Literature
Kilkenny Writer in Residence - An Update
Award-winning poet and author and appointed Kilkenny Writer in Residence Grace Wells has been working with Kilkenny writers, facilitating creative writing workshops, and offering mentoring advice throughout Kilkenny city and county over the last month. This project was borne out of a partnership between Kilkenny County Council's Library Service and Arts Office. Grace, who will continue in her role for the next two months, says of her experience to date 'The first month of the residency has flown past. I've been busy giving creative writing workshops in Loughboy library on Wednesday nights, and running all-day poetry workshops on Saturday's for poets aspiring to publish a collection of their work. The Wednesday class is a full and lively event, with a group of dedicated and inspired writers. During the Saturday workshops I've been prompting poets to write new work, look at editing, publishing and forming a collection. I've been passing around a number of publications and magazines so people have a good idea where to place work.'
In addition to these workshops Grace has been meeting writers on a one-to-one basis at writers' clinics, which mostly takes place in John's Quay library. On this aspect on the Residency Grace tells us that she has been talking to novelists, short story writers and poets. Also to people working with memoir, film scripts and children's writing. Sometimes this means reading people's work and giving feedback, other times she just listens or discuss issues. Basically Grace is encouraging and assisting people to get to the next level, wherever that may be. Some writers have issues with the mechanics of writing, like plot or character development, other times issues are with publishing, or getting work to a wider audience. So far people have been very pleased with the positive nature and attention they receive at the clinics.
As a writer herself Grace is also gaining personally from the experience of being Kilkenny's Writer in Residence, as she says 'From my own point of view, it's been great working with so many different people and finding out how many good writers there are in Kilkenny.'
Now as the residency moves into its second month, Grace will be concentrating further on the one-to-one meetings and giving the workshops a break for Easter. During the month of May the following classes will take place:
Tuesday 5th May-26th May:
7pm-9.30pm: 4 week course 'Creative Writing, Taking it to the Next Level'
Location: Thomastown
Level: All are welcome.
Wednesday 6th May-27th May:
7pm-9.30pm: 4 week course 'Creative Writing, Taking it to the Next Level'
Location: Loughboy Library
Level: Experience preferred.
Bookings for both classes have already been coming in, but there are a few places left, so anyone interested in taking a class, or meeting Grace for a one-to-one session, should call Grace direct on 086 390 6330, or email gracewells@eircom.net
Funding for the Residency is provided by the Libraries and Arts Office of Kilkenny County Council with support from the Arts Council of Ireland.
Grace Wells Biography
Formerly a Television and Pop Video producer, Grace Wells' first book, 'Gyrfalcon', a novel for children, won the Eilis Dillon Best Newcomer Bisto Award and was an International White Ravens' Choice. A second children's novel Ice-Dreams was published by the O'Brien Press in 2008, while 'One World, Our World' a development education book for Irish Aid, has recently been launched by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Her poetry and short stories have appeared widely and been broadcast on RTE. She was selected for Poetry Ireland's Introductions Series 2003, was shortlisted for the Start Chapbook Prize '06 and the Charlie Byrne New Writer of the Year '07, and took third place in the '07 Patrick Kavanagh Award. She is currently working on a first collection of poems, When God has been Called Away to Greater Things. She reviews Irish Poetry for 'Contrary', the University of Chicago's online magazine.
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Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet Issue 9: Call for Submissions
CLOSING DATE HAS NOW PASSED!
The Arts Office of Kilkenny County Council is delighted to announce a call for submission for the publication of the ninth issue of the very popular KILKENNY POETRY BROADSHEET. The aim of the publication is to give local writers a platform for their work. Each poem selected is included in the broadsheet which in available for free throughout the County.
The ninth issue of Kilkenny Poetry will be edited by Yvonne Cullen. Yvonne was born and lives in Dublin. Her first collection of poems, 'Invitation to the Air' won the American Ireland fund award at Listowel Writers' Week. Published in 1998, it received the following praise: "A gifted poet" (John Burnside), 'A world of atmosphere and filament' (Kerry Hardie), and 'Poetry which needs to be read' (Howard Wright, Poetry Ireland). Since then, publications in which Yvonne's poems have appeared have included the New Irish Poets anthology (Bloodaxe Books), the Irish Times, Poetry Ireland, The White Page anthology, and, recently, 'Our Shared Japan' from Dedalus Press. Yvonne is also an established creative writing teacher. In 2006, she edited the anthology 'All Good Things Begin,' which gathered the work of more than forty of her adult students, many of whom are now going on to make their own names as writers.
