The Atlantis Collective Launch Second Short Story Collection The Atlantis Collective launch 'Faceless Monsters' at The Irish Writers' Centre on Friday May 21st. The short story collection contains new work from the eight members of the group who have been meeting on a weekly basis in the Galway Arts Centre for the past two years. This is the second book by the group. Last year's debut 'Town of Fiction' was described by Des Kenny as ‘an important collection’ containing 'gems of stories'. Though the individual styles of the writers may vary, when it comes to the quality of the work they have plenty in common, according to contributing editor Nuala Ní Chonchúir. ‘Each writer draws from a separate well – there are the humorists and the dark-lovers, the long-short writers and the flash aficionados – but they are all clearly dedicated to achieving excellence in their art.’ The launch of ‘Faceless Monsters’ takes place in The Irish Writers' Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1, at 7pm. There will be refreshments and readings. Copies of the book will be available on the night and also through the Atlantis Collective website, www.atlantiscollective.com The Atlantis Collective are Colm Brady, Alan Caden, Dara Ó’ Foghlú, Aideen Henry, Trish Holmes, Paul McMahon, Conor Montague, and Máire T. Robinson. 
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
The Atlantis Collective Launch Second Short Story Collection
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Milk and Cookie Stories VII, Disaster Stories
Milk and Cookie Stories VII featuring a theme – Disaster Stories, and the Milk & Cookies BAKE-OFF!
Doors 6.30pm, Tuesday May 11th, Exchange Dublin
Milk and Cookie Stories is for anyone who has a story to tell, or wants to hear a tale told well, in a relaxed, friendly environment ~ a place with tea, cushions, cookies and friends. The event consists of open mic storytelling, with one or two featured storytellers. Our event is free and everyone is welcome.
The theme this month is Disaster Stories! Hopefully if you're looking for something to tell, this might offer a eruption of inspiration. You don't have to stick to the theme (and the interpretation is wide!), they encourage stories of all kinds; traditional, animation, musical, anything as long as it's a story – the House Rules are available on their website, http://www.milkandcookiestories.com/
The BAKE-OFF! is also returning, bruised and doughy, to strike terror and inspiration into the hearts of the baking community – one cookie will rise above the rest, and the winner shall be carried through the streets, and given prizes. More details are again available at the website.
Monday, 8 March 2010
[ art@work ] Artists’ Residency Programme
Roscommon Arts Office seeks interest from artists who wish to participate in the 2010 [ art@work ] artists’ residency programme As part of art@work, artists from any arts discipline, spend three weeks in a company or service in County Roscommon making work motivated by the environment, staff and working practices of the company Since its inception in 2001, the art@work programme has continued as a unique outlet for contemporary art to be integrated into society – introducing not only art, but also artists, and the processes of making art, to new audiences. Artists are not necessarily expected to make work collaberatively; rather the artist is simply making work for a period of time in a different place of work than usual. Quite naturally however, the work is clearly influenced by the artists’ adopted environment, relating strongly to that particular situation thus providing a greater interest and involvement in the work from staff. To the artist art@work offers the opportunity to explore different methods of working and to produce work in a unique context that allows for greater participation in the creation of the work. To staff at the company, art@work stimulates a pride and recognition of the value and nature of both the artists work and the work of the company. To the company the programme offers a valuable and unique advertising platform in both a local and national context as well as being an innovative project which reflects well on the company from many perspectives. Last Year Create collaborated with Roscommon County Council Arts Office to produce a publication which further investigated the experiences of those involved, providing a rich insight to the motivations, processes and outcomes of each of the residencies. Sarah Tuck, Director of Create said that “the art@work programme provocatively re-inscribes arts practice as work, whilst simultaneously acknowledging the creativity of work itself. In situating the artist in work contexts, both the artists and the staff have an occasion to reappraise what it is that they do as part of the daily routine and ritual of working life.” How the programme works – Initially companies and artists are separately asked to express their interest in becoming involved in the programme. From this a one day group site visit is arranged where artists together visit each of the participating companies. From this the artist can prepare a proposal as to how they would approach the residency at their chosen company or companies. How to get involved – If you are interested in participating in art@work, simply email artsoffice@roscommoncoco.ie or call 090 66 37285 to register your interest before Friday 26th March, after which a day of site visits will be arranged to participating companies. A full list of participating companies will not be