensuality.

For more information about Catch the Moon and this event click here>>>>

Eoin McNamee, Órfhlaith Foyle will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to the George Bernard Shaw Theatre, Carlow and the Church of Ireland, Portumna , Galway.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

The Ink Slingers Creative Writing Hour takes place every Saturday at the Irish Writers' Centre. It is a free creative writing session that is organised and led by the Centre's voluntary arts administrators. The hour includes writing exercises and prompts to get ideas flowing. It is open to everyone and is suitable for all levels of experience. Sarah Griffin is currently hosting the Ink Slingers Creative Writing Hour.

*Please note that this weeks workshop will be taking place at 1.30pm in Teachers' Club (36 Parnell Square West - Opposite the Rotunda)

The Phoenix Convention - or P-CON for short - is a Science Fiction and Fantasy convention with a literary focus, or a literary convention with a Science Fiction and Fantasy focus.We are pleased to announce that P-CON IX convention will have two Guests of Honour, writer Robert Rankin and comics creator Bryan Talbot, as well as a number of other guests. The convention features a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, and likely topics of discussion include tyhe dangers of writing Science Fiction by mistake, how Sherlock Holmes invented fan culture, why eBooks aren’t the end of literature, and the difficulty of translating Harry Potter books into Irish, and much else besides, both serious and light-hearted.

Cost: €20 per Person
For more information click here>>>>

Geraldine Mitchell will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 2nd February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

For more information click here>>>>

Christine Dwyer Hickey, Chris Binchy, Ed O' Loughlin will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to Sligo Yeats Memorial Building and Ballymahon Library, Co. Longford

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Shane Connaughton will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

For more information click here>>>>

Ulick O' Connor, Geraldine Mills, Ferdia MacAnna will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, kicking off our series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to the County Library and Boyle Library in Roscommon.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Celebrate the work and memory of Pearse Hutchinson

Paul Grattan will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

For more information click here>>>>

Poetry by: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Doris Kareva, Kauksi Ülle, Ülar Ploom and Triin Soomets
Music by: Helena Tulve, Tatjana Kozlova, Galina Grigorjeva, Mirjam Tally, Andrus Kallastu, Jane O'Leary and John Buckley

Ensemble Resonabilis (Estonia):
Iris Oja (voice)
Kristi Mühling (kannel)
Tarmo Johannes (flute)
Aare Tammesalu (violoncello)

Paul Murray will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

To read our Q&A with Paul Murray click here>>>>
For more information click here>>>>

On November 24th we will be hosting a night celebrating Frank X. Buckley and his collection along with an abundance of exclusive guests from artistic and literary circles. The evening will begin with a screening of an RTE documentary Positively Frank. The evening will proceed with tributes from artists and readings from the winners of our Frank X Buckley Poetry and Flash Fiction Competition

For more details about the night's proceedings and to find out the winners of our competition click here>>>>

Léamhanna Peregrine le Mícheál Ó Conghaile agus Jackie Mac Donncha
&
Seolfar duanaire de nualitríocht na Gaeilge dar teideal Twisted Truths*

Dé Máirt 22 Samhain ag Áras na Scríbhneoirí, 19 Cearnóg Pharnell, Baile Átha Cliath 7.30pm
Léamhanna le Mícheál Ó Conghaile agus Jackie Mac Donncha (Mícheál Ó Ruairc - Fear an Tí )

*Seolfar duanaire de nualitríocht na Gaeilge dar teideal Twisted Truths ag 6.00 p.m. in Áras na Scríbhneoirí ar 22 Samhain roimh na Léamhanna Peregrine.

This October and November a series of Lunchtime Readings will take place in the Irish Writers' Centre in association with Poetry Ireland. Each Friday at 1pm we will be alternating between prose and poetry readings, offering audiences the chance to experience wide-ranging talent. Next up is author Mike McCormack.

