Nuala Ní Chonchúir's Blog, page 52

HAPPY (I)NFFD!!

A Shrine for the Mother of Birds - Fidelma MasseyHappy International Flash Fiction Day! It's a day PACKED with short-short story goodness, so it's a matter of take your pick of what to do.

A good place to start is the NFFD website which has info on all the global events. Their 2013 anthology Scraps is now available on Kindle or to order in hard copy. Go here. I have a story in there called 'Treedaughter' inspired by the Fidelma Massey artwork above. Also, the 2012 anthology is free on Kindle today!

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Today is the ONLY day you can submit to my guest-edited Flash Showcase in The Stinging Fly. You can sub your flash to stingingflyflash AT gmail.com. You have 24 hours to sub one flash of up to 500 words!! Send me your zingiest, most beautiful work. Full guidelines here.

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Tonight I'll be reading at Big Smoke Writing Factory's FLASH BULBS event in Dublin - a flash fiction reading with lots of writers taking part. Arthur's Pub, Thomas Street, 6pm to 8pm.

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Meanwhile over at the Flash Mob, the Top 25 list has been announced and the winners will be announced later today. Stay tuned! I really enjoyed the judging process for this with my fellow judges Marcus Speh, Leah McMenamin and Robert Vaughan. We were sent a Top 50 of the more than 100 entries. If it's any comfort to non-finalists, I had a read of many of the other stories and they would have made any list I was making. It's all personal!

Have a fabulous (I)NFFD and, if you can't make an event, there are plenty of online events to take part in. And if that doesn't suit, just write.

RACHEL TREZISE - COSMIC LATTE - REVIEW

My review of Rachel Trezise's wonderful short story collection Cosmic Latte can be listened to now, and for the next 6 days, at RTE's Arena site here. 45 minutes in. (God, I say 'sort of' a lot in the course of the review!! What's that all about?!)

FLASH BULBS - BIG SMOKE FOR (I)NFFD

Big Smoke Writing Factory proudly presents FLASH BULBS - a flash fiction event as part of (inter)National Flash Fiction Day 2013. They say:

Join us on Saturday June 22nd at Arthur's Pub, 6pm to 8pm, to celebrate writing that is short but not necessarily always sweet. This event is all about showcasing the best flash fiction writers Dublin has to offer.

Rich and sharp, precise and urgent - we believe flash fiction is an exciting and growing literary form. We want flash that is powerful and intimate, brief and highly charged. If you would like to read at FLASH BULBS please submit your work (published or unpublished) to us here -> http://www.bigsmokewritingfactory.com/Flash2013.php

Whether you're a total flash-enthusiast or you've never encountered flash fiction before in your life, this is an evening of creativity and inspiration not to be missed!

As always this event is FREE and all are welcome.
So come along and bring a friend, bring two if you've got them!
We look forward to seeing you all there

24 Little Hours in Clonmel

This sounds great. Innovative:

Clonmel Junction Festival presents '24 Little Hours', A 24 hour participatory poetry and prose programme with Grace Wells, Mark Roper, Dave Lordan & Mia Gallagher.

Grace, Mark, Dave and Mia, four leading writers from Ireland's contemporary literary scene, will be in Clonmel for 24 hours. During their stay in the town, they will share their skills & experience with emerging writers and poetry enthusiasts, perform their work at set readings, and walk and explore the streets of Clonmel with workshop participants, giving insights into how a writer goes about their work, and develops their skills of observation and composition.

With workshop sessions taking place in locations throughout the town and over the 24 hours, the participants will see the urban landscape as it changes colour from busy shopping streets through the hubbub of Saturday night and into the quiet of Sunday morning.

On Sunday afternoon there will be an open-mic session at which the participants will have the opportunity to share some of the work they created during the twenty-four little hours.

It costs €35 to be part of 24 Little Hours and you can fill out an application form here.

24 Little Hours timetable:

Saturday July 6th
1.30pm : Gathering and Introductions
2.00- 4.00pm: Walking, Talking and Writing with Grace or Mark
4.30-5.30pm : Selected readings by Grace and Mark
5.30 onwards: Dinner at the Junction Festival Catering tent
7.30-8.30pm : Selected readings by Mia and Dave
9.00- 11.00pm: Walking,Talking and Writing  with Mia or Dave

Sunday July 7th
11.00am-1.00pm: Walking, Talking and Writing with Grace, Mark, Mia or Dave
2.30pm: “What a Difference a day makes” Open-mic with Grace, Mark, Mia, Dave and the programme participants.
Purchase tickets online here.

