Women’s Prize for Fiction Winner Announced

Word by Word

Excellent timing, the women’s prize for fiction is announced during the London Literature Festival at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, which I had the opportunity to visit on Saturday (more on that excitement later!).

A strong list, and some equally strong and divided opinions about the books that made the list and a bit of a surprise result, it has to be said.

So to remind you, the six shortlisted authors and their books were:

*

In the opinion of the judges the book chosen mostly ably fulfilled the criteria of the award, being originality, accessibility and excellence.

And the winner was:

May We Be Forgiven by AM Homes

A first book award for her 10^th book, a career spanning 25 years and a dream fulfilled at last. The author paid tribute to her father who sadly passed away a month ago, knowing that his daughter…

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Daily Lyrics 100# – Eminem

The Dail has a history of sordid sexism – and without more women, it’s not going to change

deshocks

I wrote this piece for the Herald on Thursday as “lapgate” began spreading on social media. The reason I’m posting it here as well is this article by Stephen Collins in today’s Irish Times. Collins is right on Dail reform but he is utterly out of step on this issue; an incident of sexual harassment in the national parliament during a debate on women’s sexual health and reproductive freedom is not just a “silly distraction”.  I’m studying women in politics at the moment, and one of the main problems with increasing our proportion of women representatives is cultural and institutional norms.  Nodding and winking at sexual harassment in the workplace is one of those norms that is preventing women reaching their potential… here’s my original piece.

The Dail is the home of Irish democracy, the lower house of our national parliament, where laws are passed and history is made…

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Health warnings issued over hottest day of the year

The Pixar Theory

Jon Negroni

Every Pixar movie is connected. I explain how, and possibly why.

In 2012, I watched a video on Cracked.com that introduced the idea (at least to me) that all of the Pixar movies actually exist within the same universe. Since then, I’ve obsessed over this concept, working to complete what I call The Pixar Theory, a working narrative that ties all of the Pixar movies into one cohesive timeline with a main theme. Another, longer, title is “The Grand Unifying Theory of Pixar Movies.”

This theory covers every feature-length movie made by Pixar Animation Studios since 1995. They include:

• Toy Story
• A Bug’s Life
• Toy Story 2
• Monsters Inc.
• Finding Nemo
• The Incredibles
• Cars
• Ratatouille
• Wall-E
• Up
• Toy Story 3
• Cars 2
• Brave
• Monsters University
• Inside Out (in Part 2)
• The Good Dinosaur (in Part 3)
• Finding Dory (in Part 4)
• Cars 3, Coco, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story…

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Civil War: X-Men (Review)

the m0vie blog

To celebrate the release of The Wolverine later in the month, we’re taking a look at some classic X-Men and Wolverine comics every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here. I’m also writing a series of reviews of the classic X-Men television show at comicbuzz every weekday, so feel free to check those out.

Ugh. There’s nothing like Civil War: X-Men to remind you just how unkind the middle part of the last decade was to Marvel’s merry mutants. It’s a soulless cash-in the worst sense of the word, a four-issue miniseries branded with the title of the gigantic universe-spanning crossover that was going on at the moment. One would imagine that the whole Civil War crossover would provide a multitude of compelling storytelling opportunities for the X-Men as a franchise.

After all, these are superheroes whose entire schtick is based around being hated and feared by the world they try to…

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a bit late but congrats Kevin Barry and prices and reviews and stuff

Congratulations to Kevin Barry on winning the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2013 for his debut novel City of Bohane. The winning novel beat off competition from 153 other titles, nominated by 160 libraries from 44 countries. It was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape. The shortlist of ten novels, as chosen by an international panel of judges included novels from France, Iceland, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the USA. Kevin Barry is the third Irish author to win the prize. It was awarded to Colm Tóibín in 2006 for The Master and to Colum McCann in 2011 for Let the Great World Spin. Go to www.impacdublinaward.ie for more details

