TIGH LITRÍOCHTA
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Welcome to the Munster Literature Centre Founded in 1993, the Munster Literature Centre (Tigh Litríochta) is a non-profit arts organisation dedicated to the promotion and celebration of literature, especially that of Munster. To this end, we organise festivals, workshops, readings and competitions. Our publishing section, Southword Editions, publishes a biannual journal, poetry collections and short stories. We actively seek to support new and emerging writers and are assisted in our efforts through funding from Cork City Council, Cork County Council and the Arts Council of Ireland. Originally located in Sullivan's Quay, the centre moved to its current premises in the Frank O'Connor House (the author's birthplace) at 84 Douglas Street, in 2006. In 2000, the Munster Literature Centre organised the first Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival, an event dedicated to the celebration of the short story and named for one of Cork's most beloved authors. The festival showcases readings, literary forums and workshops. Following continued growth and additional funding, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award was introduced in 2005, coinciding with Cork's designation as that year's European Capital of Culture. The award is now recognised as the single biggest prize for a short story collection in the world and is presented at the end of the festival. In 2002, the Munster Literature Centre introduced the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize, an annual short story competition dedicated to one of Ireland's most accomplished story writers and theorists. This too is presented during the FOC festival. The centre also hosts the Éigse festival in the spring of each year. Workshops are held by featured authors in both autumn and spring, allowing the general public to receive creative guidance in an intimate setting for a minimal fee. In addition, the centre sponsors a Writer in Residence each year. We invite you to browse our website for further information regarding our events, Munster literature, and other literary information. Should you have any queries, we would be happy to hear from you. |
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Flying Blind
Guntars Godiņš' wry tragic-comic poems report from the borderlands; his relentless meditations on the human condition mirror the geographic location of a country on the edge of the Arctic waste, on the borders of an old, crumbling empire. Eschewing the usual solace of faith and fatherland, his poems spiral down into the dark places of the human pysche, exploring the reality behind our accepted notions.
Selected Poems from Flying Blind
One Road
The road lost in itself Finds its way in the traveller It carries on its back, his needs In a bag threaded through a stick. Trusting in the path he has chosen: The way a river flows in the bed Worn out by itself over the ages, The way winds blow from whatever Troughs source them in the seas, The way the hands of a believer Come together to pray.
__________
Painting
Living, we can Not be painted.
Can only live In this Painting and marvel.
At people in the Paintings We look at.
Who might in fact Be painting us. __________
Cha Cha
When I was at my most beautiful Our street in Riga was shelled, A hole in the roof let the Arctic in, I was numb when I wanted An ermine wrap to warm me.
When I was at my most beautiful My soldier had a smart coat With a gold pocket I put chocolate In for the front, he should have Warmed for me in his mouth.
When I was at my most beautiful A punched tag arrived in the post With his name and birth date, His body weighed on my shoulders Instead of turning in my hands. Copyright ©2005 Guntars Godiņš English translation Copyright ©2005 Eugene O'Connell
Guntars Godiņš was born in 1958. He studied Latvian literature and language at the University of Latvia and completed advanced studies in Finnish literature and culture at Helsinki University. His four poetry collections include Tas Nepasacitais (That Left Unsaid), Ar Atakalejosu Datumu (Dated Retrospectively), Enu Nesejs (Shadow Bearer) and Nakts Saule (Nocturnal Sun). One of the last of a group of dissident poets, before independence from the Soviet Union in 1992, he was heavily censored by the Soviet authorities for his biting anti-government irony.
His eclectic career includes work as a broadcaster of folk music and song on Latvian radio and a period as editor of the popular magazine Avois (The Well). He is cultural attaché at the Latvian embassy in Estonia.
Eugene O’Connell was born near Kiskeam in northwest Cork in 1951. He has published a number of chapbooks, one full collection of poems One Clear Call (Bradshaw Books 2003) and one book of translations, Flying Blind (Southword Editions), which was volume 12 of the Cork European City of Culture Translation Series. Diviner, a new collection of his poems, was published by Three Spires Press in 2009. He is editor of The Cork Literary Review.
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Read Southword Journal Online
Supplement 18 now online.
Sean Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition
now closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Best Irish Poetry in English 2010
Visit our bookstore here.
Poetry International.org
The Munster Literature Centre produces the Irish section of this prestigious poetry site. Current featured poets are from Landing Places, the new Dedalus anthology of immigrant poets. For further information, please visit the site at www.poetryinternational.org.
Festivals
The Munster Literature Centre hosts two annual festivals. The larger Cork City - Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival takes place each September, while the Cork Spring Literary Festival, with varying themes, is presented each spring. Further information is available on our drop down menus.
Workshops
Workshops in poetry and fiction run in Spring and Winter at MLC. Contact Jennifer for more information.
Munster Literature Centre
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©2009 The Munster Literature Centre |
Frank O'Connor House, 84 Douglas Street, Cork, Ireland. Tel. (353) 021 4312955, Email: munsterlit(AT)eircom(DOT)net |
Irish Registered Charity No.12374 |
