Brian Kirk's Blog

I came across this blog post and call for submissions last week over at Todd Swift’s blog, Eyewear – The Poet’s Quest for God: 21st Century Poems of Spirituality. It caught my interest for a number of reasons. I come from a traditional Catholic Irish background and God and religion – whether we liked it or not –  played a huge part in my life and that of my peers growing up. As we grew and found our own ways and voices, the routine demands of that religion became only a nuisance and then later an embarassment, something to be shed before we could become fully modern or properly European or artistically legitimate.

As a young poet I was always more concerned with my quest to lose God completely, influenced as I was early on by Nietzche and French Existentialism. But there were other influences too, people whose work I admired, who hadn’t abandoned the outmoded concept of an all-powerful higher being. The Beats of course, Kerouac and Ginsberg particularly, and also much closer to home there was Kavanagh. His poetry alone did more to undermine my best attempts at an aloof and urban intellectual atheism than any other single writer.

But there were always other factors at play, preventing me from dispatching this God who had been foisted on me without my bidding; the quotidian social interactions that make up our lives for instance, and then those defining life events, the births, the deaths, the marriages and all the other stuff, formal and informal, in between. Each time a child is born to a relative or friend, or someone close to you dies, you are drawn back into the web of traditional belief via ceremony, ritual and rite. You feel that pull again. Sometimes you fight it, but it’s not really a constraint. But you couldn’t call it a burning faith either, a road to Damascus moment that could change the way you live your life, but sometimes religion can offer a route to consolation in difficult times or a way of being close to loved ones while sharing a celebration. I’m thinking now of my son’s upcoming First Communion and the gathering of family that will occur on that occasion. At it’s best organised religion facilitates that kind of fellowship. We know the flip side all too well, we’ve seen it all too often in recent years.

Over the years I’ve toyed with the idea of addressing God and/or religion in poems and stories. It isn’t ccol to talk or write about God, it never was, so you don’t often get characters in stories searching for that kind of truth. I’m reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot at the moment which contains just such a character, a young man who is as normal as any other young man, but who is seeking meaning via God and religion. It may sound daft, but he’s a compelling and human character – in other words, he’s no different to any other young man in his desire and uncertainty. In the narrative canon there are many variations on the Prodigal Son trope, but poetry offers, I think, a better, more complex and more honest approach to the subject of God, particularly for those of us who still like to hedge our bets.

Submissions close on 1st August 2012. I’m working on something even as I write.

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“The Paris Literary Prize is an international prize for unpublished writers,
awarded for a novella.  Any topic is welcome.

Shakespeare and Company has a long-standing tradition of opening its doors to aspiring writers and in keeping with that philosophy, the 10,000€ Paris Literary Prize is open to writers from around the world who have not yet published a book. We believe that a prize of this kind can make a difference in launching a new writer’s career.”

I came across this very interesting competition on the Irish Writers’ Centre Competitions page. I’ve always enjoyed novellas or short novels or whatever you want to call them. There’s the obvious ones like Of Mice and Men and The Old Man and the Sea of course, but my long time favourites have been Camus‘ The Outsider and Mann’s Death in Venice.  I remember doing a presentation on The Outsider when I was at college way back when – can’t remember what God awful things I said but I’m sure I was frothing at the mouth with enthusuasm for it. These stories reflect the best qualities of the short novel/novella; a strong point of view that makes for gripping, albeit uncomfortable, reading mixed at times with a lyricism that seems to skirt around the concrete world offering a glimpse of another and often darker place.

Among great novellas that I’ve read relatively recently I have to include The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan and The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O’Connor. Definitely recommend them both. And of course a novella won the Booker Prize last year.

What the Hell is a Novella anyway I hear you say. Now if you had a story that was too long to be short and too short to be a novel you’d be somewhere close. In this competition they use a word count of between 17,000 and 35,000 to define the form. But there’s so much more that makes a novella a novella – that fearlessness you need to move beyond the confines of the shorter form coupled with the instinct to know what truly matters and just cut the rest. Even with an entry fee of €50 I’d be tempted to throw my hat in the ring. All the details you need are here. You have until September to piece it all together, so stop wasting time reading this…

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The results of the Bare Hands Poetry and Photography Competition have just been announced here. The prize of having postcards printed showing the two winning poems and photographs, which would then be made available for free at a whole bunch of international independent bookshops, was ingenious and at the same time reassuringly old school for those us who so far eschew kindle and enjoy the feel of paper and card in our bare hands.

