Foras Na Gaeilge Writers grants application window open

For writers working in Irish, Foras Na Gaeilge have a number of current funding grants available.

Scéimeanna Scríbhneoireachta Fhoras na Gaeilge 2009 fógartha anois.  Spriocdháta: 5.00i.n. Dé Máirt, 24 Márta 2009

Scéim na nOidí Is í aidhm na scéime seo deis a thabhairt do scríbhneoirí i dtús a ré scríbhneoireachta comhairle faoina gcuid scríbhinní, agus faoi cheird na scríbhneoireachta i gcoitinne, a fháil ó scríbhneoirí aitheanta (oidí).

Scéim na Scoláireachtaí Taighde Faoi Scéim na Scoláireachtaí Taighde bronntar scoláireachtaí ar scríbhneoirí áirithe a bhainfeadh leas as deontas taighde chun cur lena n-inniúlacht chruthaitheach agus lena n-eispéireas liteartha.

Scéim na gCoimsiún Is í aidhm na scéime seo ciste coimisiúnaithe a dháileadh i measc lucht liteartha na Gaeilge sa chaoi is go gcinnteofar soláthar sásúil sna réimsí éagsúla léitheoireachta. Tabharfar tús áite i mbliana d’ábhar léitheoireachta do dhéagóirí.

Tá gach eolas maidir leis na scéimeanna chomh maith leis na foirmeacha iarratais cuí le fáil ar an suíomh idirlíon http://www.leabhar.ie

Foras na Gaeilge’s 2009 Writing Schemes announced!!

Closing date: 5.00p.m. Tuesday, 24 March 2009

The Tutor’s Scheme This scheme gives trainee writers an opportunity to get advice regarding their writing and the art of writing in general from recognised writers (tutors).

Research Scholarship Scheme Scholarships are granted to particular writers who use research grants to enchance their creative ability and their literary experience.

The Commission Scheme The aim of this scheme is to distribute funds among Irish language writers in such a way as to ensure a satisfactory supply across the full range of reading categories.

Information regarding the schemes as well as the relevant application forms can be found on the website http://www.leabhar.ie

Red House Children’s Book Awards Shortlist Announced

The shortlist is out today. I’ve a soft spot for these award as they are voted for by children. Like any award, they aren’t perfect and the voting proceedure seems a bit too complex but they do usually find some truly enjoyable books that are rewarded simply because they are enjoyable – not always the case in other awards!

Books for Younger Children: Pencil by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman (Walker Books); Beware of the Frog by William Bee (Walker Books); A Lark in the Ark by Peter Bently, illustrated by Lynne Chapman (Egmont); The Three Horrid Pigs and the Big Friendly Wolf by Liz Pichon (Little Tiger Press).

Books for Younger Readers: Cows in Action: Wild West Moo-nsters by Steve Cole (Red Fox); Daisy and the Trouble with Zoos by Kes Gray (Red Fox); The Cat Who Liked Rain by Henning Mankell (Andersen Press).

Books for Older Readers: Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford (Puffin); Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie (Simon & Schuster); Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine (Harper Collins).

World Book Day want to know your guilty secrets

In the run  up to World Book Day, they want to know your guilty reading secrets -

Ever pretended to have read a book you hadn’t?

Ever stayed up way too late to finish a book?

Survey here - It’ll only take a couple of minutes and it would be nice to have Ireland  represented

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that I went through a Dick Francis stage when I was about 13!

CBI Conference – full line up released

The full timetable for the CBI conference has been announced over on CBI’s Homepage. Its a cracker of a line up – ok so I am a little biased but even if I wasn’t, it’s a great great line up. AND we get to enjoy the National Gallery as the conference venue this year -

Direct from the blurbs

On the home front, Ireland is well represented by the talents of Celine Kiernan (The Poison Throne), Andrew Whitson and Caitríona Hastings (An tSnáthaid Mhór), Orla Kenny & Mary Branley (Kids’ Own) and Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl, Airman), who will close proceedings on Sunday in conversation with Robert Dunbar.

Making perhaps the longest commute ever in the history of CBI conference speakers will be the celebrated Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan (The Arrival, Tales from Outer Suburbia) who makes his first visit to Ireland especially for the conference.

From the UK, CBI is delighted to welcome illustration expert Martin Salisbury (Play Pen), award-winning authors Patrick Ness (The Knife of Never Letting Go) and David Almond (Skellig, Jackdaw Summer), as well as writer and publisher Verna Wilkins (Tamarind Books), who will present this year’s Ibby Ireland session.

You can see full details including speaker biogs and timetables here.

See you there (I’ll be the frazzled one, desperately hunting for bottled water and microphone connections!!)

Booky bloggers – Wed 18th February

Please note Change of Venue to Teacher’s Club – 36 Parnell Square, D 1

It is Blog Awards Week next week. Am really chuffed that I have been longlisted for the Best Arts & Culture Blog.

To coincide with the awards there is a special Blogging and Books Event next Wednesday February 18th at 7pm.

Venue: The Teacher’s Club, 36 Parnell Sq

Guests: Sarah Rees Brennan, Twenty Major, Ivan O’Brien and yours truly alongside some other special guests.

