Brian Kirk's Blog

Usually I like to keep my working life and my private life completely separate, but something strange and new happened this year. And that something is Canalaphonic Music and Culture Festival.

Next Friday and Saturday, 8th and 9th May, Canalaphonic will take place in the Portobello / Rathmines area. It’s mainly a music festival, but it also includes, comedy, poetry, spoken word, film, markets, kids area and tours. When we decided in Dublin City Council (my employer) that we were going to organise a festival in the Rathmines area we knew that the Grand Canal would be a focal point. It’s such a beautiful amenity. So Canalaphonic was born.

Myself and work colleague Sid Daly have been working flat out on this for months and we think that it’s going to be great. But there’s still plenty to do in this last week. We’re like swans on the canal – outwardly we look serene, even laid back, but under the surface we’re paddling frantically. Along with us we’ve worked with fellow City Council community worker Rob Chester, lecturer and poet Michael O’Dea from Rathmines College, and the ever-excellent Mick Kinahan of the Dublin branch of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (who, among many other things, organised the barge which will act as stage at Portobello Harbour next Friday and Saturday).

But I think the turning point for the event was when Sid connected us to Dave Judge of Abner Browns Barbershop. Dave’s energy, enthusiasm and his limitless connections within the music business in Dublin has enabled him to programme the best of independent and unsigned acts in the country for Canalaphonic.

Please check out the programme for the festival here. With two outdoor stages and twenty two other venues around Rathmines over the two days there’s bound to be something there to float your boat!

I’ll be reading some poetry at Rathmines Library at 2pm on Saturday 9th May, along with some guests, fellow Hibernian Poets and others.

Canalaphonic Poetry Reading

I’ll post an update after the event, but in the meantime I hope to see you all there at the weekend!

 

 

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We’re almost at the end of February already! So far I’m thrilled to have three new poems published in 2015.

The Lovers in Wartime appeared in the Irish Times on Saturday 24th January along with work by seven other poets: Kerrie O’Brien, Tom French, Mark Granier, Mary O’Donnell, John Fitzgerald, Catherine Phil MacCarthy and Richard W. Halperin.

Shed appears in The Honest Ulsterman lastest issue here. This is Greg McCartney’s (Abridged) first issue as editor. There is so much good stuff in this issue. Sit back and spend some time reading work by John Saunders, Dylan Brennan, Stephanie Conn, Dave Lordan, Jaki McCarrick and plenty more, including interviews withn 2015 Hennessy Award winner Sarah Baume and Gerald Dawe.

Orienteering is published in Issue 38 of Crannóg Magazine. This issue is being launched in Galway on Friday 27th February 2015. You can order a copy here – always worth reading!

My sonnet Trinity will be published in the Issue 5 (Spring/Summer) of Skylight 47 in May 2015. To be launched in Galway also at that time.

Also, my sestina The Man, The Boy and The Map will be featured in the next issue of The Raintown Review, due out soon. You can order a copy here.

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What I have done in 2014 (leaving aside what I failed to do…)

Forgive the Catholic references, but some things are difficult to shake off as you’ll see reflected in some of the titles of my work.

At this time of year one instinctively tends to review the year gone by before embarking on the new. I try not to make resolutions, but I do believe it’s important to have goals to aim for. Perhaps that’s why I write poetry and stories and novels and plays – perhaps I’m setting too many goals for myself. I been told before I need focus. Cue change of subject.

This year as usual I read a lot. I won’t turn this into a book review, but I re-read plenty of Philip Roth. This is always a good thing to do. Otherwise I read some great novels and poetry. Maeve O’Sullivan’s Vocal Chords showed great versatility and was very moving at times. Nessa O’Mahony’s Her Father’s Daughter showed skilful control of language and tone. Alan Jude Moore’s Zinger continued where his previous collections left off, mining the political as it impacts upon the personal in some powerful sequences with occasional moments of lyrical beauty also. There were others of course. Excellent short story collections by Madeleine D’Arcy and Aiden O’Reilly to name but two.