 City of Bohane was a staff pick in Havard MA here

Praise for City of Bohane…

Extraordinary . . . Barry takes us on a roaring journey . . . Powerful, exuberant fiction.” —The New York Times Book Review (front cover)

“The best novel to come out of Ireland since Ulysses.” —Irvine Welsh

“A grizzled piece of futuristic Irish noir with strong ties to the classic gang epics of yore . . . Virtuosic.” —The New Yorker

“I found Kevin Barry’s City of Bohane a thrilling and memorable first novel.” —Kazuo Ishiguro, from the Man Booker Prize interview

“As you prowl the streets of Bohane with Barry’s motley assortment of thugs and criminal masterminds, you will find yourself drawn into their world and increasingly sympathetic to their assorted aims and dreams.” —The Boston Globe

“The real star here is Barry’s language, the music of it. Every page sings with evocative dialogue, deft character sketches, impossibly perfect descriptions of the physical world.” —The Millions

“Splendidly drawn . . . Strikingly creative.” —The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), Grade: A

prices : eBook (3/2012): $9.99
Paperback (6/2013): $15.00
Hardcover (3/2012): $25.00

easons: €9.99 (Specal offer as of a few weeks ago) now 11.45 0r 18.75

waterstones:£6.39

WH Smith:£5.99

Work for the Dublin Book Festival : ya-hay ! :)

One of Dublin’s largest and most vibrant book festival is looking for three interns (unpaid) to assist in the organisation and marketing of this year’s festival, which will take place from the 14th – 17th November 2013. Successful candidates will need to able to work on their own initiative as well as part of a dynamic team.This is an exciting opportunity for anyone wishing to get first hand experience of running a festival and working within the arts. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to develop relationships with authors and publishers in addition to getting a hands-on overview of what it means to organise a large-scale event. All internships will be based in Dublin, however, hours are flexible (approx. 15 hours per week) and candidates have the option of working largely from home.

 

Online Marketing Intern

The successful candidate will work with the Dublin Book Festival’s in-house web content manager and develop relevant online content which they will post and publicise on the festival website, www.dublinbookfestival.com. This will include the opportunity to conduct interviews with participating authors as well as managing social media competitions and PR exercises. Marketing experience as well as a working knowledge of the publishing industry would be desirable, but not essential.

 

Administrative Assistants

We are also looking for two administrative assistants to help in organising this year’s festival. These assistants will work closely with the Programme Director in developing this year’s programme as well as liaising with authors, booksellers and publishers in order to make sure that the structure of the festival runs smoothly. Candidates must be proficient in MS Office programmes, have fluent English and a knowledge of the publishing industry would be desirable, but not essential. We are looking for people with excellent communication skills as well as the ability to work as part of a team.

 

*The internships offered are unpaid, however, travel expenses will be covered in addition to days worked during the festival itself. To apply for any of these internships, send a current CV and Covering letter to julianne@dublinbookfestival.com.

 

Dublin Novelist Catherine Dunne wins Boccaccio International Prize for Fiction

Dublin author Catherine Dunne has won the prestigious Giovanni Boccaccio International Prize for Fiction for her novel The Things We Know Now. This year’s prize celebrates the 700th anniversary of the Italian novelist Giovanni Boccaccio’s birthday – he was born in Florence in 1313. The prize will be presented at a special ceremony in Florence in September. Previous winners incude Vikram Seth, Mark Hadden and Muriel Spark.
The Boccaccio Litearary Society says of Catherine’s novel: “In her imaginative exploration of the most painful grief that anyone can endure – the loss of a child through suicide – Dunne excavates the subleties of both the inexplicable and the unspeakable. She illuminates that lack of understanding and awareness that can inhabit even the strongest and closest of our human relationships.”

Nominate us for a Blog Award

Best of luck to jess and her team of journalists who are trying to get nominated for The Blog Awards Ireland

The Blog Awards are here again and The Daily Shift is hoping for your nomination. Here’s a message from Co-founder and editor, Jessica Thompson…

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