Tuesday 31 July 2012

Mill Mondays

Breda Cashe in association with the Mill Theatre Dundrum will present a series of new play readings on the last Monday night of each month commencing in September.

The Mill Theatre is currently seeking submissions of full length plays (over 70 minutes). The theme should be relevant to contemporary Ireland with a cast of 4 characters or less.

Applications are also being sought for a panel of actors and directors for this project. 
Deadline: August 31st 2012

This project is funded by a Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council Arts Grant.

For further information click on the read more link or contact the Mill Theatre Manager on 01 2969340

Monday 30 July 2012

All-Ireland Live Poetry Slam Championships

Paul Casey (Ó Bhéal, Cork), Colin Dardis (Purely Poetry, Belfast), Abby Oliveira (Poetry Chicks, Derry), Desmond Swords (Supa Fast Building, Dublin), Dominick Taylor (On The Nail, Limerick) and John Walsh (North Beach Poetry Nights, Galway) are the six regional organisers of the annual All-Ireland Live Poetry Slam Championships, now in their sixth year!

Each year in November, after regional heats in Belfast, Cork, Derry, Dublin, Galway and Limerick have produced two finalists from each province, the finals are held to judge who of Ireland's top eight performance poets will walk away with the prestigious crown of All Ireland Poetry Slam Champion.

As the event has no formal funding we are advertising our project on the crowd-funding site fundit.ie, in the hope of raising €1000 to cover prize money and expenses for travelling poets, plus the printing costs for 100 copies of a special commemorative edition chapbook of the 16-18 poems that contestants bring to the final. A €10 donation secures you an Honourable Mention in the Special Edition Slam Final Chapbook of Finalists' Poems, whilst €20 secures a mention and a copy of the publication.

Founded on the idea of the old bardic circuit, the location of the final alternates each year, rotating among the four provinces, and have so far been held in 2007 Ulster (Belfast), 2008 Munster (Limerick), 2009 Connacht (Galway), 2010 Leinster (Dublin) and 2011 Ulster (Derry).

The 2012 final will be hosted by Ó Bhéal on 30 November at Cyprus Avenue in Cork, Munster.

Please go to the fundit.ie and Facebook pages to donate, listen, watch and read a full history of this competition. Any support is very gratefully appreciated.

http://www.fundit.ie/project/6th-all-ireland-poetry-slam-championshi

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ireland-Poetry-Slam/338399146209479

Sunday 29 July 2012

Béal Festival

Béal Festival, a biennial festival of music and text in Dublin, announce a call for already-existing pieces or proposals for new pieces. We are looking for text-based pieces which respond in some way to the work of our featured composer Robert Ashley.

Pieces / proposals in any format will be considered; the emphasis will be on pieces featuring voice(s) with or without electronics; it may be feasible to include additional instrumental forces.

Contact bealfestival@gmail.com by August 15th 2012.

According to Wikipedia. Robert Ashley, is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.

Saturday 28 July 2012

Flash Fiction Magazine

I'm not aware of any other magazines solely dedicated to Flash Fiction.

Flash is a biannual literary magazine, publishing quality stories and reviews of up to 360 words from the University of Chester.


Flash aims to include stories told from all angles and by writers hailing from all points of the compass.
  • Subscribers receive two copies per year, published October and April.
  • Flash is published as an A5-sized book. It is not an e-zine.
  • Contributors receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which their work appears.
  • Flashes must be no more than 360 words (including the title).
  • Before submitting work, contributors are encouraged to read an issue of the magazine. See the ‘Flash Subscriptions’ page for details of how to subscribe or purchase single issues
Submissions are welcome for the October 2012 issue. See here for submissions

Friday 27 July 2012

Writer in Residence, Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT)

To promote writing, reading and creativity, DkIT wishes to recruit a Writer in Residence, based in the Institute Library.

The Writer in Residence will engage with the DkIT community of staff and students, and with the local community, including local schools The Writer in Residence will:
  • have previously published work
  • have skills in working with young people, students and institutions 
  • have the capacity to produce work in collaboration with others
  • have the capacity to encourage and inspire others 
  • be flexible and able to respond to situations and the different needs they encounter 
  • be able to work on own initiative 
DkIT recognises the importance of the Writer in Residence’s professional development. The successful writer will be given the chance to develop and explore their own writing styles while participating in the residency and the scheduling of the Residency will incorporate time for the Writer to develop his /her work.