available until April but previous participants are listed below. The Proposal – The proposal is not a definite “in stone” document but rather an indication of how the artist would complete the residency if their course did not alter during it. This is essentially an indication of the artist’s methodology and their understanding of the company. We would expect that the residency itself would dictate how the work would progress and that it would, in the end, substantially differ from the original proposal, but in order to decide who participates and how appropriate or feasible an artist’s residency is likely to be, we assess proposals only on the information and CV submitted. An artist can submit as many proposals as they like for as many companies as they like. Schedule – Registration Before Friday 26th March Site Visits Mid April Proposals Mid May Residency June – September Publication October Fees – Residency €500 per week Materials/ Travel Subsidy €500 Accommodation Subsidy €500 Further Information – www.roscommonarts.com or 090 66 37285 Philip Delamere County Arts Officer Roscommon County Council, The Courthouse, Roscommon, Ireland T +353 9066 37285 | F +353 9066 34443 | E mailto:artsoffice@
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Exhibition of Letters from Famous People at the National Library
Exhibition of Letters from Famous People Now Open at the National Library of Ireland Broadcaster and comedian Graham Norton presided over the official opening of the exhibition Discover Lifelines at the National Library of Ireland marking the 25th anniversary of the Lifelines project at Wesley College, Dublin which has raised over €100,000 for Concern and the developing world. Discover Lifelines: letters from famous people about their favourite poems reveals the thoughts and poetic choices of a wide variety of people from government ministers to priests, poets, activists and actors including Margaret Atwood, John Banville, Sebastian Barry, Maeve Binchy, George Hook, Dermot Bolger, Richard Dawkins, Judi Dench, Dermot Desmond, Roddy Doyle, Margaret Drabble, Garret FitzGerald, Roy Foster, Sir John Gielgud, Seamus Heaney, Jeremy Irons, John B Keane, Brendan Kennelly, Marian Keyes, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Graham Norton, Joseph O’Connor, Tom Stoppard, Mother Teresa, William Trevor and many others. The exhibition shows people’s belief in poetry and how in its unique and quiet way, poetry endures and enriches lives. Lifelines began in a classroom in Wesley College in 1985 and first saw the light of day as a little Gestetnered stapled booklet. Three other booklets followed and their sell-out success resulted in the book Lifelines, published in 1992, Lifelines 2 appeared in 1994 and Lifelines 3 in 1997. The Lifelines anthologies include contributions from five Nobel Laureates and the project was much praised: Iris Murdoch described it as ‘such an excellent project and such good reading’, and Graham Norton noted: ‘Finally, a book that puts poetry in the “loved-it” pile, rather than the “must-get-around-to-reading” pile.’ A selection from Lifelines was published by Penguin in 1993, and a further volume, a New and Collected edition, published by Townhouse in 2006. Unusually for a poetry book, Lifelines featured prominently in the Best-Seller lists. All correspondence, photographs and other related archive material relating to Lifelines was donated to the National Library of Ireland by Wesley College and today, replies from over 650 people who responded to the pupils’ appeals are preserved in the Library. Discover Lifelines is available as a travelling exhibition for schools, libraries and other venues nationwide. Discover Lifelines, National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Admission Free. Lifelines New and Collected available from the National Library shop (€12) . See www.nli.ie for further information.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
No Grant for the Irish Writers' Centre
We are very disappointed to hear that the Irish Writers' Centre did not receive any Arts Council funding for 2010. I started volunteering in the IWC six months ago and have been overwhelmed by the passion and commitment the board and staff have for the both the Centre and Irish Literature. Do check out the website, www.writerscentre.ie
No Grant from the Arts Council
The Board’s Response
The Irish Writers’ Centre is extremely disappointed that the Arts Council has rejected its application for a grant for 2010. Until 2009 the IWC received an annual grant to enable it function as an organisation providing a venue and a service to writers and the public, but the grant was withheld last year on the basis of a value-for-money assessment. Over the past year the Centre has addressed all the criticism and misgivings that led to the withholding of the grant. It has renewed itself and reformed entirely. Through the efforts of the Board and a team of voluntary staff we have now established a vibrant and exciting centre, open from morning to night, open Saturdays, with readings, events, workshops, meetings, all progressing non-stop. We have opened up a home-from-home where writers and readers can converge for literary business and literary pleasure. We have ensured that there is one place in Dublin where writers from abroad can come to interact with their Irish colleagues. This supreme effort has been made to demonstrate how effectively the Centre can cater for the needs of writers and readers, but it cannot be maintained indefinitely without funding.
