Brian Kirk's Blog

 

Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About

“Admit it. our heads are totally wrecked. And we kinda want to talk about it.

All of the things that shaped us and brought us to this moment; our families, the pure chance of falling in love, the randomness of absolutely everything, we kinda want to talk about that too. We’re all unique, but our experiences overlap. With each other. With everyone. With you.

This is a nonfiction spoken word show about the universal truths that fuck us all up.
Three men. Different histories. Same shit.”

Don’t miss this show featuring three of the stalwarts of Dublin performance poetry / spoken word / whatever you want to call it. Colm Keegan, Kalle Ryan and Stephen James Smith, the men behind Nighthawks, The Brownbread Mixtape and The Glór Sessions respectively, are doing something new again, combining poetry and theatre, dismissing, with humour and panache, the stereotype of the tongue-tied male who is not in touch with his feelings.  It runs at the International from Monday 19th September to Saturday 24th .  All shows start at 7pm, except the Saturday show which is at 5.30pm.  Book your tickets here.  Go on!

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‘The Irish Writers’ Centre, in association with the Italian Cultural Institute, is delighted to announce the launch of a Pilot Project: ‘Cultural Exchange Initiative 2011…. The objective is to foster cultural links which can be nurtured and strengthened in the coming years.  Discussions are already underway for an Italo-Irish Literary Festival in the near future’.

As part of this initiative I was one among a group of “emerging” Irish writers who attended a round table discussion at the Irish Writers’ Centre last Saturday morning.  Proceedings were chaired by the excellent Catherine Dunne and the always interesting Jack Harte.  The purpose of the meeting was to engage with our Italian counterparts and exchange ideas and experiences surrounding the act of writing, translating and to discuss routes to publication.  Common themes emerged, not surprisingly, and there was a shared enthusiasm for the written word in all its forms. Translation was a recurring subject, and there was much informed discussion lead by the Italian contingent many of whom were experienced translators.  I particularly enjoyed listening to Federica Sgaggio, Francesca Cappelli and Anna Anzani on this topic – their enthusiasm for the art of translation was hugely apparent.

As part of proceedings we read short extracts from poems and stories to give our visitors a feel for the nature and diversity of our work.  Myself, Mark Kilroy, Monica Strina, Orla Fay, Niamh MacAlister, June Caldwell, Finbarr Rafferty and Edel Corrigan all read and spoke briefly of our experiences as writers in Ireland.  All attendees spoke honestly about the difficulties inherent in placing work with a publisher. The main problem, regardless of age or experience, seemed to be finding a publisher who would actually read a full manuscript.

It’s also worth saying at this stage what a great job the Irish Writers’ Centre is doing these days.  Since losing its Arts Council funding a couple of years back, the new board headed by chairman Jack Harte has revitalised the centre with the much appreciated help of people like June Caldwell and Edel Corrigan who, along with others, gave their time for free.  Long may the good work continue!

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I thought I’d post initially about my good friend and ex colleague John Curran, whose second book was launched last Thursday evening in Dublin.  The book is Agatha Christie’s Murder the Making, his follow up the Secret Notebooks first published in 2009 by Harper Collins.

John’s story is a remarkable one.  For years he devoted his time and energy free of charge to pursuing what was in fact a lifelong interest in the life and works of the world’s foremost writers of detective fiction.  Through a series of fortuitous meetings and mainly because of his innate honesty and unrivalled abilities in his field he was introduced to Christie’s grandson.  As a result he was given access to Dame Agatha’s home Greenway in Torquay and it was here he discovered the 73 notebooks which lay untouched for years.  These notebooks were used by the writer over years of producing her stories, novels and plays.

It was a very enjoyable evening, attended also by Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard, who spoke with real admiration and gratitude for John and the work he has done.  I hope the new book is as successful as the first!

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