The bad news is I didn’t win, but the good news is that my poem Broken Love was Highly Commended along with poems from good friends  and class acts Colm Keegan and Kate Dempsey. You can read them and the winners at your leisure here and enjoy the photos too.

Bare Hands Issue 6 is out now also and you can read it and all the back issues here. If you want to submit have a look here. Again, this is another example of a new writing endeavour going from strength to strength in terms of the quality of the work and the imagination of the editors. Congratulations to all.

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The novel is finished now and gone to my agent. For the first time in years I don’t have a major project ongoing to constantly think about or try to stop thinking about. That could all change of course very soon and I could find myself revisiting and rewriting  aspects of the novel all over again. But for the moment I’m letting it go, and leaving myself free to pursue other aspects of writing.

I’d like to write more (and better) poetry this year, but I’m also keen to go back to the short story too. Not that I’ve been away completely; I’ve written maybe three over the course of the last year. And then there are plays. I intend to expand my hour long play Story into a full length play for the stage this year, and with that in mind I’ve already been re-reading it and making notes on how I might vary the pace and the tone more.

This is the the second novel I’ve written and both times I’ve found myself, at the end of the process, wondering would I ever have it in me to write another. The good news is I already have the bones of a story that could be a novel floating around in my head. But I’m going to leave it there for the moment – of course I’ll be thinking about it from time to time and probably writing up notes here and there. And when you get an idea like that, sometimes music or stories you hear or books or newspaper articles you read hold themselves before you in the light of that idea, so that you begin to see a way that this simple plain idea could possibly grow legs and maybe even wings some day. Some day. We’ll see.

For the moment it’s going to be stories, poems and plays. That’s enough to be getting along with I reckon.

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Up to my eyes at the moment doing revisions and edits on a novel that has been with me for a long time now. As I get near the very end now I experience the usual mixed emotions; I suppose because I’ve been exposed to the work so intensely in recent months. I do find it amazing, however, that I can still be suprised (in a good way) by some of the writing. Let’s hope that’s a positive sign. Hope I’m not snow blind to obvious flaws.

Anyway, as a result I’m slow to report on the launch of Cancan #3, which took place last Wednesday 14th March in the Loft Bookshop above the Twisted Pepper on Abbey Street. There was a good crowd in attendance, and I got to meet up with some new people, including Kit Fryatt, who is the brains – and the looks – behind Wurm im apfel and Cancan.  I also met Alan McMonagle, a writer who up to then was known to me only by reputation.  Alan and I share a lot of common ground in terms of publications, prizes and shortlisting over recent years, so we had a lot to talk about on a night that flew past in a frenzy of high octane poetry. Congrats to him on his recent Writing Spirit Award win also!

Daniel Ryan, Alan and I read first as contributors to Cancan #3 and then Kit read two poems by J S Robinson who couldn’t make it to the launch. We then had readings from David Toms and James Cummins. I was not familiar with their work, but was blown away the visceral verbal power of their poems and the mastery of their delivery. By comparison the three short poems I read seemed to be almost monosyllabic. But then poetry is a broad church I suppose. On my way home afterwards my head was literally spinning. You can check them out here.

I always say I should do more readings and I know I should. It’s good to be out there delivering your work – and of course meeting up with fellow readers and writers.

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Lately there’s been a resurence of all things literary and short. We’ve seen the arts pages of national newspapers and magazines claim that the short story is making a come back, and we’ve seen new presses, both online and print, emerge in recent times against all odds. Flash fiction, as the short short story is now called, has never been so popular and there is no shortage of outlets where you can submit work of this nature, the latest and best being the Irish Times regular slot which has featured great work recently by David Mohan, Valerie Sirr, Doreen Duffy and Eimear Ryan to name but a few.

