Brian Kirk's Blog

I’m delighted to be reading this Friday lunchtime at Smock Alley Theatre as part of the Dublin Book Festival 2017. If I might quote from the programme:

“The event brings together Amanda Bell, author of First the Feathers (Doire Press), her first full-length poetry collection. She will be joined by award-winning Dublin poet and author of debut poetry collection After The Fall (Salmon Poetry) Brian Kirk and northern Irish poet and musician Emma McKervey, the voice behind The Rag Tree Speaks (Doire Press). They will be joined by Lisa Frank, the co-director of Doire Press and editor of Galway Stories, which features many of Ireland’s best fiction writers.”

My collection is due to be launched on Thursday 9th November at 6.30pm at the Irish Writers Centre on Parnell Square. I’ll post further details in the next day or so. Exciting times!

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My first poetry collection After The Fall will be published by Salmon Poetry in the near future. I’ll post details of the launch as soon as I get them.

In the meantime, I’ll be doing some readings and events over the coming months to showcase the poems.

The first outing is an event called “Poetry First” as part of the Red Line Book Festival run by South Dublin Libraries.

• At The Edge, Cavan Library, at 6.30pm on Tuesday 24th October 2017, along with Afric McGlinchey and Mairéad Donnellan.
• Dublin Book Festival at 1pm on Friday 3rd November in Smock Alley along with Amanda Bell and Emma McKervey
• Ó Bhéal at Long Valley Bar in Cork on Monday 20th November 2017

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I’m really happy to have a brand new story in Issue 7 of The Lonely Crowd. My thanks to fiction editor, Valerie Sirr. I can’t wait to read the issue which includes work by some great writers like Alan McMonagle, Mary Morrissy, Alison Wells, June Caldwell, James Lawless and many, many more.

I’m about to take a break for a couple of weeks so it’s an opportune time to review how things have been going in 2017 from a writing and publishing point of view. Here’s a quick rundown:

·    In February my poem Somehwere In Between was placed 3rd in the North West Words Poetry Competition 2016 and was published in North West Words Issue 7 in May 2017.

·    In February my short short story Boy and Man was published in Live Encounters Poetry and Writing. 

·    My sonnet Stateless was published in Crannóg 44 in March 2017.

·    My poem Immanent was published in Skylight 47, Issue 8, in March 2017.

·    My poem Unlucky In Love was published in the anthology “A Face in the Mirror a Hook on the Door” by Three Drops Press.

·    My play Story was shortlisted for the Eamonn Keane Full Length Play Award at Listowel Writers Week 2017.

·    My poem Evening Commute was Highly Commended in the Oliver Goldsmith Poetry Competition 2017 in May 2017.

·    My poem The Couple was Highly Commended in the Robert Monteith International Poetry Competition 2017.

·    My poem Senseless was published in the June 2017 issue of The Honest Ulsterman.

·    My short story The Invitation was published in Issue 7 of The Lonely Crowd in June 2017, edited by Valerie Sirr.

·    In June 2017 I was awarded a bursary from South Dublin County Council towards the completion of my first short story collection.

NB: It’s important to note that along with the above successes goes far more failures and rejections. All of the work that is now published was rejected in an earlier form somewhere else.

The big thing to look forward to for me in the second half of the year is the publication of my first poetry collection, After The Fall, by Salmon Poetry in September. I already have a number of readings and events planned for later in the year and I’ll post publication details as soon as I have them. See you on the other side!

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Last year my novel for children The Rising Son was nominated for a CAP Award. The Carousel Aware Prize for Independent Authors was created by, author and creative writing teacher, Carolann Copland last year to promote the best in self published literature. The team at CAP write:

“The publishing industry in Ireland is changing: traditional publishing is no longer the only route to publishing success and The CAP Awards is leading the way in its championship of Irish independent authors.

We are committed to acknowledging and promoting excellence in all aspects of independent book publishing and hope that the Awards will inspire and encourage Irish Indie authors to focus on ensuring that their work reaches the highest possible standards in all aspects of publishing, from writing and editing through to design and marketing.

The CAP Awards is also a reader’s guarantee of quality, offering readers fresh, new voices and vision only available from independent authors combined with professional, high-level standards of publishing.

These Awards would not be possible without the support of many.

The CAP Awards Committee would like to thank all the judges for 2016 – Louise Phillips, Claire Hennessy, Jax Miller, Tony Canavan and St Colmcille’s Junior National School, Knocklyon for giving so generously of their time in supporting the Awards. Thanks also to Hazel Gaynor for cutting the red ribbon on the night. A huge thank you to our 2016 sponsors for their support at the gala evening and throughout the year: Dubray Books, Easons, Books Ireland, Emu Ink Publishing, The Dublin Writers’ Conference and InTallaght Magazine.

A big thank you to CAP Awards founder, author and owner of Carousel Creates Writers’ Centre, Carolann Copland, whose vision and passion for writing and independent publishing was the inspiration and the driving force behind these Awards, and to Gerry O’Brien and all the staff at Aware for their support and assistance in our first Award year. And last, but not least, thanks to the other members of the CAP Awards Committee: Anne O’Leary, Neil Copland, Joan Brady, Bernadette Kearns and  Tara Sparling for all their hard work and dedication to making this inaugural year of The CAP Awards such a success.”

