Litfest
Mark Griffiths whom we published in Watermark (Flax002) has a new collection of poetry out. In his new guise as Fernado Smith comes “Welcome to the Golden Life” published by Searle Publishing.
Copies are available now via The Poetry Bookcase, price £9.99, and Fernando has kindly supplied us with a couple of signed copies too! Yay!
The postman delivered us some shiny, lovely new poetry pamphlets for The Poetry Bookcase today. They came from Shadowtrain editor and Flax writer Ian Seed.
In his accompanying note, Ian tells us that ‘the straw which comes apart’, is his translations of the Italian poet, Ivano Fermini. The pamphlet is published by Oystercatcher Press, winners of the Michael Marks Publishers’ Award for Outstanding UK publisher of poetry in pamphlet form.
‘the straw which comes apart’ is priced £4.00and is available now from The Poetry Bookcase in The Storey.
And here is a sample from it:
carnival
on the horizon not even
was I mute but you held the pearls
and they gather around a thunderclap
the small eagle will carry the rags
sea
I haven’t added up the waves
only fire with eyes the headstones
passing among men
the tears with a great rise and fall
The judges for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction today, Tuesday 27 July, announce the longlist for the prize, the leading literary award in the English speaking world.
A total of 138 books, 14 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen’ longlist of 13 books.
The longlist includes:
Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)
Emma Donoghue Room (Pan MacMillan – Picador)
Helen Dunmore The Betrayal (Penguin – Fig Tree)
Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Books)
Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)
Andrea Levy The Long Song
(Headline Publishing Group – Headline Review)
Tom McCarthy C (Random House – Jonathan Cape)
David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Hodder & Stoughton – Sceptre)
Lisa Moore February (Random House – Chatto & Windus)
Paul Murray Skippy Dies (Penguin – Hamish Hamilton)
Rose Tremain Trespass (Random House – Chatto & Windus)
Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Grove Atlantic – Tuskar Rock)
Alan Warner The Stars in the Bright Sky
(Random House – Jonathan Cape)
The chair of judges, Andrew Motion, comments:
“Here are thirteen exceptional novels – books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality, without reference to the past work of their authors. Wide-ranging in their geography and their concern, they tell powerful stories which make the familiar strange and cover an enormous range of history and feeling. We feel confident that they will provoke and entertain.”
Peter Carey is one of only two authors to have won the prize twice, in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda and 2001 for True History of the Kelly Gang. In 1985 his book Illywhacker was shortlisted for the prize and Theft: A Love Story was longlisted in 2006.
Three authors have been shortlisted before: David Mitchell (twice shortlisted in 2001 for number9dream and in 2004 for Cloud Atlas), Damon Galgut (in 2003 for The Good Doctor) and Rose Tremain (shortlisted in 1989 for Restoration). She was also a judge for the Booker Prize in 1988 and 2000.
Howard Jacobson has been longlisted twice for his book Kalooki Nights in 2006 and for Who’s Sorry Now? in 2002.
The 2010 shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 7 September at a press conference at Man Group’s London headquarters. The winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010 will be revealed on Tuesday 12 October at a dinner at London’s Guildhall and will be broadcast on the BBC Ten O’Clock News.
The winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction will receive £50,000 and can look forward to greatly increased sales and worldwide recognition. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, will receive £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their shortlisted book.
Chaired by Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate, the 2010 judges are Rosie Blau, Literary Editor of the Financial Times; Deborah Bull, formerly a dancer, now Creative Director of the Royal Opera House as well as a writer and broadcaster; Tom Sutcliffe, journalist, broadcaster and author and Frances Wilson, biographer and critic.
The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award
Final countdown to the UK’s most popular poetry prize for young people
Deadline for entries 31 July 2010
“Becoming a Foyle Young Poet is about more than just winning a competition. It is like being given the keys to doors you didn’t know existed – suddenly there are clear directions you can take your poetry in. Entry is free and can be done instantly online – what are you waiting for? Let your poem be heard!” Phoebe Power, Foyle Young Poet of the Year 2009
If you are 11-17 years of age, the Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award opens up exciting opportunities for your writing to be recognized and given the chance to flourish.