We are now accepting submissions from poets born or based in Kilkenny City and County.
Application forms and submission rules are available from the Arts Office, No. 72 John Street, Kilkenny T: 056 7794138 E: niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie Or can be downloaded here or from www.artlinks.ie
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PAST EVENTS
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Rhyme Rag Issue 4: Call for Submissions
Kilkenny County Council's Arts Office is delighted to announce the launch of the fourth edition of Rhyme Rag, a poetry publication featuring the work of young people. The aim of this publication is to give local young writers a platform for their work. Each piece selected will be included in the Rhyme Rag which will be available throughout the City and County free of charge.
The Arts Office is now selecting submissions from young people aged between 12 and 21 years. You must be born or based in Kilkenny City or County. No previous writing experience is necessary.
Rhyme Rag Issue 3 saw 264 poems submitted by 161 young poets with last years editor John W. Sexton commenting 'It is a blessing on everyone in the Kilkenny Arts Office that the young poets in this county have a good home for their work. Long may this wonderful publication Rhyme Rag exist. '
This year we are delighted to welcome on board as editor Eileen Sheehan. Eileen is from Scartaglin, Co Kerry, now living in Killarney. Her first collection, Song Of The Midnight Fox (Doghouse Books) was published in 2004. Of this work poet Niall MacMonagle says 'In this confident, very impressive first collection, Eileen Sheehan explores memory, the immediate moment and dream. She writes of children and childhood, parents, relationships, illness, "a grief too deep," with admirable clear-sightedness and tenderness. Her poetry is engagingly sympathetic but Sheehan's work is also humorous: her wry look at life "with children and pot-plants and attic conversion" jolts and refreshes.'
She is the winner of the inaugural Writers' Week Listowel Poetry Slam (2004) and the Brendan Kennelly Poetry Award (2006). She is on the Poetry Ireland Writers In Schools Scheme and is employed by County Kerry VEC teaching Creative Writing at Killarney Technical College. Anthology publications include The Open Door Book of Poetry (Ed Niall MacMonagle), Winter Blessings by Patricia Scanlan, Our Shared Japan (Dedalus Press) and The Echoing Years: An Anthology of Irish & Canadian Poetry. In April she will read at The National American Conference for Irish Studies at St Ambrose University, Iowa, U.S.A. Her second collection, Down the Sunlit Hall, will be launched at Writers' Week Listowel in May 2008.
Closing date for receipt of submissions is no later than 4pm on Friday 23rd May 2008.
For rules of submissions and application forms please contact:
Arts Office, No. 72, John Street, Kilkenny on 056 7794138 or e-mail niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie
Alternatively, Rhyme Rag Application Form and Rules of Submission can be downloaded here.
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Kilkenny County Council Writer in Residence - Request for Applications
Kilkenny County Councils Arts Office and Library Service have a strong commitment to providing literary developments through partnership between the Arts Office and Library Service. We also focus on ensuring a balanced approach to the development of projects and activities across all art forms within Kilkenny city and county. Therefore we are now seeking applications to appoint a writer in residence.
Writers are invited to make applications focussing their applications on the ability of the residency to develop and generate new audiences for the libraries and for the writing community of Kilkenny. We expect that the residency will extend the appreciation of writing and literature and enhance accessibility to this art form. We also anticipate that it will introduce Kilkenny based writers to new experiences and offer new opportunities. This project is also part of Kilkenny County Councils Art Office's programme support the continuing professional development of practitioners in Kilkenny.
A comprehensive survey early in 2008 identified a number of areas and issues that our literary community wish to be addressed. Applicants must give details on how they would approach and address these issues within their application for the position. This is contained in the application and supporting information details available from the Arts Office.