Among the novels I name only three Irish works: Niamh Boyce’s The Herbalist, Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s The Closet of Savage Mementos and the book I’m reading now, David Butler’s City of Dis. Niamh’s novel dates back to 2013 I think but I read it in 2014 I think. All three books are so well constructed in terms of plot and character, and relate powerful stories with stark authenticity. They are a ‘how to’ guide for the aspiring novelist.

From my own writing point of view this is how 2014 played out month by month.

January:                  My novel for children Rising was Highly Commended in the Novel Fair 2014 at The Irish Writers’ Centre.

February:                 My poem To Youth was published in Crannóg 35 in February. I attended the launch in Galway and had a great evening, meeting up with some familiar faces and some new ones too. The poem was subsequently nominated for a Pushcart Prize, which I was thrilled about.

March:                         My story The Sommelier was placed second in the Leonard A. Koval International Short Story Competition run by Labello Press in March. The story was published during the summer as part of the winners anthology.

My story There is Magic featured in The Penny Dreadful, Issue 3, in March also. I went to the Dublin launch of this also and was delighted to read my story on the night and meet the guys behind the Dreadful. I also got to hear some other wonderful writers including Dimitra Xidous and Jamie Guiney.

God, March was a good month. My novel Winter Journey was shortlisted for the Today Show/New Island Get Your Novel Published Competition.

My poem Life is Elsewhere was commended in the Galway University Hospital Arts Trust Poetry Competition in March 2014.

April:               My poem A Map appeared in Ropes 2014 in April 2014.

I was awarded an Arts Council Bursary to complete my novel for 9 – 12 year olds Rising. (This novel is finished now and is out in the wide world looking for a publisher…)

May:                My poem The Poor appeared in issue 2 of the revamped Honest Ulsterman in May. It’s great to see this journal back and now Gregory McCartney of Abridged is Editor.

I seem to have fallen off the map in June and July.

August:            My story The Creaseless Society was runner up in the Penguin / RTE Guide Short Story Competition in August. I attended a workshop / open day in the Public Library and Archive on Pearse Street in September and met up with some great writers and editors. This is called networking believe.

September:      My poem Song appeared in Boyne Berries, Issue 16 in September 2014. I went to the launch in Trim – always a great night here! Orla Fay’s first issue as editor too and a great success.

The biggest news for me was getting Highly Commended in the 2014 Patrick Kavanagh Award for a first collection of poetry. I’m finalising my first collection After The Fall right now.

October:          I had two poems shortlisted for the Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Award for Poetry, and even better, one of them was chosen as winner. The Man, The Boy and The Map is a sestina and I’ve recently heard that it will appear in US journal Raintown Review in 2015.

I was shortlisted in the James Plunkett Short Story Award.

December:       I had the pleasure of reading alongside Australian poet, Bonny Cassidy and the much admired Michael J. Whelan in Tallaght Library as part of Bonny’s tour of Ireland. It was a great honour to do so. I tell people I’m shy and retiring but I love doing readings.

So that was 2014. Have a great 2015! And remember, don’t wait for inspiration – just write. Tús maith, leath na hoibre!

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It’s World Mental Health Day today. Here’s a sonnet I wrote a while ago that attempts to say something on the subject of depression.

 

A Lack

Snap out of it! they say when you are sad

as if it was an attitude you chose,

a masquerade to show you unlike those

who do not see the darkness or the bad

in life; whose limbic pathways are not packed

with core beliefs adopted in your youth,

that tell you that there is no other truth

but you are stupid, useless, guilt-wracked

because you cannot see a brighter side

to life beyond the automatic black

that seeps into your thoughts. It is a lack

you know but lack of what you can’t decide:

a lack of understanding on their part,

a lack of practised joy inside your heart.

 

 

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This year’s Red Line Book Festival runs from October 14th to 19th. There is a fantastic line-up for this year’s festival with the usual big names in attendance including Christine Dwyer Hickey, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Dermot Bolger, Catherine Dunne, Theo Dorgan, Paul Lynch and many more.