According to Mulley -

It will be a panel discussion on all things books and blogging, mixed with wine, water and the odd chocolate bar and finishing with an open-floor Q&A.

Ibby Ireland event

iBby Ireland announces a Zimbabwe Awareness Event with Conor Kostick, P.J. Lynch, Oisín McGann, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and Sarah Webb.

A cultural evening to highlight awareness of the newly formed iBbY Zimbabwe, will be held in Pearse Street Library on Thursday 26th February 2009 from 6.00-8.00pm. Tickets 10 euro which includes refreshments. Donations will be accepted and a raffle will be held for great prizes too.

Join a host of Irish authors and illustrators who have generously agreed to come along and talk about their latest work to help iBbY Ireland raise funds for iBbY Zimbabwe’s important work.

With Conor Kostick, P.J. Lynch, Oisín McGann, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and Sarah Webb already confirmed, we know that it will be an enjoyable evening with African music and refreshments to add to the ambience!

In March 2008, iBbY Ireland (International Board on Books for Young People) twinned with iBbY Zimbabwe in order to help them set up a similar organisation during a particularly challenging time in Zimbabwe’s history.

iBbY has sections in over 70 countries worldwide and one of their central aims is to build international understanding through children’s books. Their core aim is to bring children and books together. iBbY Ireland has been working on a number of projects with our Zimbabwe colleagues – supporting workshops and seminars for children’s authors and illustrators, advising on reading promotion programmes and crucially, making cooperative links with other sections facing similar challenges. Thanks to modest funding from iBbY Ireland, one of our Zimbabwe contacts made a recent fact-finding visit in January 2009 to iBbY South Africa where he saw at first hand, projects such as the township Reading Clubs, the container libraries (converted, second hand sea containers) and efforts to promote indigenous publishing.

There is a great deal to be done to rebuild networks of literature and literacy in Zimbabwe and we hope that iBbY Ireland can make a small contribution towards this very worthwhile aim. So, come along and find out more about the work that is going on in Zimbabwe and enjoy an evening in the company of some of Ireland’s finest writers and illustrators.

Venue: Pearse Street Library
Date : Thursday 26th February 2009
Time : 6.00-8.00pm
Cost : €10 which includes refreshments. Donations will be accepted and a raffle will be held for great prizes too.

Further details: secretary@ibbyireland.ie or phone 087 996 9220

on boys and reading

The Times Online carries an article by author Joe Craig about creativity and boys. It’s similar to a talk Joe delivered last year in Cork city libraries during Children’s Book Festival

The biggest change comes in Year 7, which statistically is also when there’s the biggest drop off in reading – especially in boys. Now, it perhaps seems obvious that the withering of originality is greatly caused by reading less. But I think it’s also the other way round: they read less because their creative spark is consistently doused. Their connection with stories, with ideas and imagination, is stifled by the school environment. If the fun has gone from stories, why read?

Oisin McGann talked about something similar at Teenage Kicks, The LAI conference in November. You can access the full text of his often very funny talk here.

When boys are at that age, we’re basically just little cave men. We have simple tastes, which – in some cases – we never grow out of. I firmly believe that most of the cave paintings that have been found around the world were painted by men, simply because they are largely pictures of a buffalo or a mammoth being shot in the arse with an arrow. If women had been doing the painting, they would be pictures of marriages, girls becoming best friends, or people sitting round dealing with social issues. Or they might possibly be recording the invention of the shoe (I wasn’t sure if I’d get away with that one). But the boys wanted to shoot a mammoth in the arse with an arrow and six thousand years later, we haven’t changed.

TED.com – The nature of genius?

I’m a TED addict.  It is one of my favourite online resources. I don’t always agree with the speakers but I can usually find something there that gets me interested.

TED 2009 has just finished and they have uploaded some of the sessions including this one from author, Elizabeth Gilbert about the nature of genius. Gilbert’s  theory is that by externalising genius in some way – a fairy, a daemon, a spirit in the corner-  it frees artists and writers to do their part. I’m not sure I agree with her but she makes several good points about artists and writers along the way.

Don’t let the fairies, daemons or spirits put you off – This is really worth a watch

Irish Independent looks at the business of publishing

Article in the indo about what faces the book industry here. Bit bizarre that they only talked  to one agent, one publisher and one bookseller so I’m not sure how representative it can be…. Worth a look anyway though-

Reading Between the lines during these hard times

Scott Mc Cloud- making me understand comics

I was never a big comic fan as a kid, mostly I think because one of my brothers was Asterix mad and I was determined to avoid anything he liked…..

So it’s left me with a huge gap in knowledge – Recently, the  DFC among other things has made me go and do a bit of research. Luckily Scott McCloud has been writing books for people like me… Understanding Comics is an extraordinary way in to comics. Laid out as a comic big it introduces all the main concepts with plenty of humour and skill.

Scott McCloud has been a previous visitor to TED – worth a watch here.

More Comic Stuff over on The Independent (UK) to mark the arrival of ComicCon in New York.