A Working Group, drawn from the Library of DkIT, the Arts Service of Louth Local Authorities and community interests will guide and support Writer during the Residency.
A contract not exceeding 6 months will be offered.

The total salary for the duration of the Residency will be €13,544

Closing Date and time: 4.00 pm 15 August 2012

Details here

Thursday 26 July 2012

The Penny Dreadful


The Penny Dreadful is a new Cork based literary magazine and is currently accepting submissions.
We accept all known forms of creative writing, and several that are sadly as of yet unknown to all but our editorial staff. And we want you. Yes, even you, as wretched and forlorn as you may well be. We want you to submit to us anything that you may happen to have written that you feel is of a certain quality and standard to appear in the esteemed pages of The Penny Dreadful.

So then go forth and multiply and then tell us about it in a poem or something.

Fiction: Two stories of no more than 3,000 words.

Poetry: Six poems, unless you are writing long heroic epics. We won’t accept six of those.

Please send submissions to
Email: The.P.Dreadful@gmail.com
Post: The Penny Dreadful, 7 Sharman Crawford Street, Cork.

Wednesday 25 July 2012

The Manchester Poetry Prize 2012

The Manchester Poetry Prize is open internationally and will award £10,000 to the writer of the best portfolio of three-to-five poems new submitted. 
The competition is open to both new and established writers aged 16 or over; there is no upper age limit. 

All entrants are asked to submit a portfolio of three to five poems (total maximum length: 120 lines).
You can find full terms and conditions of entry on the Competition website, where you can also enter online, or download a printable entry pack for postal submission: 
http://www.manchesterwritingcompetition.co.uk/poetry/index.php

Total cost of entry: £17



First prize: £10,000


Deadline: 31st August 2012

Judges: Ian Duhig, Francis Leviston, Adam O’Riordan

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Pighog Moss Rich International Poetry Prize

A Competition for Humorous and Satirical Poetry

In 1975, Moss Rich sent a satirical poem about the Harold Wilson government in Britain to a political columnist at The Times in London. He was surprised to see that they published it and even more so to receive a cheque for 'two and a half or three guineas' in payment for the piece. Moss said, ‘From then on, I began taking poetry seriously,’ although in light of his wicked sense of humour, it might be fair to say not too seriously.
Humour has the power to break ice and pretension, to bring people together and to highlight an emperor’s lack of clothes. As Moss demonstrated, humour can be persuasive: a means of revealing the ridiculousness of a situation, exposing faulty lines of reason, or of smuggling non-conformist opinion into the field of debate. Humour can be literature’s Trojan horse - and it has never been needed more than now.

Fee: £3 per poem, or £10 for four poems submitted together

up to 30 lines in length
Deadline: September 7th 2012 

Link here

Judges:
Brendan Cleary (Chair)
John Davies (Director, Pighog Press)
Charlotte Gann

also Milly Rich, Moss Rich's widow and Shula Rich, their daughter

prizes: First £1000, Second £250, and Third £100.
Poems that in the judges’ opinion have special merit may be included in a Prize anthology.

Monday 23 July 2012

Stony Thursday

The Stony Thursday Book is seeking submissions from local, national and international poets for its next issue, to be published as part of CUISLE, Limerick City International Poetry Festival in October 2012.
This year’s editor is the Limerick based poet Jo Slade.

For details, please click here.

Deadline: Friday 10 August 2012

CUISLE, Limerick City International Poetry Festival will take place in Limerick from 10th – 13th October 2012 and is funded by The Arts Council & Limerick City Council.

Sunday 22 July 2012

Strandhill Summerfest

Strandhill Summerfest is on the 27th to 29th July this year. Writers Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill, Ted Deppie, Annie Deppe and Joe Kearney are the facilitators. 

Strandhill Summerfest is a weekend of writing and celebration for writers of all ages: beginners, advanced or established. It offers a gentle, supportive environment where it is safe to create new work.  Again, we bring together our team of four inspirational facilitators whose aim is to nurture new writing.

Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill’s workshops use the AWA(amherst Writers And Artists) method devised by Pat Schneider. These are multi-genre workshops which evoke and enable writing and encourage writers to find and use their own voices with confidence.

Ted and Annie Deppe share their expertise as poets and teachers, their love of their craft and their joyful appreciation of all poetry. Joe Kearney is a writer and broadcaster whose voice is familiar to Lyric FM and RTE Radio One listeners. Joe offers an insider view of writing for radio.

The Summerfest will be held in the home of Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill in Strandhill, Co. Sligo. It costs €125, which includes snacks, light lunch on Saturday and dinner on Saturday evening.

 More here.

Saturday 21 July 2012

Why not show some appreciation?

I know lots of you read it as I have met many of you. I get no assistance from any organisation. No arts council funding, no county fundingm no generous anonymous donors.
Occasionally I get sent books or invites to events. That's nice.

But this blog takes time and effort to keep going.

Show your appreciation and buy me a coffee. €3 will cover one lunchtime writing in the coffeeshop. €15 will cover a whole week.!



Coffeeshop writing

Show your appreciation and download my ebook The Story of Plan B from Smashwords. $2.99.

Or on the sidebar you can order the LAST FEW REMAINING copies of the Poetry Divas Booklets.

Friday 20 July 2012

Spoke 6 with Stephen Murray

If I didn't have other commitments, I'd make a beeline for this reading. Stephen is a poet worth listening to.

Friday 20th July.


From Wikipedia: "Stephen Murray may refer to Stephen Murray(actor)..., Stephen Murray(BMX rider)..., Stephen O. Murray(born 1950)..., Steve Murray (Brookside)..., Steve Murray(footballer)..., Steven T. Murray(born 1943)..., Stevie Murray (born 1983), Steven Murray(born 1975)...."

This Stephen Murray isn't any of these Stephen Murrays. (Although he did recently do an extensive reading tour of the U.S. on his bike, we don't believe it was a BMX) OUR Stephen Murray(born 1974) is a decidedly singular poet from Galway writing poems of charm and wit that nevertheless often engage with the harsher issues of addiction, abuse, abandonment, and other things not necesarily starting with the letter "a". His recent collection House of Bees is published by Salmon Poetry and will be available on the night.

More about Stephen:
http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=228&a=200

SPOKE is the open mic night at the Irish Writers Centre, taking place on the third Friday of every month. Writers, spoken word artists and musicians are all welcome to perform. Doors at 7.30pm. Free admission. If you'd like to perform, please be prompt, we'll be signing people up from the time the doors open. You can't sign up by email, you've got to be there. The earlier spots fill first, so get in early.

Thursday 19 July 2012

National Gallery Twitter Poem Competition

Just as Ovid inspired Titian and Titian inspired Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, the National Gallery challenges you to write a poem inspired by Titian’s 'Diana and Actaeon', 'The Death of Actaeon' and 'Diana and Callisto' in 140 characters or less.


The prize

Folio book
The winning poem will be chosen by leading poet George Szirtes and Jillian Barker, Director of Education, Information and Access at the National Gallery. It will be published on the National Gallery website with comments from the judges.
The author of the winning poem will also receive:
Five runners-up will also win a copy of 'Metamorphosis: Poems Inspired by Titian'.

How to enter

To enter the competition:
  • Write one poem inspired by 'Diana and Actaeon', 'The Death of Actaeon' and/or 'Diana and Callisto' in 140 characters or less (your poem can be about all three paintings or only one)
  • Tweet your poem (in one tweet) by 23 September 2012
  • Include #titianpoem in the tweet
Details and some interesting tips here

Wednesday 18 July 2012

Writing for Sketch Comedy

Saturday 28 July 2012


Writing for Sketch Comedy


Celebrated actor, writer and stand-up comedian Patrick McDonnell will be teaching a unique one-day workshop in writing for sketch comedy at the Moth Studios in Cavan town.

Patrick is best known for his work on TheSavage Eye, Father Ted, Stew and Naked Camera. He has also contributed to the BBC Radio 4 sketch show, The O’Show and the Radio Ulster show, Nutt’s Corner, which he also script-edited. He has written for a variety of shows on RTE, including the Cathal Murray show on radio, RiRa on TG4, Don’t Feed the Gondolas and @last TV on RTE. He is currently hard at work writing for a new Channel 4 show which is due for broadcast in the autumn.

