GO TO CONTENTS NEXT New Writing from Ireland Ireland Literature Exchange – Promoting Irish literature abroad PREVIOUS GO TO CONTENTSRETURN TO CONTENTS NEXT NEW IRISH WRITING 2011 In this, the centenary year of the birth of Flann O’Brien, Ireland’s writers have the Forward Prize in Britain last year. We look forward to seeing Heaney’s Selected had a remarkably fruitful year. Important books such as The Forgotten Waltz by Poems in Russian, following a visit to Ireland by the translator, Grigory Kruzhkov. Anne Enright, Mistaken by Neil Jordan and A Death in Summer by Benjamin Black have enthralled readers around the world. Sebastian Barry’s On Canaan’s With the support of Culture Ireland and the Arts Council, Ireland Literature Side is eagerly awaited by his discerning readership, while John Boyne’s The Exchange continues to promote Irish literature internationally. In co-operation Absolutist, Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane and John Butler’s The Tenderloin are with our publishing partners, Irish writing has appeared in Tamil and Spanish, receiving positive reaction from readers and critics alike. French and Chinese. In addition to participation at the Frankfurt and London fairs, we attended the Beijing and Moscow book fairs in 2010. Dublin’s designation as a UNESCO City of Literature has drawn further attention to our capital city as a centre of literary creativity. Murder in the City, It was with great sadness that, shortly after the Frankfurt book fair 2010, we learnt a celebration of crime writing, is one of the many events that has taken place of the death of the great independent Irish publisher Steve Mac Donogh, who since the city received the designation. There’s certainly a feast of quality crime published uncompromisingly, bravely and creatively throughout his career. Steve writing on offer from Ireland today. Our catalogue includes titles by Gene understood the international rights business to its core. As managing editor of Kerrigan, Declan Burke, Eoin Colfer, Alan Glynn and Gerard O’Donovan. Brandon Books, he sold rights from Japan to Germany, Italy to Russia. His absence will be sorely felt in Frankfurt by his many publishing friends and colleagues. In children’s and young adult fiction, there is a bumper crop too, with books by household favourites Siobhán Parkinson, Celine Kiernan and Elizabeth O’Hara, This year’s edition of New Writing from Ireland presents the best of Irish writing. and intriguing titles like An Coileach Codlatach/The Sleepy Rooster by Nuala Nic We hope that the publishers, translators and festival organisers amongst you find Con Iomaire and Spirit of the Titanic by Nicola Pierce. much to entice you. If you think your project might be eligible for support, please do not hesitate to contact us. Poetry titles this year include books by Derek Mahon, John Montague and Kerry Hardie, and selections of work by two major Irish language poets, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Seán Ó Ríordáin. Seamus Heaney’s magnificent Human Chain received Sinéad Mac Aodha Director PREVIOUS RETURNGO TO CONTENTS TO CONTENTS NEXT Migration (detail) © Mark Francis Courtesy of the artist and the Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. Editor: Rita McCann. Design, typesetting and layout by Language, Dublin. www.language.ie Printed in Dublin, Ireland, August 2011. ISSN: 1649-959X PREVIOUSPREVIOUS RETURN TO CONTENTS NEXT CONTENTS Ireland Literature Exchange 4 Fiction 6 Children’s Literature 35 Drama & Poetry 54 Non-fiction 67 Index of Authors 74 Index of Titles 75 Index of Publishers 76 PREVIOUS RETURN TO CONTENTS NEXT 4 | Ireland Literature Exchange IRELAND LITERATURE EXCHANGE Ireland Literature Exchange (ILE) is ILE’s activities include: Detailed information on Ireland Literature the national agency in Ireland for the Exchange and its programmes is available promotion of Irish literature abroad. • Administering a translation grant online at www.irelandliterature.com The organisation works to build an programme for international publishers international awareness and appreciation Contact details: • Awarding bursaries to literary translators of contemporary Irish literature, Ireland Literature Exchange primarily in translation. • Co-ordinating author and translator events 25 Denzille Lane • Participating at international book fairs Dublin 2 A not-for-profit organisation, Ireland • Publishing an annual rights catalogue, Ireland Literature Exchange is funded New Writing from Ireland by Culture Ireland and the Arts Council. t: +353 1 678 8961 • Participating in international t: +353 1 662 5807 Established in 1994, ILE has supported translation projects f: +353 1 662 5687 the translation of over 1,500 works of e: [email protected] • Providing information to publishers, Irish literature into 50 languages around w: www.irelandliterature.com translators, authors, journalists and other the world. interested parties. PREVIOUS RETURN TO CONTENTS NEXT 5 | Literature Translation Grant Programme LITERATURE TRANSLATION GRANT PROGRAMME Translation Grants Please see the translation grant application Translation Grant Application Checklist ILE’s translation grants are available to checklist on this page for a full list of Your application should include the following: international publishers who are seeking required materials. support for translations of Irish literature.