Reading with Gerard Stembridge & Kevin Curran - IWC

Gerry Stembridge by Anto Kane

Gerry Stembridge and Kevin Curran will read at the Irish Writers' Centre tomorrow,  Saturday 7th September at 1.00pm

Gerard Stembridge’s work as screenwriter and novelist is well known to Irish audiences. His scripting of ‘Ordinary Decent Criminal’ (starring Kevin Spacey) set the bar for Irish screenwriters. Although Gerry is perhaps even more renowned for his broadcast work, in particular for much-loved Scrap Saturday, co-written with the late Dermot Morgan. His fourth novel The Effect of Her (Old Street Publishing) has been met with much acclaim. In it he relates, in nonfictionalised detail, the social and political events that rocked Ireland in the 1970s.

 Kevin's debut novel Beatsploitation which explores a changed Dublin powerfully captures the energy, wit and pathos of contemporary Dublin society, giving voice to a cynical, disillusioned generation, caught between the tired values of the old and the uncertainty of the new.

Both men will read and talk about the novel as a document of a generation and how writing can shine a light on society's values.

*GALWAY STORIES* - DUBLIN LAUNCH

Tomorrow, Wednesday 26th June at 7pm, in the IWC, Dublin, sees the Dublin launch of Doire Press's latest anthology Galway Stories. There will be Galwegians who are now Dubs. Dubs who are now Galwegians. Longfordians who are from everywhere but live in Galway. There will even be Galwegian Californians. There will also be books, readings, wine and chat.

BLOOMSDAY: BLOOMNIBUS, ESSAY AND INTERVIEW

Nuala, James and Alan - Image by Max O'Rover of Italish Magazine

Today, 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!!