10am−5pm
€75

For more information and to make a booking contact Will Govan on 049 4362677 / 087 2657426

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Greenman Conference

This sounds interesting

The Green Man/Wild Man and Children's Culture conference will be at the National Botanic Garden in Glasnevin.

The School of English at Trinity College Dublin will present a two-day multidisciplinary conference exploring the role of green man and wild man motifs in twentieth and twenty-first century children’s culture. From Puck to Captain Planet, the green man motif may help to kindle ecological awareness and excite the environmental imagination. The green man offers education and guidance and a release from the pressures and responsibilities of the civic space. Yet the spaces the green man inhabits – forests and wildernesses – are also sites of wild abandon, savagery and panic where human characters become wild men and slip away from their civilised identities altogether.


This conference will celebrate all aspects of the green man and the wild man in children’s culture and will showcase speakers from around the world. Highlights include keynote lectures, panels, and a special, private tour of National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.



Keynote speakers:
Amanda Piesse (TCD): ‘Riders on the storm: negotiating emotion through the Green Man myth in children’s literature’
Roni Natov (CUNY): ‘The Dark Pastoral: From Sendak to David Almond and Neil Gaiman’
Sally Nicholls (Author of Season of Secrets): title TBC
Jim Kay (Kate Greenaway medal-winning illustrator of Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls): 'Creating a Monster: Illustrating the Green Man for A Monster Calls'

The conference takes place on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st July. More information and registration here.

Monday 16 July 2012

Some US Poetry magazines

A select list of magazines that have taken poems from Ireland in the past. Worth reading even if you don't want to submit.

Memorious only accepting submissions for our art song contest. We are closed for new general submissions until further notice. Online literary journal publishing poetry, fiction, and views on literary craft, including reviews, interviews, and sketches. Memorious was founded in 2004 by Robert Arnold, Rebecca Morgan Frank, and Brian Green.  
Work from Memorious is forthcoming in Best American Poetry 2012 and has been been featured in print anthologies  Best New Poets (2010, 2009, 2008, 2006) and Best of the Web (2010, 2009, and 2008), as well as the online Best of the Net 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.

Words without Borders: Rather wonderful poetry in translation


The Poetry Porch accepts submissions in January.

Agni Check back in September for submissions. AGNI was founded in 1972 at Antioch College by undergraduate Askold Melnyczuk, a then-aspiring (now accomplished) writer with his own vision of a vehicle for alternative news, visual arts, and literature. Melnyczuk was interested in creating a magazine that would feature a new generation of writers and visual artists.
We see literature and the arts as part of a broad, ongoing cultural conversation that every society needs to remain vibrant and alive. Literature for literature’s sake is not what AGNI is about. Our writers and artists hold a mirror up to nature, mankind, the world; they courageously reflect their age, for better or worse; and their work provokes perceptions and thoughts that help us understand and respond to our age.

Salamander Closed for submissions until 1st September to 30th April. A nonprofit literary organization that publishes a biannual magazine of poetry, fiction, memoir, and works in translation. It was founded by Jennifer Barber in 1992 with the aim of publishing a generation of writers reaching artistic maturity and deserving of a wider audience alongside new work by established writers. In addition to the magazine, Salamander, Inc. sponsors events and readings in the Boston area and in New York. Salamander became affiliated with Suffolk University in the fall of 2005.

Northern Liberties Review. A quarterly online journal of masterful fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and art. Northern Liberties is a unique neighborhood located just north of downtown Philadelphia.

Saturday 14 July 2012

Skylight Poets - new magazine

Skylight Poets are a group of poets who meet with poet and facilitator Kevin Higgins to workshop their writing in Galway Arts Centre on Thursday afternoons. The room they use is at the top of no. 47 Dominick St., the attic with skylight windows, hence the name of the group.

Skylight Poets are seeking submissions for a new poetry magazine to be launched on January 24 2013 at the 10th Anniversary Over The Edge: Open Reading at Galway City Library.  Please send no more than six poems, along with a short biographical note to skylightpoets47@gmail.com

Poems are to be sent as an attachment (.doc, .docx, .txt or .rft) AND in the body of the email. Work should be unpublished.

Deadline: September 1st 2012.

