Final Over The Edge of 2006 in Galway City Library

Poets Medbh McGuckian, Hugh Doyle and Cate Huguelet read to a packed house at Galway City Library

New collection of Fr Browne photos published

Father Browne's Galway is the title of the latest set of Fr Browne's photographs to be edited by Fr E.E. O'Donnell, curator of the 42,000 photographs in the collection.
This is the nineteenth book of Fr Browne's photographs to be published, and the third to be published by Currach Press.

Father Francis Browne's photographs enjoy international acclaim. In this latest collection, he showcases the magnificent sights of Galway city and county, as well as her people and customs.There are some 42,000 photographs in the Father Browne archive. This is the third volume to be published by Currach Press, with Father Browne's Trains and Railways and Father Browne's Limerick, being the earlier productions

Frank Browne was born in Cork in 1880. In 1897 he toured Europe with his camera and on returning to Ireland joined the Jesuit Order. After his two years of noviceship, he attended the Royal University in Dublin where he was a classmate of James Joyce. He is mentioned several times in Finnegans Wake. He served as chaplain to the Irish Guards in World War I, after which he suffered poor health. Two years in Australia cured him. On his return to Ireland, his priestly work took him to practically every parish in Ireland. He won numerous photographic awards and died in 1960.

Medbh McGuckian to read at December Over The Edge

The final Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2006 takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, December 14th, 6.30-8pm.

The Featured Readers are Cate Huguelet, Hugh Doyle & Medbh McGuckian.

Cate Huguelet was raised on Chicago’s South Side and moved to Ireland in 2005. Her writing has appeared in various publications in Ireland and the US. Her collaboration with visual artist Emma Petterson featured in the 2006 Cúirt Document exhibition. After completing an MA in Writing at NUI, Galway, Cate has relocated to Cork, where she is working on a first collection of poems.

Hugh Doyle lives in Spiddal. He was a finalist in this year’s Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam and was also selected for Mark Doty's poetry master-class during the Cúirt Festival. He has read his work at the launch of the Oxfam Life Lines poetry CD during the Project 06 festival in Galway, at the Clare Island Festival and at the Newcastle Irish festival in the UK.

Medbh McGuckian was born in 1950 in Belfast. She is one of Ireland’s most critically acclaimed poets. She has been Writer-in-Residence at Queen's University, Belfast, the University of Ulster, Coleraine, and Trinity College, Dublin. Among the prizes she has won are England's National Poetry Competition, The Rooney Prize, and The Forward Prize for Best Poem. She is the author of twelve poetry collections; the most recent The Currach Requires No Harbours was published by Gallery Press earlier this year.

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, Poetry Ireland and The Arts Council

Post-Primary Essay Competition

An Chomhairle Leabharlanna in association with the Europe Direct Information Centres and The European Commission Representation in Dublin, is delighted to announce an essay competition for secondary school students for the prize of a trip to Brussels in April 2007.

Each of the eight centres will choose two winners from the essays submitted to them. There are two categories the first/second/third year category and the fourth/fifth/sixth year category.

Please submit all entries to your local Europe Information Centre –in Co. Galway they are Ballinasloe or Carraroe Libraries.

The deadline for submission of entries is by Friday 19th January 2007. The Essay can be written in English or Irish. Information on the competition and the essay theme has been circulated to all secondary schools by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna. Judging will be completed by each centre by 23rd February 2007 and winners will be announced by Friday 2nd March 2007.

Competition details and application forms are here

Libraries in the sand Manuscripts Are The Subject of Intensive Study

Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand.

The texts were concealed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French colonialists. Written in ornate calligraphy, some were used to teach astrology or mathematics, while others tell tales of social and business life in Timbuktu during its "Golden Age," when it was a seat of learning in the 16th century. "These manuscripts are about all the fields of human knowledge: law, the sciences, medicine," said Galla Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, a library housing 25,000 of the texts. "Here is a political tract," he said, pointing to a script in a glass cabinet, somewhat dog-eared and chewed by termites. "A letter on good governance, a warning to intellectuals not to be corrupted by the power of politicians."

Bookshelves on the wall behind him contain a volume on mathematics and a guide to Andalusian music as well as love stories and correspondence between traders plying the trans-Saharan caravan routes. Timbuktu's leading families have only recently started to give up what they see as ancestral heirlooms. They are being persuaded by local officials that the manuscripts should be part of the community's shared culture. "It is through these writings that we can really know our place in history," said Abdramane Ben Essayouti, Imam of Timbuktu's oldest mosque, Djingarei-ber, built from mud bricks and wood in 1325.

