Nuala Ní Chonchúir's Blog, page 56

WORLD BOOK NIGHT AFTERS

Shauna Gilligan reading from Happiness Comes from NowhereThe World Book Night event in Celbridge library went off very well. Myself, Shauna Gilligan, Mae Leonard and Debbie Thomas read. The library, in conjunction with Cultivate Celbridge gave out free books over the course of the day, and then raffled 5 copies of each of the guest writers' books on the night.
Mae Leonard, of Naas & Limerick, in full flowI really enjoyed hearing an extract from Shauna's début novel Happiness Comes from Nowhere, Mae Leonards's memoir pieces (she had us all singing 'Glory-o, glory-o, to the bold Fenian men' at one point), and Debbie's madcap adventure of a decapitated Aztec head.

MeselfWe got a very warm welcome at the library (tea, biccies and buns which pleased Juno) and from the audience, who were lovely. All in all, a very nice time was had.

Debbie Thomas

THRESHOLDS SHORTLIST

The Thresholds Feature Writing shortlist is out. And my essay is on it. Yay! Congrats also to my writing buds Tom Vowler, Carys Bray and Dan Powell. Winner and runner up announced this Friday.

SHORTLIST

Anna Arbiter: No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July

Carys Bray: We Recommend Adam Marek

Stephen Devereux: The Fall of the British Empire – Saki’s ‘The Lumber Room’

Nuala Ní Chonchúir: A Trio of Irish Short Stories

Dan Powell: Stig Dagerman’s The Games of Night

Tom Vowler: Touch by Graham Mort

WORLD BOOK NIGHT & BREWERY LANE AFTERS

I am horribly busy these days, feeling quite grumpy because I have so much to do/achieve/complete/work on. But there are nice things in the midst of all the deadlines.

TONIGHT I am reading for World Book Night, from Mother America , in Celbridge library in County Kildare. I'm thrilled because it will be my first time to read with my friend Shauna Gilligan. The other writers on the bill are Mae Leonard and Debbie Thomas. 7pm to 9pm, free admission, refreshments, and all welcome.

The weekend just gone I was in Carrick-on-Suir teaching a two-day course on the short story at the inaugural Brewery Lane Writers' Weekend. And what a lovely weekend it was - the people were great and the hospitality was second to none. Big thanks to Margaret O'Brien for the invitation to participate.

I was so happy to get to Tipp as I managed a side-trip on the way home for essential NIP research. Now all I want to do is go back down there and soak up more of it. Tipperary is so beautiful.

Here are a few pics to give a flavour - I have neither the time nor the wit to report properly.

Juno outside Brewery Lane Theatre, where all the events took place
Richard Hayes of Waterford IT who gave a stunning seminar on Ovid's Metamorphoses Myself and the class, with Margaret O'Brien on the right
Ormond Castle, Carrick-on-Suir
Country signpost on my research side-trip
Slievenamon, which features in my NIP - I wanna go back, waaah

FLASH AT THE BIG SMOKE

There are still a few places left on the one day Flash Fiction course I'm teaching at the Big Smoke Writing Factory in Dublin on Saturday May 11th. It will be fun!

Time: 10am to 4pm.

Fee: €75.

More and booking here.

INTL RECORD STORE DAY

From the Irish Writers' Centre's blog: 

'For International Record Store Day, Kevin Barry, Siobhán Mannion, Paul Lynch, Janet Cameron, Peter Murphy, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Gavin Corbett, Sarah Clancy, Jim Carroll, Dimitra Xidous, Ferdia MacAnna and Oran Ryan pay homage to their essential albums.'

I, of course, chose an album by my darling Rufus. Here.

THRESHOLDS LONGLIST

I'm thrilled to be on the 2013 THRESHOLDS International Feature Writing Competition longlist. Congrats to my writing pals Tom Vowler, Carys Bray and Dan Powell who also feature.From the Thresholds site:'We would like to extend our hearty thanks to all those who entered this year’s competition. We also congratulate the following writers whose work has been selected for the 2013 THRESHOLDS Feature Writing Competition longlist. Look out for the shortlist results on The Forum next week, as well as a special post about this year’s competition.'