The editors would also be interested to receive ideas for reviews, particularly of recent debut poetry collections. Contributors will recieve one copy of the magazine, plus an invitation at a special Over the Edge reading in Galway City.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Science Meets Poetry

Science meets Poetry at ESOF2012

I'm very excited and more than a little nervous to be reading at this event. And in case you need reminding, I am not Irish, I just write in Ireland. So is my poetry Irish? I think it's more New European myself.

Sounds like a fantastic day. You have to book in advance. Link

The ‘Science meets Poetry’ session at ESOF2012 is organised in partnership between the European Academy of Sciences Arts and Letters (EASAL) the French Society of Poets, Trinity College Dublin, die Kogge, Euroscience and Poetry Ireland.
The event is receiving support from the French Embassy in Dublin.

The meeting will be will be held in the Schrödinger Lecture Theatre, Fitzgerald Building, School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin a famous centre of Irish science.

The first part belongs to the Official Programme of ESOF2012, and will therefore be entirely in English (the official language of the Forum).

9:15 – 9:30 Welcome
9:30 – 10:00 The two Williams
Based on the correspondence between William Hamilton and William Wordsworth, bringing out Hamilton's enthusiasm for poetry, somewhat dampened by Wordsworth's rejection of his abilities as a poet, and Wordsworth's hatred of the burning of coal, industrial pollution, etc, leading to the ‘lake-ist’ and ‘aesthetist’ movements.
Professor Iggy Mc Govern of Trinity College Dublin

10:00 – 10:30 Ecology and Creationism in European Culture
Retracing such themes as Doctor Faustus and the Sorcerer's Apprentice of Goethe (both scientist and poet) via Marlowe's play, back to religious themes of theologians such as Savonarola and Medieval thinkers, and analysing their influence on the spirit of the Gothic novel (via Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson and others) and on Armageddon themes of contemporary European poets and writers. Jean-Patrick Connerade (Chaunes) Imperial College and the European Academy
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break

10:45 – 11:15 Wild Reckoning How contemporary poets and scientists were brought together to respond to a controversial and prophetic book warning against the indiscriminate use of pesticides and its consequences for the environment. A discussion of how today's poets see Nature and the future of the planet, and the influence science and technology have had on their outlook.
Maurice Riordan Irish poet and Professor of Literature living in the UK

11:15 – 11:45 Is love really molecular? In response to contemporary biologists who analyse human behaviour entirely in terms of molecular and evolutionary genetics, a Poet discusses how much in the ideal of human love is simply biological and evolutionary, and how much was actually created or invented by Poets and Philosophers down the ages, adapting their thoughts and culture to different times. Can it truly be said that love is molecular, and if so, what is the deeper meaning of the word?
Christophe Goarant French poet who has written on the theme of Don Juan for the theatre

11:45 – 12:15 The ‘Poetry of Facts’ of Arno Reinfrank The story of a well-known German book of poetry in which the celebrated poet Arno Reinfrank revisited the relation between poetry and the natural sciences.
Uli Rothfuss President of the German writers’ Association die Kogge

12:15 – 12:45 Discussion On the subjects raised, and more generally around the theme: should poets help scientists relate their work more closely to the aspirations of the public?Lunch break from 12:45 to 14:15

14:15 – 14:45 Du sens et de la forme en poésie The Importance of meaning and form in Poetry (Presentation in French with projection of the text in English by Vital Heurtebize President of the French Society of Poets

14:45 – 15:00 Science meets Poetry in the European Academy (Science et Poésie à l’Académie Européenne) Chaunes President of the European Academy of Sciences Arts and Literature

15:00 – 15:30 Some Chemical Poems by Professor Dr. Mario Markus of the Max-Planck-Institut in Dortmund

15:30 – 16:00 Oscar Wilde in Many Tongues (translations into many languages of some famous phrases of Oscar Wilde) a project initiated by the Linguaggi di Versi association presented by Anne Talvaz, Assumpció Forcada and Michael O hAoda.
16:00 – 16:30 Poster Session and coffee

16.30 – 17:00 The Significance of Irish Poetry in Russia a presentation by the poet Alla Valeria Michalevich a Palaeontologist from St Petersburg, who has translated works by Seamus Heaney and other Irish poets into Russian.