Since it began 13 years ago the award has identified some of the most exciting new voices in contemporary poetry. These include Caroline Bird, who after winning the award had her first collection of poetry published aged just 16, Jay Bernard whose first collections Your Sign is Cuckoo girl was published in 2008, and Richard O’Brien who set up the highly successful e-zine Pomegranate with other young writers. Many past winners can also be seen performing their work at festivals across the UK such as Latitude and the Big Chill.
It doesn’t just acknowledge this new talent – it provides an opportunity for this talent to flourish. There are two prizes available for the fifteen overall winners. The 14-17 year olds get the chance to attend a week long residential course at The Hurst in Shropshire, one of the prestigious Arvon Centres, where they will be tutored by this year’s judges Jane Draycott and Luke Kennard. The younger age range winners (11-14 year olds) will receive a visit to their school from a professional poet, followed by distance mentoring. The Award also incorprates a year-round programme of activity aimed at encouraging creativity and literacy in schools, providing poet-led residencies, mentoring and a range of free resources including lesson plans and poetry book sets. It also champions and celebrates committed schools and teachers across the UK.
Whatever happens, don’t let uncertainty stop you entering that poem. As one of this years judge’s Luke Kennard confesses:
“I lie awake at 3 a.m. thinking of reasons not to send my work off. Maybe I’ll write something better next month or next year. The more enlightened part of me knows that one of the best poems ever written is William Carlos Williams’s apology for eating someone else’s plums; that we can only understand the great themes, the political, the spiritual through specifics and in strange, small, and seemingly insignificant things. So all I’m saying is don’t be like me lying there terrified at 3 a.m.: send in your work!”
The deadline for the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is 31 July 2010. So what are you waiting for? Sending in a poem may be your first step toward becoming one of our great poets of the future.
Enter online or download an entry form at www.foyleyoungpoets.org or you can request an entry form by emailing fyp@poetrysociety.org.uk.
A Spotlight Performance Workshop
at The Storey Creative Industries Centre, Lancaster
on Friday 18th June at 2.30pm – 4.30pm
Facilitator: Tony Walsh
A confident performer with a direct, accessible style, Tony’s live set takes audiences on a rock and rollercoaster ride from comedy to tragedy, from the deadly serious to the seriously deadly. Whilst known to some for his humorous or multiple slam-winning pieces, Tony regularly moves audience members to tears with his insightful and raw urban folk tales informed by his own working class, Anglo-Irish upbringing and by twenty years spent working with some of the most deprived inner city communities in the UK.
Fee: £5
Places are limited and must be booked in advance.
To sign up e-mail: spotlightclub@btinternet.com
Lancaster Spotlight is funded by Arts Council England and supported by Lancashire County Council and Lancaster City Council.
Spotlight works in association with litfest.
There was delight in the Litfest office this morning when we got the news that recent Litfest guest Monique Roffey had made it through to the shortlist for the 2010 Orange Prize!
Monique’s book “The White Woman on the Green Bicycle” (Simon & Schuster £12.99) has made it to the final judging stage alongside Hilary Mantel, Barbara Kingsolver, Rosie Alison, Attica Locke and Lorrie Moore. Nice also to see that 4 of the 6 books are from Independents (2 from Faber and 1 from both Alma and Serpent’s Tail).
Whilst visiting Litfest in March, Monique told us how she received numerous rejections from various publishers for her book, before it was finally accepted by Simon & Schuster. Monique lived in Lancaster for a spell whilst studying for her Creative Writing MA at Lancaster University. Her first novel Sun Dog was published in 2002.
Copies of “White Woman on the Green Bicycle” are available from the Litfest Poetry Bookcase.