* • Publisher’s contact details ILE offers a substantial contribution towards ILE has all translation samples assessed • A copy of the agreement with the the translator’s fees. by an independent expert. Successful translation rights holder and the contract applicants are sent a formal letter of award with the translator Publishers must apply at least three months and contracts are posted within ten days before the translation is due to be published. of the board meeting. Payment of the • Publication details: proposed date of ILE’s board of directors meets four times a translation grant is made to the publisher publication, the proposed print run and year to consider applications. once ILE has received proof of payment page extent of the translation to the translator and six copies of the • A copy of the translator’s CV and a The deadlines for application are available at published work, which must contain an breakdown of the fee to be paid to the www.irelandliterature.com/deadlines acknowledgement of ILE’s funding. translator * Eligible genres: literary fiction, children’s • 2 copies of the original work and 2 copies literature, poetry and drama and some literary of a translation sample consisting of 10-12 non-fiction. pages of prose or 6 poems. PREVIOUS RETURN TO CONTENTS NEXT 6 | Fiction Jonathan Cape / March 2011 KEVIN BARRY CITY OF BOHANE Kevin Barry was born in Limerick in 1969 and now lives in Sligo. His first collection of short stories, There Are Little Kingdoms, won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2007. Barry has written about travel and literature for the Guardian, the Irish Times, the Sydney Morning Herald and many other publications. Forty years in the future. The once-great city of Bohane on the west coast of Ireland is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines. There are the posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the Northside Rises and the eerie bogs of Big Nothin’ that the city really lives. This is the cool, comic, violent and lyrical debut novel from one of Ireland’s most talented new writers. Contact for rights negotiations Lucy Luck, Lucy Luck Associates, 20 Cowper Road, London W3 6PZ, UK www.lucyluck.com / [email protected] / +44 20 8992 6142 PREVIOUS RETURN TO CONTENTS NEXT Faber & Faber / August 2011 7 | Fiction SEBASTIAN BARRY ON CANAAN’S SIDE Sebastian Barry is a playwright, poet and novelist. His novels include A Long Long Way, shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize in 2005 and for the 2007 International IMPAC Award, and The Secret Scripture (2008), which won the Costa Book of the Year Award for 2008 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Narrated by Lilly Bere, On Canaan’s Side opens as she mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. The story then goes back to the moment she was forced to flee Dublin, at the end of the First World War, and follows her life through into the new world of America. At once epic and intimate, Lilly’s narrative unfurls as she tries to make sense of the sorrows and troubles of her life and of the people whose lives she has touched. Spanning nearly seven decades, it is a novel of memory, war, family ties and love, which once again displays Sebastian Barry’s exquisite prose and gift for storytelling. Contact for rights negotiations Derek Johns, AP Watt Ltd, 20 John Street, London WC1N 2DR, UK www.apwatt.co.uk / [email protected] / +44 20 7405 6774 PREVIOUS RETURN TO CONTENTS NEXT 8 | Fiction Penguin Ireland / April 2012 GREG BAXTER THE APARTMENT Greg Baxter was born in Texas in 1974. He lives in Dublin. His memoir, A Preparation for Death, was published in 2011. The Apartment is his first novel. One snowy morning in a large old European capital, a man – 41, ex-US Navy, alone – wakes in a hotel room. A young local woman he has befriended calls to the hotel, and the two of them head out into the snow to find the man an apartment to rent. The Apartment tells the story of these two people on this day – and the old stories that brought them to where they are. Its magically subtle and intense narrative takes them across the frozen city and into the past that the man is hoping to escape, and leaves them at the doorstep of an uncertain future. Contact for rights negotiations Penguin, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, UK www.penguin.co.uk / +44 20 7010 3000 PREVIOUS RETURN TO CONTENTS NEXT Mantle / July 2011 9 | Fiction BENJAMIN BLACK A DEATH IN SUMMER Benjamin Black is the pen name of acclaimed author John Banville, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945.