Please contact:
mary.butler@kilkennycoco.ie / niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie
Tel. 056 779 4138
Alternatively please download application forms and further information here: Brief and Application Form
Deadline for receipt of applications is no later than 4pm Monday 10th November 2008.
Late applications will not be considered. No e mail applications will be accepted.
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KILKENNY POETRY BROADSHEET ISSUE 8
The Arts Office of Kilkenny County Council is delighted to announce the publication of the eighth issue of the very popular KILKENNY POETRY BROADSHEET. The aim of the publication is to give local writers a platform for their work. Each poem selected is included in the broadsheet which is available for free from the Arts Office.
This years editor is Catherine Phil MacCarthy. Her collections include How High the Moon (Poetry Ireland, Sense of Place Award, 1991, a joint book), This Hour of the Tide (1994), the blue globe (1998), Suntrap (2007), and a first novel, One Room an Everywhere (2003). She was awarded a bursary in poetry from the Arts Council, in 1994, 1999 and 2007/8. Writer in Residence for Dublin City, (1994), University College Dublin (2002), she leads workshops at the Irish Writers Centre. She is also a former editor of Poetry Ireland Review.
About MacCarthy, the poet Eamon Grennan has said, "her poems reveal an imagination aware of the strength and delicacy of the body as well as how mind and body are in endless, responsive dialogue with each other."
From the 144 poems submitted by 53 poets, 17 poems from 17 poets were selected in this year's publication. Selected poets include previously published broadsheet poets Michael Massey, Frances Cotter, Jack Cuddihy, Nuala Roche, Frank Marshall, Violet Madden, Geraldine Coleman, Anne O'Connor, Brid Ryall with new names featuring including Niamh Mulvey, Tomas Ceitinn, Jeffrey Gormly, Myra McAuliffe, Caroline Delahunty, Monica Fleming, Anne Beck and Terry Brophy. The design and illustration of the broadsheet was undertaken by artist Ale Mercado.
The launch of Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet Issue 8 took place on Thursday 15th May at 6pm in No. 72, John Street, Kilkenny.
For further information on activities undertaken by the Arts Office please contact us at No. 72 John Street, Kilkenny T: 056 7794138 E: niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie
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Rhyme Rag 3 2007
Kilkenny County Council's Arts Office is delighted to announce the launch of the third edition of Rhyme Rag, a poetry publication featuring the work of young Kilkenny writers. 264 poems by 169 writers were submitted for inclusion in edition 3 of the Rhyme Rag making the editors decision a good read but a difficult choice. 23 poems from young people aged between 12 and 21 years who have little or no previous writing experience were selected in this year's publication.
This years Rhyme Rag will once again take the form of a comic book, containing a poem per page. The illustration of the comic was undertaken by artist Ale Mercado and this year's editor was John W. Sexton. John is a poet, short story writer, dramatist, children's novelist, radio scriptwriter and broadcaster. He is the author of three collections of poetry, 'The Prince's Brief Career' (1995), 'Shadows Bloom / Scáthanna Faoi Bhláth' (2004), a book of haiku with translations into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock, and most recently 'Vortex' (2005). He also created and wrote 'The Ivory Tower' for RTE radio, which ran to over one hundred half-hour episodes. His novels based on this series, 'The Johnny Coffin Diaries' and 'Johnny Coffin School-Dazed' are both published by The O'Brien Press, and have been translated into Italian and Serbian. He has also recorded an album with legendary Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell, entitled 'Sons Of Shiva'. He has been nominated for The Hennessy Literary Award and is currently Fiction Editor for The Cork Literary Review. He won this year's Listowel Poetry Prize for best single poem and has just recently been awarded a Patrick Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry for 2007.
John W. Sexton on Rhyme Rag:
'All writers are born with the same start: a writer's intuitive gifts, willed to them in the womb. But that intuitive power must be developed. Over it the writer should essentially learn to place the clothing of structure and style. Before that can happen, however, a writer's gifts must be fostered, and the first fostering for most of us is in the school classroom and the home. I say this for I wish to begin by stating that it was evident to me as I read through the many submissions of poetry for this edition of the Rhyme Rag, that the young writers of Kilkenny have been well fostered indeed. It is in the home and in the school that our poets seek their first encouragement, and it is only right that that encouragement is there to be had.
