Other Munster Events

White House Poetry Night
The White House pub, O’Connell Street, Limerick
Weekly on Wednesdays, from 9pm

White House Poetry acknowledges the aid of
The Arts Council of Ireland
Foras na Gaeilge
Limerick City Council
The White House

On The Nail Readings
The Loft Venue @ The Locke Bar, Georges Quay, Limerick.
(First Tuesday of every month, starting at 8PM)

Monthly event organised by The Limerick Writers' Centre this popular monthly reading and open-mic continues to attract audiences with a mix of poetry, prose and music.

Keith Armstrong was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked as a community development worker, poet, librarian and publisher, Keith Armstrong, now resides in the seaside town of Whitley Bay. He has organised several community arts festivals in the region and many literary events. He is coordinator of the Northern Voices Community Projects creative writing and community publishing enterprise and was founder of Ostrich poetry magazine, Poetry North East, Tyneside Poets and the Strong Words and Durham Voices community publishing series. He recently compiled and edited books on the Durham Miners’ Gala and on the former mining communities of County Durham, the market town of Hexham and the heritage of North Tyneside. His poetry has been extensively published in magazines such as New Statesman, Poetry Review, Dream Catcher, and Other Poetry, as well as in the collections The Jingling Geordie, Dreaming North, Pains of Class, Imagined Corners, Splinters and The Month of the Asparagus, on cassette, LP & CD, and on radio & TV. He has performed his poetry on several occasions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Festivals in Aberdeen, Bradford, Cardiff, Cheltenham (twice at the Festival of Literature - with Liz Lochhead and with 'Sounds North'), Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Greenwich, Lancaster, and throughout Britain.

The Limerick Writers' Centre in association with Foras na Gaeilge would like to invite all Irish speakers to attend our 'On The Nail' Reading series Upstairs@Foley's Bar, Sarsfield Street, Limerick on the first Tuesday of every month and partake in our open-mic readers spot. Just bring along something you've written yourself or your favourite verse or short prose. You will be assured of an appreciatave audience and from April we will have a prominent Irish author as a special guest. The evening begins at 8.00pm and all are welcome, whether you want to read or just listen. More info: limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com
More Info: www.limerickwriterscentre.com

Everyone is invited to take part in the open-mic after the main event, poets, storytellers, musicians and writers . Even if you don't write you are welcome to bring something along to read. The night begins at 8.00pm and admission is free. So join us on the night and make this event something special. NOTE: Our special authors book table will again be in operation, so if you want your book, CD's etc publicised make sure you are represented on the table. Contact Dominic Taylor at 087 2996409 to make arrangements.

Eddie will read from the book and refreshments will be served. His last reading at the Courthouse was a real Ennistymon experience and we are delighted to have him back in his home town for this special event. In Quare Hawks, Eddie Stack has 13 tales that span Ireland's boom to burst years, and are peopled by weird and wonderful characters. There's the love starved lady poet, a cross-dresser who loves flowers, loss of virginity and loss of life, drinkers, psychotic genius, scammers and crustys and an American shrink who attends to the Irish and more.

“Quare Hawks is a collision between old and new Ireland. It's both heartbreaking and hilarious, hopeful and despairing. Eddie Stack has a way of making you laugh and cry at the same time. A brilliant collection from a great Irish storyteller.” Willy Vlautin, author of Lean on Pete, Motel Life and Northline

Eddie Stack is from Ennistymon, County Clare and the author of three collections of short stories, three novellas and a novel. He has received an 'American Small Press Publisher of the Year Award' and a 'Top 100 Irish American-Award' for his fiction. His work has appeared in literary reviews and anthologies internationally, including Fiction, Confrontation, Whispers & Shouts, Crannog, Southwords and Criterion; State of the Art: Stories from New Irish Writers; Bloomsbury Irish Christmas Stories, The Clare Anthology and Fiction in the Classroom. His fiction has also appeared in inflight magazines, and publications of Irish interest in North America.

Novelist William Ryan will work with participants to develop fiction characters that stand out, using group exercises to show how to bring characters to life and move your stories forward.

Protagonists: How to identify what the central character's role in the story is and how their interactions with other characters will drive your plot forward. You'll also discuss how to develop a back story and how to use it, how the central character's role is influenced by what he does.

Subsidiary Characters. How do you go about giving each character depth? How to give them unique identities and subvert expectations.

Managing Characters - how to keep track of them in a novel and make sure they do their jobs for you. How to developing and manage character conflicts and track characters’ narrative arcs over the story.

To book a place on the workshop please email limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com the fee for the workshop is €5.00 payable in advance. Places are limited.

The J.G. Farrell Fiction Award 2013 – for the best opening chapter of a novel-in-progress by a writer resident in Munster – will this year be adjudicated by novelist Richard Skinner. The prize includes a place on Richard Skinner’s workshop ‘The Novel, How to Get Started…and How to Keep Going’, which is one of the workshops taking place during West Cork Literary Festival (Sunday 7 – Saturday 13 July 2013). The winner will also be awarded accommodation at the Maritime Hotel during the week of the West Cork Literary Festival.