I’ve noticed also that even shorter forms are becoming more popular. The main reason put forward for this is the advent of social networking and in particular the limitations imposed by Twitter. I don’t Tweet myself, and perhaps I’ll start soon, who knows, particularly if I can rationalise it as a form of literary discipline. In recent times Valeries Sirr has blogged about the Haiku, that most popular of the short forms. The Haiku form offers a great way of approaching writing poetry for people new to it and particularly for teaching kids about poetry and what it can do. Over the years many poets have used haiku or variations on it – the Beats particularly, although they didn’t get hung up on the strict  5 7 5 syllable rule always. And why would they – they were beats for God’s sake!

Meanwhile the poet George Szirtes has also been discussing the idea of the 140 character constraint as a legimate form for poetry on his blog. As is usually the case Szirtes approaches the idea with an open mind and brings positivity and a keen intelligence to bear on the subject. Well worth a look.

With all that in mind, it seems serendipitious that Ropes Journal in Galway are seeking submissions for 140 character stories for their annual anthology. You have until 5pm on Monday 12th March to submit your entry. So get cracking, and remember – keep it short!

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Cancan issue #3 will be launched at The Loft Bookshop, Twisted Pepper, 54 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1 at 7pm next Wednesday 14th March 2012. There will be readings from various contributors, including myself, and also from published poets David Toms and James Cummins. Details here.

Admission is free and all are welcome. Hope to see you there!

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Following on from my being highly commended in the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair Competition in January, I have been given an Honourable Mention in the Labello Press Leonard A. Koval Memorial Prize for my short story The Shawl. Details of the winning and shortlisted stories are here. Congratulations to them all! It’s a shame to miss out on being in the Gem Street anthology, but at the same time it’s reassuring that my work was in the frame going into the final stages of the judging process.

It’s also great to see another independent publisher setting up in Ireland and championing the short story form. Kudos goes to Deborah McMenamy who is the brains and the courage behind Labello Press.

In other news, I’m glad to report that my short poem Gerry Asleep will be featured in Cancan Poezine issue #3 in March. Cancan looks like a really interesting magazine, edited and produced by the very talented poet Kit Fryatt who is the driving force behind wurm im apfel. Check it out!

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Just been informed about this very interesting poetry competition run as part of the Poetry on the Lake Festival from Lake Orta, Northern  Italy by Gabriel Griffin. Carol Ann Duffy, UK Poet Laureate, is the patron of the festival and this year the judges are Gillian Clarke (Welsh National Poet), Carole Baldock (editor of Orbis), and Christopher North.

Going through the list of previous winners and commended poets I came across the name of Peter Goulding –  I should really say inevitably, as Peter seems to figure in the business end of a whole heap of competitions in recent years. The awards are made in Autumn and they also produce an antholgy of winning and commended poems.

The closing date is 12th April and all the details you need to enter are here.

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This year why not try your hand at play writing. There are a few interesting competitions coming up over the next couple of months, so if you have something dramatic in a drawer somewhere why not give it the once over and send it in.

RTE P J O’Connor Award 2012: This year they’re looking for a 40 minute (40 pages) radio play. All the details, entrance form and sample play formats are here. Free to enter and the deadline is 30th March 2012.

I was lucky enough to be shortlisted last year, and while my play didn’t get produced, I did get to attend a day’s workshop with the radio drama department there, Aidan Mathews, Kevin Reynolds, Kevin Brew, and also dramaturg Jesper Bergen.

Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama: Deadline is 5th March 2012 & entry fee is £5. One-act plays, up to 30 minutes, for a cast of up to six.

Eamon Keane Full Length Play Competition: This is part of Listowel Writers’ Week. It doesn’t say how long a full length play should be – an hour, hour and a half, two hours? Deadline is 2nd March 2012 & entry is €20.

There should also be a competition coming up in April from the Cork Arts Theatre for one act plays. It was won last year by Alan O’Regan whose play Those Sick and Indigent I blogged about recently. Keep an eye on their website.

So, go on give drama a try for a change.

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