Experts believe the 150,000 texts collected so far are just a fraction of what lies hidden under centuries of dust behind the ornate wooden doors of Timbuktu's mud-brick homes.

Over the Edge - Galway City Library

The Over The Edge Open Reading Series, an evening of featured poets plus an open mic session, takes place once a month on a Thursday in Galway City Library (Hynes Buildings, Augustine Street) from 6.30-8.oopm. The next next reading will take place on 23 November.

The featured readers are Adrian White, Joan McBreen & Fiona Claire. 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.

Adrian White moved from Manchester to Galway in 1990. He has worked as abookseller, a barman, a painter and decorator, a removal man and a car park attendant. His first novel, An Accident Waiting to Happen, was published in 2004and his second, Where the Rain Gets In, came out in March 2006. Both are published by Penguin Books. Man Dog Bitch is the title of his third book.

Joan McBreen is from Sligo and now lives in Tuam. She edited The White Page - Twentieth Century Irish Women Poets (Salmon Publishing). Joan has published three collections of poetry; the most recent Winter in The Eye - New and Selected Poems, was published by Salmon in 2003. In 2004 she launched a CD, The Long Light on the Land - Selected Poems by Joan McBreen with Traditional Airs and Classical Music.

Fiona Claire is an actress and writer who lived for many years in Los Angeles, but recently moved to County Galway. She has worked in numerous television shows, including Third Rock From The Sun, Star Trek Voyager, and King of Queens, and in films such as L.A. Confidential, and Contact. She has written a collection of fables for adults, one novel and is working on a second.

Over The Edge is now also offering a manuscript appraisal service to new writers. Fiction and non-Fiction will be assessed by Susan Miller DuMars, while poetry will be critiqued by Kevin Higgins. For information about readings and script appraisal, tel. 087 6431748 or e-mail kphiggins@hotmail.com.

T S Eliot Poetry Prize 2006

The Poetry Book Society has announced the Shortlist for the T S Eliot Prize 2006, to be awarded to the writer of the best new collection of poetry published in 2006. Now in its fourteenth year, the T S Eliot Prize is 'poetry's most coveted award'

• Simon Armitage, Tyrannosaurus Rex versus the Corduroy Kid, Faber
• Paul Farley, Tramp in Flames, Picador
• Seamus Heaney, District and Circle , Faber
• W N Herbert, Bad Shaman Blues, Bloodaxe
• Jane Hirshfield, After, Bloodaxe
• Tim Liardet, The Blood Choir, Seren
• Paul Muldoon, Horse Latitudes, Faber
• Robin Robertson, Swithering, Picador
• Penelope Shuttle, Redgrove's Wife, Bloodaxe
• Hugo Williams, Dear Room, Faber

Judges Sean O'Brien (Chair), Sophie Hannah and Gwenyth Lewis chose the following ten collections: The judges will make their final decision on Monday 15 January 2007, when the prize of £10,000 will be presented by Mrs Valerie Eliot.

The T S Eliot Prize is sponsored by the broadcaster and supported by the T S Eliot Foundation.

2007 IMPAC Literary Award - Longlist

The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is open to works of fiction written in, or translated into English and published within a specified period of time.

The nomination process for the Award is unique as nominations are made by selected libraries in capital and major cities throughout the world. Participating libraries can nominate up to three books each year for the Award: the books must meet the criteria for eligibility which are distributed to libraries each year.

The longlist includes 138 novels which have been nominated for the 2007 award, with 28 of them works in translation.

There were nominations from 169 libraries around the world.

The Irish nominations, including Galway Public Libraries, are here

The short list will be announced on April 4th 2007 and the winner on June 14th 2007

The Ireland Life-Writing Archive

Many Irish people - and people connected with Ireland - have written (or are writing) about their lives. This is Irish 'Life-Writing'.
UCD is launching the Ireland Life-Writing Archive which will collect as much of this material as possible. It doesn't matter when or why you wrote about your life - we would like to include your writing in this archive. Material may be of any length, and in any written form - in English, Irish, or any other language.

