MUNSTER LITERATURE CENTRE
IONAD LITRÍOCHTA an DEISCIRT

LATEST NEWS

Songwriting Workshop with John Spillane
4th – 25th November

At my workshops we do not talk about writing songs, but we actually write songs. I have developed this method over many years, and I find it’s great for freeing up people who are blocked and for learning how to work the songwriting muscles. Read more here.

***

Seán O'Faolain International Short Story Competition
2020 winners and commended authors

Read about 1st prize winner Ben Fergusson, 2nd prize winner La Williams, shortlisted authors Hilary Fennell, Erin Courtney Kelly, Niamh Mulvey and Mel O Doherty, as well as the thirty highly commended authors on our results page.

***

Cork International Short Story Festival | October 6 - 10

Live Readings | Short Story Workshop

The 2020 Cork International Short Story Festival is online this year, with 10 events over 5 days, as well as a short story workshop delivered by our Frank O’Connor fellow, Alannah Hopkin. Among the featured authors are Kit de Waal, Richard Ford, Zsuzsi Gartner, Etgar Keret, Naomi Ishiguro, Frances Leviston, Billy O'Callaghan, Irenosen Okojie, Lysley Tenorio, Simon Van Booy and many others. October 6th to 10th. Individual events cost €5; a season ticket costs €50 (or €25 for subscribers to Southword journal).

***

Culture Night, September 18th

SEVEN CORK-BORN POETS READ FROM THEIR WORK

Details of their poetry chapbooks here

Readings will be uploaded to our YouTube Channel

Seven Cork-born poets each presents a 15-minute reading from their Southword Editions chapbooks on our YouTube Channel: Greg Delanty, John Fitzgerald, Victoria Kennefick, Bernadette McCarthy, John Mee, Gerry Murphy, James O’Leary.

***

An Fheadóg Fia le Jidi Majia
Aistrithe ag Simon Ó Faoláin

Southword Editions, 118 leathanach
ISBN: 978-1-905002-78-8
Praghas: €12 (laistigh de Phoblacht na hÉireann)
€14 (postas idirnáisúnta)

***

Four-day short story workshop
with Alannah Hopkin

As part of the Cork International Short Story Festival

***

Gregory O'Donoghue International
Poetry Competition now open

Judged by Peter Sirr
Deadline 30 November

First prize includes €2,000 for a single poem of up to 40 lines. The poem can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. This year's judge is Peter Sirr. The competition now accepting entries until 30 November. Complete guidelines here.

***

Introducing our new literary journal, Aneas

The Irish language’s only dedicated literary journal

Aneas is a new Irish-language literary journal published annually by Southword Editions. Edited by Simon Ó Faoláin, it includes new poems, short stories and literary criticism in Irish by many of the country's leading literary talent.

If you purchase issue 1 directly from us, you will receive a free poetry chapbook of Marius Burokas' poetry translated from the Lithuanian to Irish, Rinktiniai eilėraščiai.

***

Announcing the 2020 Frank O'Connor
International Short Story Fellow
& mentorship bursary opportunities

Alannah Hopkin of Cork, Ireland received the 2020 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellowship. This three-month fellowship includes a €3,000 monthly stipend. Hopkin will teach workshops and give readings at the Cork International Short Story Festival (taking place online in October) and University College Cork, and will mentor two emerging Cork writers. The annual fellowship is usually given to a short story writer from outside Ireland who has published at least two full-length books of fiction. In light of the pandemic, the Munster Literature Centre decided to take the extraordinary step of offering the 2020 fellowship to writers living within Munster and a commuting distance from Cork City, Ireland. The fellowship is devised and managed by the Munster Literature Centre and generously funded by Cork City Council.

Hopkin will lead a four-day workshop as part of the Cork International Short Story Festival October 7 – 10.

***

The Munster Literature Centre
TikTok Poetry Challenge

Winners will be chosen in November

tiktokweb

Produce a TikTok video (up to 60 seconds) of yourself performing a poem by a living Irish poet (you must fit the entire poem in so short poems are best).

The poet must be living, Irish, with at least one book published.

Posts must include the hashtag #MLCPoetryChallenge and the video must include, either spoken or in text, the name of the poet and title of the poem.

Please email a link to your TikTok video to info(at)munsterlit(dot)ie to enter.

In November we will choose what we think are the ten best and upload them on our YouTube channel.

We will pay €200 to the maker of each video we repost on YouTube and we will also pay €200 to the author of the poem used.

***

Farmgate Café National Poetry Award 2020
The Gravity Wave by Peter Sirr (The Gallery Press)

We're delighted to announce that the winner of the 2020 Farmgate Café National Poetry Award is The Gravity Wave by Peter Sirr (The Gallery Press). For the occasion, Peter Sirr reads 6 poems from his winning collection. More details about the award here.

***

The King of Lam by Greg Delanty

Our latest poetry chapbook is a book of elegies for the Irish poet Liam Ó Muirthile written by Greg Delanty (available now from €6).

Greg Delanty was born in Cork in 1958 and studied at University College Cork. He has lived in the US for the past 30 years and is a professor of English at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. He has received many awards, including a Guggenheim for poetry. His collections include Collected Poems 1986-2006 and The Greek Anthology Book XVII (both Carcanet).

***

Basher at the MLC for Cruinniú na nÓg

For Cruinniú na nÓg, a day of free creativity for children and young people on 13th June, Basher's visit to the Munster Literature Centre will be presented on our YouTube channel! Subscribe for new videos every Monday and Friday.

The Munster Literature Centre celebrates the art of storytelling through puppetry with this new commissioned story from television star Dominic Moore. Dominic was part of the original Morbegs team and his puppet character Basher Bacon first appeared on the RTÉ children’s show The Swamp. Find out more about Dominic here.

***

New Blogs & Essays Feature

Links to new blogs and our commisioned series of new personal essays by writer & editor Sarah Byrne on Paul Celan, marking the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

Week 1:	In Praise of Distance
Week 2:	In Praise of Scale
Week 3:	In Praise of Version
Week 4:	In Praise of Home

****

Emergency Covid-19 Author Bursaries Results

Twenty-four applications were received by the Munster Literature Centre for the initial offering of six emergency Covid-19 author bursaries of €2500. We re-examined our budget and increased the number of bursaries to ten. We funded this scheme with €12,900 from the cancelled Cork International Poetry Festival and €13,000 which had been set aside for staff salaries in 2020.
The outside assessors of the applications were Aosdana members James Harpur and Thomas McCarthy, and Clíona Ní Riordain, professor at the New Sorbonne, Paris. The chosen recipients for the bursaries were the following:

Paul Casey, Cork City	Kimberly Reyes, Cork City
Conal Creedon, Cork City	John Sexton, Co. Kerry
Sarah Harte, Cork County	Jo Slade, Limerick
Mary Leland, Cork City	Breda Spaight, Co. Limerick
Dairena Ní Chinneide, Co. Kerry	Grace Wells, Co. Clare

***

Code of Behaviour

The Munster Literature Centre, in partnership with the Arts Council and our other fellow constituent organisations in Words Ireland, is involved in devising a Code of Behaviour for the literature sector in Ireland. Until such time as that specific Irish code is ready, the activities of the Munster Literature Centre will be guided (subject to the laws of the European Union and Ireland) by the Code of Behaviour issued by the UK Society of Authors. All authors and workshopees involved with our events will be issued with a copy of this code. Staff, temporary and permanent, volunteers and interns, will also be issued with it, along with a staff handbook on safety and dignity in the workplace.

Click on the image below to open the full PDF: