Newbery and Caldecott Awards 2007

American Library Association announces literary award winners:



John Newbery Medal For the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature.

The Higher Power of Lucky written by Susan Patron, is the 2007 Newbery Medal winner. The book is illustrated by Matt Phelan and published by Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson
Three Newbery Honor Books were named: “Penny from Heaven,” written by Jennifer L. Holm and published by Random House; “Hattie Big Sky,” by Kirby Larson, published by Delacorte Press; and “Rules,” by Cynthia Lord, published by Scholastic.





Caldecott Medal winner Is awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.



Flotsam, illustrated by David Wiesner, is the 2007 Caldecott Medal winner. The wordless book is published by Clarion.

Two Caldecott Honor Books were named: “Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet,” written and illustrated by David McLimans, and published by Walker, and “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom,” illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and published by Hyperion/Jump at the Sun.

First Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2007

The first Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2007 takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, January 25th, 6.30-8pm.

The Featured Readers are Elaine Feeney, Mary Mullen & Todd Swift. The reading is a special occasion for co-organisers, Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins, as it is the fourth anniversary of the series, which began in January 2003.

Elaine Feeney was born in Galway in 1979. She teaches English at St. Patrick’s College, Tuam. She has performed and read her poetry at various readings and festivals, including the Cuirt Festival Poetry Slam. Elaine has poems forthcoming in both The Shop and Nthposition.com. According to 2005 Patrick Kavanagh Award Winner, Dave Lordan: “Her performances are notable for their fearless confrontation with the controversial truth of women’s lives in the new Ireland.”

Mary Mullen is an Alaskan-born writer who has lived in County Galway for the last decade. Her work has been published in We Alaskans, Sunday Miscellany 2003-2004, The Stinging Fly, the Cork Literary Review, Galway Now, West47online, the Anchorage Daily News, and a chapbook ‘The Whole Building Could Be On Fire’. She is working on a collection of personal history essays and short stories. Mary is a graduate of NUIG’s MA in Writing.

Todd Swift is the Canadian-born author of three poetry collections, Budavox, Café Alibi and Rue du Regard. He currently lives in London. Todd is an editor of many poetry anthologies, including 100 Poets Against The War. He also compiled the recent audio CD Life Lines: Poets for Oxfam. His latest publication is Natural Curve, a pamphlet of poems from Rubicon Press, Alberta. He has co-edited a major collection of essays on Anglo-Quebec Poetry, Language Acts, to be launched spring 2007 in Montreal. His New and Selected Poems, 1987-2007, edited with an Introduction by Kevin Higgins, is forthcoming from Salmon Publishing in 2008.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details contact 087-6431748.Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council and The Arts Council

On Friday, January 26th, starting at 8.pm., Aosdana poet and founder of the literary magazine, Cyphers, Macdara Woods will read from his work at The Imperial Hotel, Eyre Square, Galway. Admission is €8 and €5.

Born in Dublin City in 1942, he has been publishing his work since the early 1960s. His poetry collections include Decimal D. Sec Drinks in a Bar in Marrakesh (1970); Early Morning Matins (1973); Stopping the Lights in Ranelagh (1987); Miz Moon (1988); The Hanged Man Was Not Surrendering (1990); Notes From the Countries of Blood-Red Flowers (1994); Selected Poems (1996); Knowledge in the Blood: New & Selected Poems (2001) and The Nightingale Water (2001).

His work has been translated into more than one dozen languages. Two books of his poems have been published in Italian, Biglietto di Sola Andata (1998) and Con Pesaro City ai Miei Piedi (1999), which included an audio CD with readings by the author and music by the Italian group Militia.

In 1975, he co-founded the literary journal Cyphers with Eilean Ni Chuillean in, and Leland Bardwell and Pearse Hutchinson, and he continues to serve as its editor.

Galway County Council Arts Grant/Bursary 2007

Galway County Council promotes, develops and supports the vibrant Arts sector in Galway County and offers several grants and schemes annually, which groups and organisations can avail of.

PUBLICATION ASSISTANCE GRANT : This grant is to assist writers to publish their own original work. This grant is for new work and innovation in creative writing. Application forms are available from the Arts Office, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway Tel: 091 746875 or email: bcunningham@galwaycoco.ie Fully completed application forms for all of the above schemes/ grants must be returned not later than 4p.m. on Wednesday 31st of January 2007 to the Arts Office, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway.

TYRONE GUTHRIE AWARD This is a special bursary award for two artists, selected by open competition, to spend two weeks in residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, the artists’ workplace in County Monaghan. Each bursary covers all board and lodging expenses for a two-week period, plus the use of a studio if necessary. This Award is open to all art forms. Application forms are available from the Arts Office, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway Tel: 091 746875 or email: bcunningham@galwaycoco.ie

Fully completed application forms for all of the above schemes/ grants must be returned not later than 4p.m. on Wednesday 31st of January 2007 to the Arts Office, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway.

Science Friction...

A machine that electronically stores 2.5 million books that can then be printed and bound in less than seven minutes is to be launched early next year. It prints in any language and has an upper limit of 550 pages. The 'Espresso' will be launched first in several US libraries. The company behind the project predicts that, within five years, it will be able to reproduce every book ever published.

The new machine as a technological innovation promises to revolutionize how we buy books. It allows printing and binding a single copy of a book at the point of demand without human interactions. Buying a book will eventually be very similar to getting cash from an ATM. You choose a title, insert a credit card to pay for the book -- and walk away with the finished book a few minutes later. On a global scale this would eliminate shipping and warehousing costs for books (thereby also eliminating returns and pulping of unsold books) and allow simultaneous global availability of new books.

This technology and process will produce one each of ten different books at the same speed and cost as it can produce ten copies of the same book. There are two machines currently deployed at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, and at the World Bank InfoShop in Washington DC.