The archive will include:

Life Stories/ Autobiographies
Personal memoirs
Diaries
Travel writing
Biographical Fictions

Anything written about life in Ireland will be of interest in the future. The Ireland Life-Writing Archive invites anyone who has written (or who has access to) reminiscences or life-accounts to join us in our project of preserving and archiving this valuable material. The texts you send us will be catalogued and preserved in UCD for the use of scholars and researchers; some material (only with your permission) may be published on the UCD website.

For further details, contact Dr Eibhlín Evans, The Ireland Life-Writing Project, School of English and Drama, USD Belfield, Dublin 4; tel. 01 7168530, e-mail eibhlin.evns@ucd.ie, or go to the website www.ucd.ie and follow the links.

Artist in the Community Scheme 2006

Twice yearly, the Arts Council offers grants to enable artists and community groups to work together on projects. The scheme covers all art forms. The Artist in the Community Scheme is managed by CREATE.

The aim of the scheme is to encourage intense collaboration between community groups and artists. The focus of the collaboration must be a project in which the members of the community group and the artists work together in order to realise an artistic project or an event. It is essential that consultation take place between the artist and the community group, so that both parties are involved in deciding on the nature of the project. Group ownership of the art should be maintained at every stage.

Phase One , the research and development award of up to €1,000, gives artists an opportunity to explore and develop a project in a community context. This work should constitute the preliminary stage of a project with the intention of eventually leading to a full length project. Any professional artist may approach a community group with a view to making an application for research and development. Equally, a group may approach an artist. However the research and development strand is an artist led initiative and as such artists make the application.

Phase Two is open to community organisations or groups who are planning a project of between 6 weeks and 5 months with a maximum award of €5000, and those who are planning a project of between 6 months and 9 months with a maximum award of €10,000. The artist and the community group must demonstrate that they have influenced each other significantly in the drafting of the project. It is the community organisation or group that makes the application to the scheme.

Further information Katherine Atkinson, CREATE Phone: + 353 1 4736600
Web: http://www.create-ireland.ie
Email: support@artsincontext.com

Eclectic trio of poets for October ‘Over The Edge’

Once a month Galway City Library hosts the 'Over the Edge' poetry reading evening. The October 2006 session takes place on Thursday the 26th between 6.30 and 8.00pm.
The Featured Readers are Yvonne Green, Brendan Murphy & Niamh Ní Lochlainn.
Everyone is welcome.

Yvonne Green lives in London, where she practised at the English Bar for 20 years before stopping to concentrate on her poetry. Her poems have appeared in leading UK poetry magazines such as Poetry Review, Magma, Modern Poetry In Translation, The London Magazine, European Judaism, The Jewish Quarterly and Arete. She has read her work at the The National Portrait Gallery, the Institute for Contemporary Arts and on BBC Radio 4.

Brendan Murphy was born in Liverpool to English parents and Irish grandparents. He is a graduate of Sheffield University, where he studied the History of Art, Film and Design. His first performance was a Saturday night slot with a friend at his local pub, with whom he developed an improvised repartee on the week’s news. Brendan has lived in Galway for the last eight years. He won the 2006 Cúirt Festival Poetry Grand Slam, and recently performed at the famous Green Mill in Chicago.

Niamh Ní Lochlainn grew up in Dublin with Irish as her first language, spending her summers in the West Kerry Gaeltacht. She has been living and teaching in Connemara for the last four years. She was a prize-winner in the 2005 Strokestown Poetry Competition and her first collection Guth ón dTobar, (A Voice from the Well) was short-listed for the Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish Poet at the 2006 Poetry Now Festival in Dun Laoghaire.

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.

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council and The Arts Council

For further details contact Kevin Higgins on 087-6431748 or e-mail kphiggins@hotmail.com .

Children's Book Festival in Oranmore

Lots of New Children’s Books!
New Education Toys for use in the library!

Tues. 24th Oct. 11.00am
Inter Schools Table

Wed. 25th Oct. 4.30pm
Fancy Dress Competition

Fri. 27th Oct. 12.00pm
Special Preschool Storytime

Fri. 27th Oct. 4.30pm
Balloon Mania

Kindly sponsored by Supermac’s Oranmore

Youngest ever woman wins Man Booker Prize

At age of 35, Kiran Desai was named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Inheritance of Loss, published by Hamish Hamilton. The Indian-born writer has a strong family tie with the prize as her mother Anita Desai has been shortlisted three times since 1980 but has never won. This year, however, her daughter, Kiran, has won the acclaimed literary prize. Author of the 1998 universally praised Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard.