Applicants should send two copies of the first chapter of their novel (max 3000 words), double-spaced and printed on one side of the page only. Place your name and address on a separate sheet. Entries will not be returned. Please send them to the West Cork Literary Festival office at 13 Glengarriff Road, Bantry, Co. Cork by Monday 27 May. Clearly mark the envelope ‘J.G. Farrell Award.’

J.G. Farrell was born in Liverpool and died at the age of 44, when he was swept into the sea while fishing from rocks near Kilcrohane, West Cork. His book Troubles won the Faber Prize in 1971, and in 2010 it won the Lost Man Booker Prize. The Siege of Krishnapur, Farrell’s novel about the Indian Mutiny of 1957, carried off the Booker in 1973. In 2008, The Siege of Krishnapur was shortlisted for the Best of Booker public vote. The West Cork Literary Festival would like to thank Richard Farrell for his continued sponsorship of this award, now in its fourth year.

West Cork Literary Festival is funded by the Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon, Cork County Council Library and Arts Service and Fáilte Ireland. The Festival has also been funded/supported by Cork County Council’s Economic Development Fund.

Bringing The Limerick Home.
Limerick’s largest Gathering festival, Tailteann Nua Festival, organised by the University of Limerick is set to bring the five line ‘Limerick’ verse back home to where it belongs – Limerick. The festival which will take place over the August bank holiday weekend from the 1st to 5th August is staging an international poetry competition involving the famous ‘Limerick’ verse and one lucky poet will be crowned World Champion ‘Limerick’ Poet on Saturday the 3rd of August and walk away with the cash prize of €1,000 and a special trophy.

More information here.

The competition is being organised in association with The Limerick Writers’ Centre who have been running an All-Ireland ‘Limericks’ Competition for the past number of years. Fiona Clark Echlin, a director of the Centre, outlined the history and plans for bringing the ‘Limerick’ back to Limerick. “The ‘Limerick’ isa verse form which originated in Croom, Co Limerick in the 18th century. There is enormous interest in it from all over the world but not many people know that it got its name from the city of Limerick, we have been running a ‘Limerick’ verse championship since 2010 and to mark the Gathering call to the global Irish Diaspora we are making the competition an international one for 2013,” she said.

The Centre has joined up with the UL driven Tailteann Nua Gathering Festival and the committee are planning to make this a very special event. They estimate that over 200 persons will take part in the International Bring your ‘Limerick’ to Limerick Competition. Within one week of the website set up to promote the event entries are pouring in from as far as the USA and Australia.The organisers are currently seeking sponsorship for the event and they hope to get local and national businesses involved to help promote Limerick as the home of the ‘Limerick’. Dominic Taylor of The Limerick Writers’ Centre feels that this is a unique opportunity for Limerick especially in the run up to 2014 when Limerick with be Irish City of Culture.“We would hope that this will become a legacy event and be continued by the City of Culture committee next year and grow to be a major festival for Limerick” He said.

Coinciding with the competition and festival The Limerick’ Writers’ Centre have commissioned local historian Matthew Potter to write a history of the ‘Limerick’ and its association with the area. Outlining the reason for the book he explained that “The aim is to create an awareness of the connection between the place and the poem so that Limerick can establish itself internationally as one of the few places that gave its name to a literary form. Think Shakespeare and Stratford, Joyce and Dublin, Burns and Scotland, Limerick and the Limerick”. Further details and how to entre are available from: http://www.limerickgatheringfest.com/whats-on/limericks-international-poetry-competetion/

An example of a good Limerick -
Jim came from a family of crooks
But his in-laws were world-famous cooks
So with peer pressure mounting
He took up accounting
And compromised – Cooking the books

As usual all aspiring songwriters are invited to attend and play their songs in front of a live audience. All types of music and singers are welcome, a limited amount of instruments will be available for use on the night. There will also be an opportunity for getting a YouTube video of your performance made free of charge and uploaded to our site. Performances will also be recorded and broadcast as a podcast at a later date. Host for the sessions are songwriters Brian Connolly, Chris Wood and Sean Macleod. As the venue develops into a hot spot for new talent in Limerick, plans are afoot to invite recording artists, producers, managers and publishers, anyone who may be looking for fresh new songs. SongWriter Sessions@The Locke Bar is a regular feature of the live music scene in Limerick and takes place every 2nd, 3rd and 4th Thursday of the month.

If you wish to play contact Brian Connolly at limericksongwriters@gmail.com to book a spot or turn up on the night. Further details can be got at www.myspace.com/songwritersessions or from http://songwriters.blogspot.com http://www.youtube.com/limericksongwriters http://lockebar.com

All are welcome those who wish to perform or just listen. Free admission and free finger food.

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