LONGLIST

Julia Anderson: ‘The Orphan and the Mob’ by Julian GoughAnna Arbiter: No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Carys Bray: We Recommend Adam Marek
Jason Clifton: Storm Warnings in a Purple Haze: Robert Stone’s Bear and his Daughter
Stephen Devereux: The Fall of the British Empire – Saki’s ‘The Lumber Room’
Stephen Devereux: Whistle– If You Dare! An exploration of M. R. James’s ‘Oh Whistle, And I’ll Come To You, My Lad’
Hugh Fulham-McQuillan: Julio Cortázar
Tracy Maylath: How to Read Lorrie Moore
Nuala Ní Chonchúir: A Trio of Irish Short Stories
Dan Powell: Stig Dagerman’s The Games of Night
Mike Smith: ‘The Little Farm’ by H.E.Bates
Tom Vowler: Touch by Graham Mort
Juliet West: ‘Miriam’ by Truman Capote

GALWAY STORIES IN THE GALWAY ADVERTISER

From The Galway Advertiser, April 18:By Charlie McBride

NEXT WEEK, with Galway hosting authors from all over the world as part of Cúirt, the city itself and its own writers are showcased in a fine new anthology from Doire Press, entitled Galway Stories, to be launched during the festival.

Edited by Lisa Frank, the volume contains 20 stories set in the environs of Galway city and county, including stories by Kevin Barry, Julian Gough, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Geraldine Mills, Hugo Kelly, Mike McCormack, and Mary Costello.

Places, personalities, and rituals of Galway life are vividly rendered throughout the stories; student parties, walking the prom, meeting friends in bars or coffee shops, even the road-rivalry between cyclists and motorists on Taylor’s Hill.

As Des Kenny remarks in his preface: “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 joys and sorrow, in all its aspirations and disappointments, in all its victories and defeats.”


The French connection
This literary celebration of Galway actually had its origins in Paris, specifically from a birthday trip Lisa Frank made there in 2010.
“Before going to Paris, I combed the internet for a book on the city,” she explains. “I didn’t want a typical guide book or one on its general history. I came across an anthology called Paris Tales, which contained stories all set in Paris. I read the book throughout our trip and thought it was a great and intimate way to better get to know the neighbourhoods. After I came home the thought occurred to me, Paris Tales...why not Galway Stories?

“I’ve lived in many cities but Galway is by far the most special to me. It’s a combination of the landscape and people, the strong sense of art and culture, and of course the charm of the city. I thought a city and county as wonderful as Galway, with such an amazing pool of writing talent, deserves a book that would help celebrate how special it is and the talent of its writers.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Frank is one of those many artistic spirits who came to Galway for a visit only to end up making the place home. She first came here for a summer writing course at NUI Galway in 2003 and fell in love with the city immediately. And in her fourth and final week of the course she also met her now-partner, writer John Walsh. The couple live in Indreabhán where they co-founded Doire Press in 2007.

Having come up with the idea of Galway Stories, Frank set about finding her contributors.
“I approached various writers, some of whom I knew and some of whom I didn’t, and I told them the idea of the collection,” she recalls. “I sent them a brief synopsis of what the book was going to be about and that the story should be set in Galway or reflect it. Most of the stories captured Galway pretty well whether that be through a specific detail or the spirit of the place.

“The very first person to send a story was Nuala Ní Chonchúir, whose Cri de Coeur is a fictional account of the time Ted Hughes and Assia Wevill spent in Cashel. It’s a gorgeous and ultimately dark story and Nuala did a wonderful job in her description of Cashel, and so I was beaming, seeing then how amazing the book could be. It was at that point that Galway Stories became real.”


A diversity of talent
There are many memorable stories in the collection. Kevin Barry’s Party at Helen’s gives razor-sharp snapshots of the people and shifting dynamics of a late night student party in the Claddagh; Celeste Auge’s Eternity features a woman trying to nerve herself to make a purchase in a city centre sex shop; Hugo Kelly’s Traffic Lights describes the burgeoning relationship between a labourer and his landlady on a Knocknacarra estate - two people marked by personal disappointment whose coming together is a piquantly ambivalent blend of resignation and tenderness.