Writing is the national art form of Ireland; more than with anything else, our national identity is associated with writing. But the allocation of resources does not reflect the primacy of literature, quite the contrary, despite the enormous economic contribution that literature makes to the country through cultural tourism. The Writers’ Centre has been given the most enthusiastic support by the whole literary community over the past months. Everyone has shown anxiety for its survival as a venue for showcasing contemporary Irish writing, encouraging new writing, providing writers with one physical location which belongs to them: a writers’ house. Within the literature community there has been a consensus endorsing its case for funding. It is therefore all the more baffling and disappointing that the Arts Council has not responded to that clear wish of the literature community.
Dublin has lodged an application to UNESCO for a special designation as a ‘City of Literature’. If this is granted, Dublin, and Ireland, will be able to exploit this status to enhance its cultural profile and its attraction to cultural tourists. But the designation will be granted and maintained, not in recognition of our glorious tradition, but on the vibrancy of the contemporary writing environment and on the infrastructure that exists to sustain and develop that vibrancy. In view of this, the decision of the Arts Council to jeopardise the Irish Writers’ Centre is myopic in the extreme.
Last autumn when the Arts Council faced the spectre of a catastrophic cut in funding for the arts, they issued a call-to-arms and asked the writers to join the vanguard on the basis that literature was demonstrably our extraordinary performer in the arts arena. Reasonable damage limitation was achieved, but the recent grant allocations to literature do not reflect the enormous esteem for writers and writing the Council espoused just a few months ago.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
London: Pilot Pamphlets
Cover image for A Fictional Dress by Nessa Darcy and Conor FrielCome and celebrate the launch of two new tall-lighthouse pamphlets, A Fictional Dress by Ailbhe Darcy and The Stream by Simon Pomery with readings from the collections.
The double launch kicks off on Tuesday the 5th of January at 7pm, at the Wheatsheaf pub, 25 Rathbone Place (just off Oxford St) in London.
Ailbhe Darcy has published poetry in Ireland, Britain and the US, and is the co-editor of Moloch. A Fictional Dress is her first solo publication and her first full collection is forthcoming from Bloodaxe in 2010.
Simon Pomery was born in Galway, Ireland, and grew up in the Peak District, Derbyshire. He studied English at the University of Leeds and Pembroke College, Cambridge. The Stream is his first pamphlet and is the latest in the tall-lighthouse pilot series, edited by Roddy Lumsden.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Irish Writers' Centre Culture Night 25-09-09
The Irish Writers' Centre is opening up its doors for culture night (Friday the 25th of September), with readings throughout the night, tours of the building and a chance to see the beautiful collection of paintings on loan from Frank Buckley. To add to the occasion the centre will be selling hundred of its books for a song – prices will start at 2euros. The first readings will begin at 7.30pm and will be hosted by the Thornfield Poets. Among the line up is Catherine Dunne, Susan Connolly, Cecilia McGovern, Maggie O'Dwyer, Helena Nolan, Colette Connor, and Enda Coyle-Greene. Sapphire Writing Group will then host the second wave of readings from 9pm. The line up includes many writers who frequent the Centre, like Phyl Herbert, Sile Agnew, Cathy Sweeney, Richard Stevens, Sheila Purdy, Gerry Moloney, Mary Heneghan and Ross Skelton. There will be lots of staff on hand to show you around, caffeinate you and give you the lowdown on the courses and events that will be taking place in the Irish Writers' Centre in the coming months.