The full programme of events is here, but I’m going to highlight a few workshops and events which may be of interest to you.

CONTEMPORARY VOICES

with Rob Doyle, Oona Frawley and Daniel Seery in conversation with Sarah Davis-Goff.

Tuesday 14th October 2014 at 8.15pm; Loose End Studio, Civic Theatre

Booking at Civic Theatre Box Office:

Book Online or Tel 01 462 7477; boxoffice@civictheatre.ie

Admission €8/€6

Wed 15th October 2014 at 7.00pm Lucan Library

Thurs 16th October 6pm at RUA RED Arts Centre Tallaght – Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition prize giving and winners’ readings with judge Nessa O’Mahony.

Followed at 8pm by TREVOR BYRNE AND  COLM KEEGAN IN CONVERSATION

Booking: Tel. 01 451 5860; boxoffice@ruared.ie

Admission: €8/€6 concessions

Poetry Ireland and South Dublin Libraries present Trevor Byrne and Colm Keegan in conversation. Dublin is a city of sounds, of voices, of stories. Author Trevor Byrne and poet Colm Keegan have always drawn inspiration from their home city: their uniquely vibrant imaginative work ranges across Dublin, dealing with class, economics, accents, geography, belief, drugs, family, and legends both ancient and urban. Byrne and Keegan will read from their work and discuss their distinctive approaches to writing and storytelling.

Fri 17th October #READWOMEN 2014

Sat 18th October at 10.30am READERS DAY: CHAPTER ONE

There are also some very good workshops on Saturday 18th October:

 

 

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Arlen House are launching three new books next Wednesday 10th September 2014 at 6pm at Dublin City Library and Archive, 138–144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2. My good friend, poet and writer, EileenCasey is launching her collection of literary essays A Fascination With Fabric along with new short story collections from Órfhlaith Foyle and Deirdre Brennan.

Órfhlaith Foyle  – Clemency Browne Dreams of Gin (her second short fiction collection, published in paperback (€15) and in limited edition, signed, numbered and inscribed hardback (€30))

Deirdre Brennan – Staying Thin for Daddy (her debut English-language short fiction collection (€15))

Eileen Casey – A Fascination with Fabric (her collection of literary essays (€15))

Congratulations Eileen! And it’s a great venue for a launch also, so try and make it along on the night!

 

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There’s a lot of guff talked about the poetry of football, “the beautiful game” that is played in “the theatre of dreams”. But we all know that’s just a collection of platitudes and cliches used by the media, the sporting organisations and their sponsors to sell shirts and put bums on seats.

But there is beauty in the game, and poetry too.  I’ve been enjoying the World Cup and following it closely enough on the TV. You know, of course that you are being manipulated to an extent as you watch, but there are also moments when the game goes off script – when the racial stereotypes are debunked by the players themselves, when a core of nobility shines through. And then there are those other unscripted moments when the behaviour of a player excites the anathema of whole nations. Such was the case of Luis Suarez in this World Cup. Here was a guy with a huge gift for the game but also a history of peculiarly violent behaviour who appeared to have somehow succeeded in rehabilitating himself, only to throw it all away again last week. He had an exemplary year at Liverpool bringing them to second place in the Premier League and had almost singlehandedly put England to the sword in their second group game against Uruguay.

Many talented footballers have been morally compromised over the years. We don’t need to name them or their flaws once again. Messi is the exception that proves the rule. If he is the Son of God, then Suarez is the Demiurge.

Strangeley enough, the more I thought about the bite on Chiellini the more I felt a peculiar sympathy for Suarez. Of course I couldn’t understand why he’d done it – who could? But still I felt bad for him, and I was not alone. Even Chiellini, the victim, felt the player’s punishment was too much. Last Friday Donal Óg Cusack, the former Cork Hurling goalkeeper, wrote a very refreshing and compassionate piece on the whole affair in the Irish Examiner.

For my part, I offer this poem.

The Demiurge

for Luis Suarez

He came from the favelas,

the barrios, the shanty towns,

mouth dry and belly empty.