17:00 – 17:30 3 Irish Poet-scientists An opportunity for the poets from Europe to hear about three Irish counterparts Kate Dempsey (Physics), Noel Duffy (Physics) and Mary Montague (Genetics), who also marry science with poetry.
17:30 – 18:00 Close and Wine reception

Tuesday 10 July 2012

The Chattahoochee Review

The Chattahoochee Review is seeking poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for a special focus issue on Irish Literature to be published in late 2012. 

TCR welcomes submissions of poetry, fiction, flash fiction, drama, and nonfiction—work reflective of a complex and contemporary Ireland—with preference given to poetry that makes careful use of voice and theme, fiction with an imaginative focus on character, and nonfiction that transcends the strictly personal. Both established and new voices encouraged. Writers outside of the U.S. may e-mail submissions to gpccr@gpc.edu, noting the submission's genre and the Irish Lit issue in the subject box. 

All submissions should state the author's name, address, and email on the manuscript and should be accompanied by a short biographical statement. Submissions will be accepted until October 1, 2012, or until issue is filled. We are also considering regular submissions; see below.


Familiarity with our journal is the best way to know whether or not work is right for us. We strongly encourage buying a sample copy or subscribing; the first issue under new editorship is now available for $4 in PDF. Please buy and read it from your inbox before submitting.
Our newly-streamlined response time averages two to three months, longer only in special circumstances. We read year-round.
Send only your very best work with our assurance it will be given every consideration.


FICTION
TCR publishes high quality literary fiction characterized by interest in language, development of distinctive settings, compelling conflict, and complex, unique characters. Please read a sample copy. Fiction should be double-spaced with numbered pages and one-inch margins. Submit only one story or up to three short-shorts (500-1,000 words each) per envelope. We consider longer stories of up to 6,000 words and novellas.

POETRY
TCR publishes excellent poetry of all types, including informal personal narratives, prose poems, and formal poems. We consider English translations of poetry from other languages, in which case a brief biography of the poet and translator should be included. Poetry should be single-spaced and include three to five poems per submission.

NONFICTION
TCR publishes distinctive topical essays and personal creative nonfiction of any kind; this includes pieces that might fit into the memoir, travel, and historical nonfiction categories. We are not an academic journal and publish for a general readership. Above all, we are interested in publishing nonfiction that surprises and intrigues us.

INTERVIEWS
TCR publishes interviews with writers of all kinds: literary, academic, journalistic, and popular. Recent interviews have featured Tony Grooms, Wells Tower, Larry Brown, Claude Wilkinson, Ferreira Gullar, and Kunal Basu. Please query us (by snail mail) with a proposal for a particular interview.

REVIEWS AND REVIEW ESSAYS
TCR publishes reviews of current fiction, poetry, and nonfiction books, especially those from writers with an innovative approach to subject matter. Several related works may be reviewed at more length in a review essay that engages critical issues not appropriate to a single review. We are always in search of new reviewers. Please query us (by snail mail) about the possibility of a particular review or review essay, specifying your credentials for the review.

VISUAL ART
TCR accepts visual art submissions, photography included, by invitation only.

PAYMENT

We typically pay $50/poem and $25/page for prose. Payment for reviews, interviews, plays, and art is determined on an individual basis. All contributors receive two copies.


Link here 

Monday 9 July 2012

Screenwriters Masterclass with Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski

Galway Film Fleadh 2012

Thursday 12 July, 2012
Duration: Half Day
Cost: €50.00


Application Procedure:To apply for a place, please visit the Screen Training Ireland website at www.screentrainingireland.ie and register your details. For any queries relating to your application contact Leona Cully on creativedevelopment@fas.ie
 
For further enquiries about the Masterclass, contact Bronagh Keys at the Galway Film Festival on 091 562200, or email masterclasses@galwayfilmfleadh.com. Please note places are limited. Deadline for applications: Friday, 6th of July. Tutors are subject to availability.

Since meeting at University, Alexander and Karaszewski have become one of the most successful Hollywood screenwriting teams. Following the critical and commercial success of Ed Wood, a passion project they wrote in just six weeks (and which was so good it prompted Tim Burton to drop out of directing Mary Reilly at the last minute) they have become the ‘go-to guys’ for ‘strange scripts about weirdos’.