For more information click here>>>

Órfhlaith Foyle and Nuala Ní Chonchúir Showcase Reading

ARLEN HOUSE & SALMON POETRY warmly invite you to celebrate the launch of three beautiful books and enjoy a showcase reading by Órfhlaith Foyle and Nuala Ní Chonchúir who will read from their latest short fiction collections from Arlen House Somewhere in Minnesota and To the World of Men, Welcome (expanded ed.) Nuala will also read from her poetry collection The Juno Charm (Salmon)

For more information click here>>>>

Marita Conlon-McKenna, Conor Kostick and Mary Rose Callaghan will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre as part of a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to Lanesborough Library, Longford and The Sligo Yeats Memorial Building, Sligo.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Leland Bardwell, Lee Dunne and Fred Johnston will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre as part of a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to Tramore Library, Waterford and The Triskel Arts Centre, Cork.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

The next Lonely Voice Short Story readings will take place on Wednesday, 26th October, where the four short-listed writers, will read from their winning stories. The readers will be selected anonymously by a guest judge.

For details of the ongoing Lonely Voice competition and past winner click here>>>>

Deirdre Purcell, Martin Malone and Michael J. Farrell will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre as part of a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to Limerick City Library and The Triskel Arts Centre, Cork.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

An evening of song, poetry, prose and performance at the Irish Writers' Centre, October 23rd @ 8pm. For more information or to perform please email thefloorshowiwc@gmail.com.

Opening Night of the Peregrine Reading Series:
with Thomas Kilroy, James Lawless and Evelyn Conlon

Thomas Kilroy, James Lawless and Evelyn Conlon will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, kicking off our series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to Sligo Yeats Memorial Building and to Granard Library, Longford.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>>

Poetry Ireland is delighted to annouce this years date for All-Ireland Poetry Day. This coming 6 October, a poetry reading can be found in almost every county across the island. Needless to say, we will be marking the day here at The Irish Writers' Centre with some wonderful readings too. More details will follow shortly.

To find out more about events taking place near you click here. For contact details or any other information about the events on 6 October, email info@poetryireland.ie

Translations, Perversions, Appropriations & Inventions: A reading by Trevor Joyce

Seolfaidh Máire Uí Mhaicín cnuasach nua filíochta le Pádraig Breandán Ó Laighin, Ní Iontas go bhFuil an Spideog ag Gearán: Dánta i nGaeilge Poèmes en irlandais (comhfhoilsithe ag Coiscéim agus Éditions de Lis), ag Cúirt Fhilíochta an Fhómhair. Léifidh na filí seo a leanas dánta as cnuasaigh dá gcuid féin ag an ócáid freisin: Seán Hutton, Caitríona Ní Chléirchín, Colette Nic Aodha, Ciarán Ó Coigligh, Tadhg Ó Dúshláine, agus Mícheál Ó hUanacháin. Beidh micreafón oscailte ag an deireadh d’aon fhile gur mhaith léi nó leis dán i nGaeilge a chur faoi bhráid na Cúirte. Máiréad Uí Dhomhnaill a bheidh sa chathaoir. Fáilte roimh chách.

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

The Flight of a Magpie published by Pyramid of Light Press will be launched at the Irish Writer’s Centre at 7.30pm, Thursday August 11th. The Flight of a Magpie is the story of Irish bus driver Billy Costine’s 50-year passion for Newcastle United. The book follows Billy’s life as a cutter for Waterford Crystal in the 1970s and ‘80s, through redundancy in the 1990s and 2000s to his new job as a Bus Éireann driver, during which his passion for his beloved Magpies remained the one constant in a sea of flux.

For more information click here and to purchase The Flight of a Magpie, click here.

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A free and open evening of song, poetry, prose and performance at the Irish Writers' Centre, July 31st @ 8pm. For more information or to perform please email thefloorshowiwc@gmail.com.

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

A Titter of Wit includes selections of work by Irish writers such as O' Casey, Wilde, Behan, Beckett and Joyce and is performed by versatile and professional actors. It is a humorous journey through drama and song that is both entertaining and educational. This fast moving show lasts just 50 minutes and will run throughout the Summer.

For more information click here>>>

Arlen House presents the launch of Aibítir Aoise : Alphabet of an Age by Celia de Fréine on Wednesday the 29th of June at 7pm. The Alphabet Book is a Polish genre that invites the author to discuss what (s)he has observed during his/her life. Usually written in prose, it has here been adapted to poetic form.