“This shortlist achieves the near impossible of combining literary merit with sheer readability,” said chair of judges Daisy Goodwin.
The winner of the £30,000 prize is announced on 9th June.
The shortlist:
The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison (Alma Books)
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber)
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate)
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (Faber)
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey (S&S)
If you’ve been into the Poetry Bookcase recently, you’ll have seen a selection of the rather lovely poetry books published by Templar Press.
Templar Poetry is now in its fifth year and is currently inviting submissions for the 2010 Templar Poetry Pamphlet & Collection Prizes. As you may know the prizes offer an opportunity for four winners to have their submissions published in Templar’s widely praised pamphlet format, and to to submit a full collection for later publication. Templar are committed to publishing excellent new poetry and are delighted that three of their first collection poets have been shortlisted in major book prizes, and several of their pamphlet poets have gone on to receive recognition in many awards and prizes.
Templar appoint a new judge each year and all work is read anonymously and judged purely on merit. Submissions may be sent online or by post and the latest date for submission is 8th May 2010. This year the Judge is Pat Winslow, herself one of the previous winners of the Pamphlet Prize.
Shortlisted poets have the opportunity to have poems published in Templar’s annual anthology, from which they also occasionally commision full collections. Many of the poets published in Templar’s anthologies have also gone on to have their work published by other poetry presses and recognised in other major poetry prizes.
The four winning writers, along with anthology poets, are offered an opportunity to read at the Derwent Poetry Festival in Derbyshire, where Templar celebrate the publication of their new titles each autumn.
Recently the role of the pamphlet (or chapbook) in contemporary poetry in developing and opening opportunities in the writing careers of new poets has been more widely recognised with the establishment, in 2009, of a major new prize, the Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets, supported by the British Library and the Michael Marks Trust. This prize is a significant recognition of the role of the poetry pamphlet throughout the British Isles in offering modern poetry to new readers and audiences.
Further information is available on the Templar Poetry website.
Great news today for our Litfest guest tonight Monique Roffey, who has just been announced as one of the 20 authors on the longlist for the 2010 award.
“White Woman on a Green Bicycle” (Simon & Schuster £12.99) is Monique’s second novel, following her 2002 debut “Sun Dog”. Monique, a former Lancaster resident and PhD student was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad where this latest novel is set. When George and Sabine Harwood arrive in Trinidad from England George instantly takes to their new life, but Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill at ease with the racial segregation and the imminent dawning of a new era. Her only solace is her growing fixation with Eric Williams, the charismatic leader of Trinidad’s new national party, to whom she pours out all her hopes and fears for the future in letters that she never brings herself to send. As the years progress, George and Sabine’s marriage endures for better or worse. When George discovers Sabine’s cache of letters, he realises just how many secrets she’s kept from him – and he from her – over the decades. And he is seized by an urgent, desperate need to prove his love for her, with tragic consequences…
Click here to read an interview with Monique Roffey in The Independent.
Tonight’s event with Monique Roffey and Amanda Smyth takes place at The Storey Auditorium at 7.45pm. Tickets are priced at £7.50 (£6 concessions) and are available from the VIC (Visitor Information Centre) in The Storey.
Hurrah! It’s that time of year once again when the shortlist for the Diagram Prize is announced and we all get to laugh and snigger and chortle (and vote for) the Oddest Book Title of the Year.
So without further ado I give you this year’s shortlisted titles:
You can vote now by visiting the poll on The Bookseller website but we thought it might also be fun to see if anyone could use one of the titles as a starting point for a short story or poem, no prizes just lots of kudos and pats on the back!
Another lovely box of poetry books arrived in the Poetry Bookcase today from another new publisher.
Templar Poetry produce some beautifully bound and presented volumes and have some fine names on their list, including two of our local poets Mike Barlow and Jane Routh.
Along with the books came news also of the Templar Poetry Pamphlet & Collection Competition 2010. Judged by Pat Winslow, the closing date is May 8th 2010.
Powered by WordPress