The studios trusted them enough to give them creative control of their projects and they subsequently produced a series of compelling and critically-lauded ‘anti-biopics – movies about somebody who doesn’t deserve one – subversive, upside-down tales of an iconoclast fighting the establishment.’ First up was The People vs. Larry Flynt, directed by Miloš Forman, an unlikely hit about the titular pornography publisher-turned free speech advocate. This was followed by their second collaboration with the veteran Czech director, 1999’s Man on the Moon, a biopic of legendary comedian, entertainer and sometimes-wrestler Andy Kaufman which Entertainment Weekly rated as the best movie of the year and for which Jim Carrey won a Golden Globe for best actor. Next up was Auto Focus, Paul Schrader’s dramatic portrayal of the descent of affable TV star Bob Crane’s descent into Hollywood’s murky underbelly starring Willem Dafoe and Greg Kinnear. Since then they have branched out into a variety of different genres including the Stephen King horror adaptation 1408 and hit children’s films Agent Cody Banks and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.

The duo are set to return to their roots this year and are currently writing and directing another off-beat biopic, this time about celebrated painter Margaret Keane, in the Tim Burton-produced Big Eyes, starring Ryan Reynolds and Reese Witherspoon. They continue to produce engaging work that transcends the traditional boundary between studio-produced Hollywood films and the more personal stories of indie cinema.

The Masterclass will be facilitated by Mary Kate O’Flanagan.

Sunday 8 July 2012

Dromineer Festival Poetry Competition

2012 Poetry Competition

Judge: Fiona Sampson
Maximum Number of lines per poem: 40

Prizes
  • 1st. Prize €500.00
  • 2nd. Prize €350.00
  • 3rd. Prize €150.00

Entry Fee
€5 euro for first poem, plus €3 euro per additional title.

2012 Short Story Competition

Judge: Nessa O'Mahony

Maximum Number of words per story: 600

Prizes
  • 1st. Prize €500.00
  • 2nd. Prize €350.00
  • 3rd. Prize €150.00
Entry Fee
€10 euro for each entry

 Link here 

Closing date: 17 August 2012

Saturday 7 July 2012

Poets to Check Out - Robert Graves

Richard Burton reads 'Welsh Incident' by Robert Graves. 

Oh that voice!

Oh the words. Fantastic. Happy Day

Friday 6 July 2012

The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award

Closing date for entries Friday 27th July 2012

The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is for a first unpublished collection of poems in English by an Irish poet. The award is now in its 41st year. Previous winners include Eileán Ni Chuilleanáin, Paul Durcan, Thomas McCarthy, Peter Sirr, Sinead Morrissey, Conor O’Callaghan, Pat Boran, Joseph Woods and Geraldine Mitchell.

I wonder what other names are on the list that are not so well known.
 
Prize: The winner of this year’s award will receive €1,000.

There used to be prizes for second and third. Damn the recession!
 
The Award will be presented on Friday 28th September 2012 at the opening of the Annual Patrick Kavanagh Weekend in Inniskeen.
Rules and entry form from the Patrick Kavanagh Centre, Inniskeen:

E-mail: infoatpkc@eircom.net

Click here to download rules of the competition >>

It's not clear to me if I may enter or not. I have a lovely chapbook Some Poems http://www.themothmagazine.com/a1-gallery3.asp?roomID=2424&pictureID=30541 that has an ISBN but technically I wouldn't say it's a collection.

Thursday 5 July 2012

Peace Camp

Peace Camp is a series of installations taking place in some of the most beautiful coastal locations around the UK from 19th-22nd July, including the North Antrim coast and Mussenden Temple in Coleraine.

Glowing lights, designed to be visited at dusk and dawn, are accompanied by the nation's favourite love poems, read out loud by a wide range of people from across the country, including actors Jane Horrocks and Simon Russell Beale and poet Seamus Heaney.

It sounds like an lovely and imaginative project.

Created by Deborah Warner in collaboration with the actor Fiona Shaw, it is designed to be visited at dusk or dawn, it is designed to be an exploration of love poetry and a celebration of the beauty and variety of the coastline.

They plans to paint an audible portrait of the UK, celebrating our the many accents and dialects.