Conor Montague’s Eat the Swans offers a grisly post-apocalyptic city scenario of warring gangs and cannibalism; Alan McMonagle’s Women Drivers on Taylor’s Hill gets much comic mileage from the cyclist narrator’s repeated collisions with the eponymous female motorists, yet the comedy is counterpointed by the backdrop of his relationship with his dying father and distant brothers.

“Alan McMonagle’s was one of the very last stories to come in,” says Frank. “It’s a new story and there is a lot of humour in it of course. Conor Montague’s story is very different. To be honest when he first gave it to me I felt rather squeamish about it, I don’t like blood very much so I had to get over that, but it’s a fantastic story, and the very fact it made me squeamish is a testament to the strength of his writing.
“To me what was interesting was the way that writers who were from Galway talked mostly about Galwegians as well as the city, and I was interested in the way Hugo Kelly reflects Knocknacarra for instance. One of the best things of this project was learning more about the neighbourhoods of Galway through reading the stories.

“The other was realising the great variety in the book — from style and content and theme, the stories are completely varied and show the immense talent of Galway and the writers who clearly have a lot of affection for it.”

The stories are grouped according to the locations in which they are set and the book also features photographs and background information on the different districts. Frank also highlights the contribution of Holly Mullarkey who provided the book’s cover art.

“I spoke to Holly about the project, which she had already known about since her husband Jim had a story in the collection (a wonderful piece called Encounter on Buttermilk Lane). She had done the cover art for Jim’s book And, which we had also published, and so I didn’t have to be convinced of her talent.
“I tried to explain to Holly what I was looking for, though it was difficult to describe. I told her I was looking for the real Galway, not postcard-perfect. When I saw the paintings Holly did, it was clear we were on the same wavelength. She sent about six different paintings for me to chose from but ultimately I used the first. She not only captured Galway perfectly and with striking colours but the image seems to have a thousand stories.”


Literary Walk
Galway Stories will be launched on Friday April 26 with a literary walk taking in a number of the locations mentioned in the book. The walk begins at 4pm at Il Vicolo Café & Wine Bar before proceeding to McCambridges, St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church, Neachtains, and Monroe’s.
There will be readings en route by Celeste Augé, Jim Mullarkey, Olaf Tyaransen, and John Walsh, while Sean Leonard will read Julian Gough’s How to Fall in Love Properly. The trail will conclude with the book’s official launch in Monroe’s, where the Galway Advertiser Arts Editor Kernan Andrews will ‘do the honours’.

Galway Stories costs €13.99 and is available from all good bookshoops.

THE FOUR QUARTERS - SHORT-SHORT STORY

Cover art - Marc di SaverioI have a short-short in the Indian magazine The Four Quarters, thanks to guest editor Rumjhum Biswas for asking me to send something in. The theme for this issue is 'To Ugliness' and my story is called 'From Ugly to Alice'. Great to see work from my friends Tania Hershman and Vanessa Gebbie in there too.

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE - me and Richard Ford

Marcel Proust
I answer the Proust Questionnaire here on The Dublin Writers Festival Blog today. The talented Siobhán Keane,who runs the Young Hearts Run Free Collective, is the festival's blogger.

Richard Ford answered it last week on the DWF blog but you won't learn a whole lot about him from his answers... See here.

STORY ON ARENA on RTÉ RADIO

My short-short story 'Sunasawsta' featured on RTÉ's Arena tonight; it's 30 minutes in. The story will appear in the Dave Lordan edited New Planet Cabaret anthology (New Island, Autumn 2013). There is still time to submit to that anthology - subs are open until 28th April. From the Arena site:

'For April the New Planet Cabaret mic is open to all kinds of everything....write anything you want in any style you want on any subject you want. The maximum word-count is 700. Please send your entry marked New Planet Cabaret to arena@rte.ie by midnight on the 28th April.'