Winners 2016

Last year’s winners were:

• Best Novel  – Orna Ross, Her Secret Rose
• Best Short Story Anthology  – Kevin Doyle, Do You Like Oranges?
• Best Junior Book  –  Aisli Madden, Zenji & the Muzzy Bug
• Best Young Adult Book  – Brendan O’Connell, Death’s New Lease On Life
• Best Non-Fiction Book  –  Lorna Sixsmith, How to be a Perfect Farm Wife

Launch of 2017 CAP Awards

There is a general invitation to the launch of “The CAP Awards 2017” on 25th March 2017 between 2pm and 5pm at The Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square West. There will be a readers’ and writers’ day with panel discussions from both the world of traditionally and independently published authors. There will also be some short readings from authors and they will be announcing the amount that was raised by The CAP Awards 2016 for their charity Aware. Both writers and readers are welcome to attend on the day and to ask questions from the judges and the committee regarding the upcoming submissions for our awards. They will be seeking submissions following the launch with the closing date for receipt of all submissions being 31st May 2017.

This is a great opportunity for self published and independent authors to get their book out there, raise their profile and to establish a readership. I would encourage every one to get behind this farsighted venture.

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So here we are in a new year, facing new challenges. Trying to keep writing and producing new work is a challenge always, but it’s one I relish. I hope 2017 will be a good year for me and my work. I have publication of my first poetry collection After The Fall to look forward to in September this year from Salmon Poetry, and I’ll be revising and polishing the poems over the next few months. But in the meantime I’m pleased that I’m continuing to publish new poems and stories. Here’s how things have shaped up so far in 2017:

• In February my poem Somehwere In Between was placed 3rd in the North West Words Poetry Competition 2016 and will be published in May 2017.
• In February my short short story Boy and Man was published in Live Encounters Poetry and Writing. 
• My sonnet Stateless is published in Crannóg 44 in March 2017 (see beautiful cover above!).
• My poem Immanent will be published in Skylight 47, Issue 8, in March 2017.
• My short story The Invitation is due to be published in The Lonely Crowd, Issue 7, edited by Valerie Sirr, in Summer 2017.

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2016 ended on a huge high for me when my Christmas villanelle When We Were Small was published on the front page of the Irish Times on Christmas Eve. It doesn’t get any better than this! Huge thanks to IT Poetry Editor Gerard Smyth for accepting the poem.

Most of the year was about The Rising Son, my 1916 related novel for kids, which I took out and about to schools and libraries throughout the year. This was a great experience for me, meeting young readers who showed a huge appetite for the story and whose close reading provoked some great questions which I hope I was able to answer. I also brought the book to Over The Edge in Galway and to the Belfast Book Festival in June.

Next year I look forward to the publication of my first collection of poetry with Salmon Poetry. This is really important to me as its something I’ve been working on for years now. I will post more news about the publication as soon as it becomes available.

In the meantime here’s a brief run down of prizes and publications for 2016. Not a bad year at all. Thanks to all the journals, editors and competition judges. Rejections are a part of life as a writer, so these acceptances are much appreciated!

• In January my story The Prize was shortlisted for a WOW Award. and was published in the WOW Anthology 2016.
• My poem Persephone was published in Abridged – Floodland in February.
• In February my poem Birthday won the Galway Rape Crisis Centre Poetry Competition.
• In April my poem Unlucky in Love was shortlisted in the Phizzfest Poetry Competition.
• In May my poems Night Bus and A Libation For The Dead were published in The Cafe Review special Irish Edition.
• My four poem sequence Cursed was published in Live Encounters Poetry June 2016 Issue.
• In June my poems Sleep and Funeral appeared in Issue 48 of the Ofi Press.
• In August my poem The Death Of Idealism was published in Issue 23 of Bare Hands Poetry.
• In September my poem In My Day was published in Boyne Berries Issue 20.
• In September my poem New Year appeared in Issue 7 of Skylight 47.
• In October my essay Vanity of Vanites – Kerouac, Writing and Notoriety was published in The Honest Ulsterman.
• My short flash fiction piece Land Locked was published in “Sunset Drinking the Black Ocean” an anthology sold to raise money for Long Story Short Journal.
• My poetry film Red Line Haiku was shortlisted for the 2016 Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film Competition.
• My novel for 10 -14 year olds, The Rising Son, was shortlisted for the Carousel Aware Prize for Independent Authors in the Young Adult category.
• In November my three poem sequence Gifts was published in Live Encounters Poetry Gathering December 2016 Issue.
• My poem When We Were Small was published on the front page of The Irish Times on 24th December 2016.