The second place that writers turn to is the avenue of publication, but for young writers these avenues are not always available. It is a blessing on everyone in the Kilkenny Arts Office that the young poets in this county have a good home for their work. Long may this wonderful publication exist.
A poet's range must be wide, and also, at times, contradictory. There are occasions when poetry must be serene, contemplative and pure; and there are other occasions when poetry should be wild, unstable, even dangerous. It is said in some quarters that a poet's concerns should be able to encompass the three Bs. The three Bs in question are: Beauty, Blaggarding and Bile. Open this book and you will find examples of all three. On some pages the poetry is calm, retrospective, poignant, and on other pages it is skitting, mad, utterly mental, at times even sinister. And that, with poetry, is exactly as it should be.
Expect no less in these pages, and enjoy this marvellous collection of writing from Kilkenny's young poets.'
Ale Mercado's response to the Rhyme Rag and his involvement in it is extremely positive and he says 'it's a great honour to be involved in the Rhyme Rag. It has grown a lot in its short existence. I can clearly remember the first meeting with Mary Butler and how enthusiastic she was about providing young local poets with a way of seeing their work published. The first Rhyme Rag consisted of 16 poems of 50 submitted... We are around the 550 submissions now. Three years later.
And every poem is so special, so suggestive, so full of life that I am always afraid I am not going to do justice to the words. Illustration is like that. It is the balance between literal interpretation of words and the intervention of the illustrator. The images have to be able to invite the reader into exploring the text, and play with it at the same time, disguise, trick, surprise... but always keep in the background. The important things here are the poems. Without them there is no Rhyme Rag.
Every illustration has a life of its own, generated by the poem, the images it suggests and the mood it transmit. Producing them is not always an easy task.
I've tried to let the words dictate everything in the execution of the illustration (within my limitations) and I've suffered, been in love, felt anger... with each one of them. Because that's what the Rhyme Rag is, a beautiful compilation of pieces of people's lives and human emotion.
Resuming, there is a lot of talent out there. Well done to all the authors. I'd like to express my gratitude to the Arts Office and in particular to Mary Butler for allowing me participate in such a brilliant project. Can't wait to start preparing next year's one.'
The launch of the Rhyme Rag took place at No. 72, John Street on Wednesday 28th November 2007 at 5pm.
Series Director: Mary Butler
Series Coordinators: Niamh Finn and Emma King
Editor: John W. Sexton
Graphic Design: Alé Mercado
For further information on Rhyme Rag and other literary events please contact the Arts Office, No. 72, John Street, Kilkenny on 056 7794138
or e-mail mary.butler@kilkennycoco.ie / niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie.
Arts Office opening hours 9am - 1pm + 2pm - 5pm Mon - Fri
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Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet Issue 7 2007
The Arts Office of Kilkenny County Council is delighted to announce the publication of the seventh issue of the very popular Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet. The aim of the publication is to give local writers a platform for their work. Each poem selected is included in the broadsheet available from the Arts Office.
This years editor is Kevin Higgins. Kevin is a poet based in Galway City. He facilitates poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre and along with his wife Susan Millar DuMars they organises the 'Over The Edge' readings in Galway City Library. His first collection of poems, 'The Boy With No Face', was published by Salmon in 2005 and was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish Poet. His second collection is forthcoming.
From the 203 poems submitted by 79 poets, 14 poems from 10 poets were selected in this year's publication. Editor Kevin Higgins notes that 'Nature and the passing away of loved ones are two themes that do recur but mostly it's a pretty eclectic selection, deliberately so'. Selected poets include previously published broadsheet poets Michael Massey, Gillian Somerville - Large, Maria Casey and Martha Woodcock with new names featuring including Anne O'Connor, Kathleen Phelan, Geraldine Coleman, Brid Ryall, Brid Galway and Kelly O'Brien. The design and illustration of the broadsheet was undertaken by artist Ale Mercado and Marla.ie and are intrinsic to the presentation of the publication.
Should you wish to receive a copy of the Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet Issue 7 or any of the past issues please contact the Arts Office or feel free to drop in and pick up this publication.
Launch of Broadsheet which took place at No.72 John Street on Thursday the 19th of April 2007
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