They are also looking for lots of contributions to our interactive website. They are creating an online anthology of love poetry in which you can
  • nominate your favourite love poem, 
  • record yourself reading a famous love poem, 
  • upload your own love poetry or message.
  • upload an image inspired by love
The British Library will be archiving the website, including all contributions, for posterity.
This is inspired by the Olympic Truce and organised by the Artichoke Trust.

See the website here and share that loving feeling!

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Do you do Science?

LAUNCH YOUR SCI-FI STORY INTO THE COSMOS!

Cosmos, founded in 2004, is a literary science magazine that reaches 40,000 readers every month around the globe, and covers everything from science fact to science fiction. Cosmos are now on the lookout for innovative science fiction short stories that that make you think about the future in
a different way.

Now Cosmos are hosting a short story competition to find new sci-fi short stories. The winning short story will be printed in the next issue of Cosmos Magazine, and the two runners-up will see their work published on Cosmos Online. For more information and to submit your work, please visit

Free Entry

Entries must be 4000 words or fewer 

Deadline: 31 July

www.circalit.com/screenplay/competitions/view/client/cosmos.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Marie Coveny and John Saunders Poetry Reading

Wednesday, 4th July at The Gutter Bookshop, Cow's Lane,Temple Bar, 6.30 pm.
Free admission.

Marie Coveny and John Saunders will be reading from their new publication 'Measuring' recently published by Dedalus Press.

Dedalus has decided to do its bit to revive that hugely useful (perhaps even crucial) 'introductory' volume tradition with the publication of the first in a new, annual series, Dedalus New Writers. Entitled Measuring: Dedalus New Writers 1, and featuring a selection of work by three very impressive up-and-coming poets, Marie Coveney from Cork, Clare McCotter from Derry and John Saunders from Offaly, this first in the series is both a statement of confidence in the wealth of new writing out there but also the beginning of a journey in which we hope to bridge the gap between individual magazine and book-length publication, though we also intend to draw attention to writers associated with other small presses, in the certain belief that good writing, wherever it comes from, deserves our support.

Marie Coveney's poem ‘Our Time’ won the American-Ireland Fund Single Poem Competition at the Listowel Literary Festival in 2008. Her work has been published in: Poetry Ireland Review, THE SHOp, The Stony Thursday Book and Southword Online. She performed at the 2010 West Cork Literary Festival in ‘The Next Generation Poets’ reading, and The Kinsale Arts Festival 2011. She was awarded special merit in The Dromineer Literary Festival 2010 and shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 2010. She was published in The Sunday Business Post, March 2011, having featured in BBC1 TV Spotlight program.She has also been shortlisted for The Listowel Collection Competition 2011 and The Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition 2011.

John Saunders’ first collection After the Accident was published in 2010 by Lapwing Press, Belfast. His poems have appeared in Revival, The Moth Magazine, Crannog, Prairie Schooner Literary Journal (Nebraska), Sharp Review, The Stony Thursday Book, Boyne Berries, Riposte and online in The Smoking Poet, Minus Nine Squared, The First Cut and The Weary Blues. John is the Director of Shine, a national voluntary mental health organisation. He lives in Co. Offaly.

Monday 2 July 2012

Francis MacManus Short Stories

I'm a little late getting to this but the Francis MacManus Short stories are on now. They're available to listen to on a podcast if you miss them on the radio. See here

My writing buddy Nollaig Rowan has hers coming up on Tuesday 3rd July.

If you're thinking about submitting in the autumn for next year, it's recommended to listen to work out what works well on radio and to get an idea of the type of thing the judges like.

Sunday 1 July 2012

Call from Mexico for writing from Ireland

Saludos de Mexico!

No I'm not there (I wish!) but Mexico has been in touch, or more specifically Jack Little who runs the Ofi Press, an online literary publication based in Mexico City,

They are planning an Irish edition and are looking for new submissions from poets, fiction writers, reviewers, artists, photographers from Ireland.

Submissions are rolling throughout the year for our monthly editions and poets should send up to 6 poems of up to 30 lines long each and fiction, articles and reviews should be a maximum of 2000 words.

 
Please send your submission to editor Jack Little at: theofipress@mail.com

 They say they have a loose theme of travel, being abroad, strange places, identity... but consider all good quality submissions.