FLASH SUBS - STINGING FLY - 22nd JUNE *ONLY*

 
This Saturday - International Flash Fiction Day - is the day to sub your FLASH ONLY to my guest edited issue of The Stinging Fly, which appears spring 2014.

My, some of you are confused, judging by the emails I have been getting. It is quite straightforward. All month you can sub ordinary stories in the ordinary way i.e. by post.

This Saturday, the 22nd June, ONLY, you can sub your flash to stingingflyflash AT gmail.com. 24 hours to sub one flash of up to 500 words!!

Send me your zingiest, most beautiful work.

Full guidelines here.

BLOG AWARDS 2013 NOW OPEN

The 2013 Blog Awards are now open for nominations. If you enjoy Women Rule Writer, maybe just maybe, you might throw the blog a nom at the IBA site here. I'd be very grateful :)

NEW REVIEW OF MOTHER AMERICA

There's a brand new review of Mother America at the UK's The Short Review. Thanks to Susan Haigh and Tania Hershman at the Review.

HAPPY BLOOMSDAY!

Nora Barnacle House, Bowling Green, GalwayHappy Bloomsday! It's a day I love. I'm sad that the Nora Barnacle House in Galway no longer opens on this day every year: time was when a great party with readings from Ulysses took place there each Bloomsday.

I contented myself with raising a toast to James Joyce at dinner and, of course, I had a fabulous night at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday with readings and music from all the writers featured in A Telmetale Bloomnibus - an anthology that reimagines the book for the 21st century. It is available now on Kindle for stg £1.99.

Thanks to Clodagh Moynan and June Caldwell at the IWC for a great night based around an innovative idea.

BLOOMSDAY: BLOOMNIBUS, ESSAY AND INTERVIEW

Nuala, James and Alan - Image by Max O'Rover of Italish MagazineToday, in celebration of Bloomsday (which is actually on Sunday, of course), Wales Arts Review publishes a collection of specially commissioned essays on the life and work of James Joyce. In their own words:

'Nuala Ní Chonchúir discusses Joyce's relationship with his mother, May Murray, and his wife, Nora, while also taking a look at the phenomenon of Bloomsday itself. Martina Evans precedes her major new poem, ‘Toasted Cheese’, with an examination of its principal influence: the lestrygonians episode of Ulysses. In ‘Ulysses: The Deep and Vivid Words of Joyce’, Chris Cornwell explores the exotic language of Ulysses and the connections and separations of personal and communal language. Lane Ashfeldt looks at Ulysses Seen, Rob Berry’s continuing graphic novelisation of Joyce’s masterwork. In ‘Epiphanies’, John Lavin examines the concept of the epiphany and how it is put to use in Joyce’s short fiction masterpiece, ‘The Dead.’'

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Tonight, at the Irish Writers' Centre, I will read a specially commissioned short-short story called 'Penny, Leo and Married Bliss', which makes up part of the Telmetale Bloomnibus, (available on Kindle for stg £1.99) an anthology inspired by Ulysses. The Irish Writers’ Centre asked 18 writers to bring Ulysses into the 21st Century. As Joyce once took inspiration from the texts of Homer, the writers have taken the 18 episodes and transported them into modern Dublin.

A Telmetale Bloomnibus: 18 Tales from Modern Dublin
Irish Writers’ Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
Friday, June 14th, 2013 at 7pm
Tix are €8 (€6 for IWC members). Booking on the event page. For those who cannot make it, publication of an e-book is also being planned.  

The Writers (in order of reading): Pat Boran, Colm Keegan, Jane Clarke, Niamh Boyce, June Caldwell, Steven Clifford, Christodoulos Makris, Jude Shields, Jack Harte, Máire T. Robinson, Emer Martin, Niamh Parkinson, Deirdre Sullivan, Graham Tugwell, Alan Jude Moore, Oran Ryan, Doodle Kennelly and Nuala Ní Chonchúir

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Today, Max O'Rover of the Italish Magazine site interviews Alan Jude Moore and myself about taking part in the Bloomnibus event.Happy Bloomsday!!

MSLEXIA NOVEL COMP

Mslexia's Women's Novel Competition is running again this year. It is open to unpublished women novelists writing in any genre for adults. Your MS must be least 50,000 words.

Deadline: 23rd September 2013  Prize: £5000

Three finalists will be offered free feedback by The Literary Consultancy and 12 shortlisted authors will be invited to meet literary agents and editors at a networking event in London.

Rules here.