Desai is the first woman to win the Man Booker since 2000 when Margaret Atwood scooped the prize with The Blind Assassin. Her winning book, The Inheritance of Loss, is a radiant, funny and moving family saga and has been described by reviewers as ‘the best, sweetest, most delightful novel’. This is the first time that Hamish Hamilton has published a Man Booker Prize winner although they had two shortlisted authors in 2005.

Computers and Communications Course in Inishboffin Library

Coiste Gairmoideachais Chontae na Gaillimhe
(County Galway Vocational Education Committee)

Basic Computers and Communications

• Basic Computers including internet and email
  
• Improving writing, spelling and grammarWriting letters, forms, C.V.’s etc.
  
• Reading - for personal and work purposes
  
• Listening Skills
  

Venue: Inishboffin Library/Community Centre
Dates: Thursday 12th. October 2006
Time: Registration 7.30p.m. to 9.00p.m.

For more information contact: Teresa Gilligan at 091 555877

Murakami wins O'Connor Prize

Haruki Murakami has won the second Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, his third collection of short stories to be published in English.

The €35,000 (£23,000) prize, which is awarded to new collections published in English during the last 12 months, is the world's richest short story prize. The prize will be shared between Murakami and his translators, Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin.

Rubin paid tribute to the famous short story writer as he accepted the prize.

"If you have read Frank O'Connor's Guests of the Nation you'll be familiar with his theme that people need to recognise each other's common humanity," he said. "Haruki's stories are similarly powerful. As a translator, I am overwhelmed and honoured and I am sure Haruki will be too."

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman topped a shortlist which spanned three continents. First collections from Irish writer Philip Ó Ceallaigh and American author Rachel Sherman were nominated alongside entries from English writer Rose Tremain, Nepal-born Samrat Upadhyay and Peter Stamm, a Swiss author who writes in German.

The award, created in memory of the Frank O'Connor, is the highlight of the annual Frank O'Connor Short Story Festival, which ran from Wednesday to Sunday last.

Man Booker Prize Shortlist

The six authors shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006, are Kiran Desai, Kate Grenville, M.J. Hyland, Hisham Matar, Edward St Aubyn, and Sarah Waters.

The six shortlisted books were chosen from a longlist of 19 and are:
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss - Hamish Hamilton
Grenville, Kate The Secret River - Canongate
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down - Canongate
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men - Viking
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk - Picador
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch - Virago

The winner will be announced on Tuesday 10th October

The Harding Books Prize for Perfect Parody!!!!!

Due to overwhelming public demand and in advance of this year’s Public Libraries Conference (November 8th-10th at the Cavan Crystal Hotel, Co. Cavan), George Harding of Harding Books will once again kindly sponsor The Harding Books Prize for Perfect Parody!!!!!

To Enter:
Write the opening paragraph of a crime novel –entitled Murder at the Library in the style of your favourite (or least favourite) crime writer

The rules are as follows:
· The competition is open to library staff only
· All entries must include the following words –
Book-seller
Exhibition
Survey
Love Letters
Promotion
Inscrutable

The judges will include Val McDermid (award-winning author of Wire in the Blood and many other critically-lauded crime novels), Simon Brett (writer, actor, producer & broadcaster) and Mike Ripley (twice winner of the CWA Last Laugh Award, journalist & critic).

Now, most importantly, the money!
First Prize - €300 and a specially commissioned wood-carving by Sligo artist, Michael Quirke.
Second Prize - €200 and a specially commissioned wood-carving by Sligo artist, Michael Quirke.


Stop Press:
Details of a second competition for those of a gentler persuasion:
Write a paragraph entitled What I Did on my Summer Holidays in the style of any Irish writer, living or dead. Once again, the competition is open to library staff but as a special dispensation to non-crime lovers, you do not have to use the magic words as mentioned above. This competition will be adjudicated by academic and writer, Ruth Dudley-Edwards.
Prize - €100 and a copy of the Times Atlas of the WorldPlease send you entries to

Brenda Frawley, c/o Dooradoyle Library, Dooradoyle Road, Limerick or by e-mail to bfrawley@limerickcoco.ie before
Friday, 29th September, 2006.

All winners will be announced and winning entries read aloud at this year’s Public Libraries Conference at the Cavan Crystal Hotel, Co. Cavan after the Banquet dinner on
Thursday, November 9th, 2006.