For more information click here>>>>

In collaboration with Arlen House, who are publishing the selected poems of the late James Liddy, the Irish Writers' Centre is availing of the opportunity to reflect on the work of this very influential poet.

For more information click here>>>>

Revival Press is delighted to announce the publication of Mowing in the Dark, New and selected poems by Pauline Fayne. Following its successful launch at Listowel Writers Week , the Dublin launch will take place on the 20th June here at the Irish Writers Centre.

A traditional Irish wake in The Garden of Remembrance, celebrating life, death and everything in between.

Music, poetry, stories and song.

From 12pm music by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann

Featuring prose readings by Conor Kostick, Mia Gallagher, Catherine Dunne, June Considine, Micheal O' Ruairc and poetry Readings by Declan Collinge, Anne Hartigan, Michael O' Loughlin, Kieran Furey, Mark Granier among others.

A Little Circle of Kindred Minds: Joyce in Paris, by Conor Fennell, looks at Joyce's relationship with his friends: the hard-drinking Robert McAlmon, the gentle James Stephens, the artist Arthur Power, Padraic and Mary Colum, Thomas MacGreevy and Samuel Beckett.

For more information click here>>>>

Edda, Conor Kostick, The O'Brien Press, PRICE €9.99, ISBN 978-1-84717-165-8, Edda is a virtual world ruled by the electronic intelligence of Lord Scanthax. Penelope is a teenager ensnared in Edda. Can she uncover the truth about her human past and gain her freedom? The eagerly-anticipated follow-up to Epic and Saga and conclusion of The Avatar Chronicles Trilogy by internationally-acclaimed author Conor Kostick, Age 12+, May 2011.

Molly McCloskey, Leo Cullen and Anne Haverty will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre as part of a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to various venues around the country.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>

A free and open evening of song, poetry, prose and performance at the Irish Writers' Centre, May 29th @8pm. For more info, or to perform, email thefloorshowiwc@gmail.com.

For more information please click here>>>

This event sees novelist and screenwriter Eoin McNamee (Resurrection Man, Blue Tango, Orchid Blue) revisiting Don DeLillo’s ninth novel, Libra, a fictional account of a pivotal moment in US history. From Lee Harvey Oswald’s Bronx childhood to the actual trauma of Kennedy’s assassination, Libra remaps and re-imagines the events leading up to that fatal Dallas day in November, 1963. This is a free event but booking is advised.

To book please email book@dublinwritersfestival.com

For more information please click here>>>

Special Guest Deirdre Ni Chinneide will join Anne F.O’Reilly and Wayne P Sheehy for an evening of poetry, music and song to launch their CD Breathsong.
This album with Anne’s poetry and Wayne’s original music celebrates the power of the spoken word to open the heart and call us home.

Contact anneforeilly@gmail.com to reserve a place

Macdara Woods and Joseph Woods

Emer Martin and John Maher will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre as part of a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to various venues around the country.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>

Dermot Bolger, Nuala Ní Chonchúir and Kevin Power will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre as part of a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to various venues around the country.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>

Jennifer Johnston and John MacKenna will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre as part of a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to various venues around the country.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>

John Connolly, Alex Barclay and Kevin Barry will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre as part of a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to various venues around the country.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>

Léamhanna Peregrine le Pól Ó Muirí, Colette Nic Aodha and Mícheál Ó Ruairc

Dé Máirt 26 Aibreán ag Áras na Scríbhneoirí, 19 Cearnóg Pharnell, Baile Átha Cliath. Léamhanna Peregrine le Pól Ó Muirí, Colette Nic Aodha, Mícheál Ó Ruairc.

To read more about the authors and to book a seat please click here>>>

The Ink Slingers Creative Writing Hour takes place every Friday at the Irish Writers' Centre. It is a free creative writing session that is organised and led by the Centre's voluntary arts administrators. The hour includes writing exercises and prompts to get ideas flowing. It is open to everyone and is suitable for all levels of experience.