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It’s been a really exciting 1916 centenary year and my novel The Rising Son has sold way beyond my expectations and has kept me busy doing readings and library and school visits all over the place. Belfast Book Festival and Over The Edge in Galway were high points for me!  My last three class visits will be held at the beginning of December in South East Dublin just before the close of the year and almost exactly one year after the date of publication. I’ve really enjoyed meeting the kids. Their appetite for knowledge is so well reflected in the quality and quantity of questions I’ve had to answer during the year.

I’m looking forward now to new and exciting projects in the new year, more news of  which I hope to share with you soon. So before I do my annual run down of “what I’ve done and failed to do” in the current year I will, for the last time, list the many ways in which you can get your hands on a copy of The Rising Son (if you haven’t done so already!) If you’ve read the book I’d be really pleased if you could put a short review up on Amazon or Goodreads – thanks!

So here we go:

• You can buy it directly from me by clicking the cover image on the right side of this page.
• Eason in O’Connell Street still have a couple of copies (it’s in the adult Irish Lit section for some reason)
• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Kenny’s Book Shop, Galway.

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I can’t say how pleased I am that my novel The Rising Son has been short-listed for The CAP-Indie Book Awards 2016 in the Young Adult category. The awards ceremony takes place this Tuesday evening at 7pm, 25th October 2016, at The Teachers Club on Parnell Square.

Huge thanks to Carolann Copland, of Carousel Writers’ Centre, who is the brains behind this award.

Carousel Writers’ Centre launched the Carousel Aware Prize for Independently Published Authors on January 11th 2016; with all money raised going to Aware. (A charity which assists those directly affected by the illness of depression.)

These awards aim to provide a platform to showcase the cream of Irish Self-Published authors, bringing them to the attention of book shops, distributors and the media in Ireland and abroad.

The shortlists in all five categories are as follows:

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I was delighted to get news of the shortlisting of my Poetry Film “Red Line Haiku” in the  4th Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film Competition. I have to acknowledge the fine work of Bao Zhu who made the film with me and used her expertise as a film maker to marry her vision to my words. The film has been chosen to be included in a shortlist of 28 from 163 films entered from 28 countries. It will be shown on the afternoon of 16th October as part of the IndieCork Film Festival along with the other shortlisted films at the Blacknight Festival Centre, Kino Cinema:

Competition Screening A Sun 16th Oct / 12:00pm / 50 mins

Sun Hours / Dotan Gur / Israel

Once in Whitley Bay / Diana Taylor / UK

Dictionary Illustrations / Marie Craven / Australia

One Dream Opening Into Many / Marie Craven / Australia

Red Line Haiku / Bao Zhu / China,Ireland

SMART USER / Kuesti Fraun / Germany

Two Story Train / Martha McCollough / USA

Song of Calling / Jason Lam / Australia

DADA! / Stephen Chang and John Weselcouch / USA

Peter and the Wolf (Aladdin Sane?) / Patrick O’ Shea / Ireland

The Nat King Cole Post Office / Pamela Falkenberg and Jack Cochran / USA

Repères (Landmarks) / Karoline Georges / Canada

Love Mykolaiv if you dare / Angie Bogachenko / Ukraine

Adondar a lingua (Kneading language) / Celia Parra / Spain

Competition Screening B Sun 16th Oct / 2:00pm / 50 mins

What The Waves Brought In / Paul Broderick / USA

Joining the Lotus Eaters / Marie Craven / Australia

Eclipse / Eugenia Lindblat / Italy

SADDLE / Corbin Louis and Devin Ensz / USA

Thames Way / Diarmuid Fitzgerald and Ciarán Ó Floinn / Ireland

Known Unto God / Suzie Hanna / U.K.

Baisan and Buben – F5 / Anatoly Kuris / Belarus

Helvetinjumalankone (Hell’sgodmachine) / Sanna Larmola / Estonia, Finland

The Eternal Footman / Pamela Falkenberg and Jack Cochran / USA

The Bloom / Pamela Falkenberg and Jack Cochran / USA

Chamada Geral (Calling All) / Manuel Vilarinho / Portugal

A Demonstration / Pádraig Burke (Ireland)

Wat Zegt De Zee? (What Does The Sea Say?) / Jan Peeters & Paul Bogaert / Belgium

We are the ones who were born / Urs Mader / Germany

The awards will be made later that night at The Gate Cinema, Cork. Wish us luck!

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On 28th July 2016 I was delighted to be a guest on The Late Lunch with Gerry Kelly on LMFM in Drogheda. In a very relaxed and enjoyable interview I got to talk about The Rising Son and also read a couple of poems from my collectionm, After The Fall, which is due out in early 2017 from Salmon. You can listen back to the interview here. I come on at around 26.34. Gerry kindly invited me back next year to read some poems and talk about the collection when the book comes out.

This Sunday morning at 11am I’ll be talking to Teresa Quinn on Bookline on Liffey Sound FM. Again I’ll be mainly talking about The Rising Son and the school visits and readings I’ve been doing as part of the centenary of the 1916 Rising. I will also perhaps read a poem or two if time permits.

I’m very grateful for these opportunities to talk about my work. This year has been much more about the public interaction around writing which is no bad thing after an extended period of creative confinement!

I hope you’ll tune in and/or listen back.

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