The Harding Books Perfect Parody Prize is kindly sponsored by George Harding of Harding Books, supplier of high quality, low cost paperback collections to libraries throughout the U.K. & Ireland

Teenage Reading in Galway City Library

The Teenage Book Club has been meeting every second Tuesday during the Summer in the City Library and after much debate they have come up with the following titles as their favourites of 2006:

Boy Soldier, Payback, Avenger ……………………Andy McNab

Small Steps …………………………………………………….Louis Sacher

Elsewhere ……………………………………………………….Gabrielle Zevin

Faerie Wars, The Purple Emperor……………..Herbie Brennan

The Secret Hour, Touching Darkness,
Blue Noon (Midnighters Trilogy) ………………Scott Westerfeld

Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday,
Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday…………Garth Nix

The Road of Bones ………………………………………Anne Fine

And the perennial favourites

How I Live Now …………………………………………..Meg Rosoff

Alex Rider (series) …………………………………..Anthony Horowitz

Stargirl ………………………………………………………Jerry Spinelli

The Amulet of Samarkand, Golem’s Eye,
Ptolemy’s Gate (Bartimaeus Trilogy)……Jonathan Stroud

Noughts and Crosses, Knife Edge,
Checkmate…………………………………………………Malorie Blackman

Eragon, Eldest …………………………………………Christopher Paolini

Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 Longlist

The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction announced the longlist of books for this year.
The longlist of 19 books was chosen from 112 entries; 95 were submitted for the prize and 17 were called in by the panel of judges.

Chair of judges, Hermione Lee, comments: "Judging the Man Booker Prize puts you through almost as many emotions as there are in the novels. We’ve tried to be careful and critical judges as well as being passionately involved. We have many regrets about some of the novels we’ve left off, and we could easily have had a longlist of about 30 books, but we’re delighted with the variety, the originality, the drama and craft, the human interest and the strong voices in this longlist. It’s a list in which famous established novelists rub shoulders with little known newcomers. We hope that people will leap at it for their late summer reading and make up their own shortlist.”

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 is as follows;

Carey, Peter Theft: A Love Story (Faber & Faber)
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)
Edric, Robert Gathering the Water (Doubleday)
Gordimer, Nadine Get a Life (Bloomsbury)
Grenville, Kate The Secret River (Canongate)
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down (Canongate)
Jacobson, Howard Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape)
Lasdun, James Seven Lies (Jonathan Cape)
Lawson, Mary The Other Side of the Bridge (Chatto & Windus)
McGregor, Jon So Many Ways to Begin (Bloomsbury)
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men (Viking)
Messud, Claire The Emperor’s Children (Picador)
Mitchell, David Black Swan Green (Sceptre)
Murr, Naeem The Perfect Man (William Heinemann)
O’Hagan, Andrew Be Near Me (Faber & Faber)
Robertson, James The Testament of Gideon Mack (Hamish Hamilton)
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk (Picador)
Unsworth, Barry The Ruby in her Navel (Hamish Hamilton)
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch (Virago)

The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is: Hermione Lee (Chair); Simon Armitage, poet and novelist; Candia McWilliam, award winning novelist; critic Anthony Quinn and actor Fiona Shaw. The 2006 shortlist will be announced on Thursday 14th September

Oscailt Gairdín Cuimhneacháin in ómós don scríbhneoir cáiliúil Liam Ó Flaithearta

As part of Heritage week which runs from 26th August – 3rd September 2006, The Minister, Éamon Ó Cuiv will officially open a Garden of Remembrance in honour of one of the Aran Island's most famous and prolific writers Liam Ó Flaherty. The event takes place in Kilronan at 2.00pm on the 28th of August.

Beidh an tAire Éamon Ó Cuiv ag oscailt an Gairdín Cuimhneacháin in ómós don scríbhneoir Liam Ó Flaithearta ag 2.00 i.n. Dé Luain 28ú Lúnasa 2006 i nGort na gCapall. Is é Pádraic Reaney a dhear an gairdín agus a rinne an obair ar an dealbh agus ar an leac eolais. Beidh leabhrán le fáil ar an lá agus beidh chuile eolas ann.

Heritage Week is part of European Heritage Days, a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Union. In Ireland Heritage Week is co-ordinated by the Heritage Council with support from the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.