Made, not begotten,

fatherless, rudderless,

no soul to speak of,

no words to explain

the threat in his eyes.

Made in God’s image and likeness,

but ugly with it –

the kind of face

only a mother could love.

He had nothing

but hunger and love

for a game played

from sunrise to sundown

through the heat

of the day with scant

hope in his heart and

a small dusty world at his feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We’re coming into the summer at last and the weather even seems to have sorted itself out. I always get restless during this time however. I lose my writing rhythm when I go on holiday, and then the kids are off school and I feel obliged to acknowledge their existence every now and then. I’m at the end of a major project now so I’m scraping around for a foothold on something new that might take me up to another level. At times like this I like to read a lot and re-read too, books and writers that I haven’t read in a while. I always go back to Philip Roth and lately I’ve been re-reading Kundera’s Art of the Novel. I’m reading and thinking I suppose, seeing how I can frame the stories I have inside me in such a way that they might hold my attention while I’m writing them and hopefully capture the imaginations of future readers.

I used to fear reading when I was in the throes of writing, afraid that I might steal too readily from other writers, but now I realise that reading good writing doesn’t invite imititation as much as it calls on the careful reader to think more. Not just about story or the mechanics of plot, but the use of language and image and metaphor, and perhaps most importantly the form or structure. The key to the success (I mean this artisticallt and intellectually) of many books is the form in which the story is framed.

I do like holidays for the reading time it affords. But I always get a yen to write something even if I don’t have any idea what I’m doing. It’s one of the few occasions these days when I go back to the blank sheet of paper and the chewed pen. I write 95% straight to the laptop these days. I’m not sure if it’s the right way to proceed always. Sometimes I think it’s too easy to delete as you go on a PC and every day you sit down you start by unpicking the work of the day before. That can be soul-destroying when you’re working on something as big and unwieldy as a novel.

So this summer I’m going to read lots, and you should too. New novels, like Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s The Closet of Savage Mementos  (New Island) and old one’s too like Roth’s Goodbye Columbus, and plenty of poetry of course. There are so many good new journals out there now showcasing the work of new and established writers like The Poetry Bus, Gorse and The Honest Ulsterman. Issue 2 of the Ulsterman is out now and there’s tons of great stuff in it (and I’m not just saying that because I have a poem in it). Have a look at Gorse’s website too; there’s a great interview on their blog with Rob Doyle ahead of the publication of his first novel Here Are the Young Men (Lilliput Press).

 

Happy reading – and writing!

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It’s easy. Start out years ago with a huge amount of self-belief and a modicum of talent. Get annoyed after years because people don’t come seeking you out to publish the small bits and pieces you manage to write every now and again. After a while realise and accept that you’re no Mozart. Watch your thirtieth birthday go by as you continue to punch the clock. What was that? A decade? Watch your fortieth birthday go by as you punch the clock. Slowly accept that you need to put in the hours and work, work, work, even if it seems that no one will ever read your poems and stories. Send work out. Get it back. Get over it. Get over yourself. Send work out until you stop snivelling and your skin hardens and you learn to accept that editors are only human too. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes not. (My experience is that they’re right more often than they’re wrong). Enjoy the small successes. Tell people about them. Don’t be ashamed of what you do. Relish it when a publication you admire accepts your poem or story. Accept praise – even though you were always taught to feel uncomfortable when being complimented. Slowly but surely you will get to wherever it is you’re going.

This is a very brief but fairly accurate account of my writing experience to date. I’m glad to say that in these last seven or eight years I’ve been committed and working hard. Here’s where I am just now:

I’m working on the latest draft of my novel for 9-12 year olds Rising. A handful of extremely able people have read the completed draft for me and raised some important issues that I need to look at, but I’m confident that it won’t be long before I have the finished work ready to send out. I was heartened by the news in January that it was Highly Commended in the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair competition.

My first novel, the decidedly adult themed literary fiction work Winter Journey was shortlisted for the Today Programme / New Island Get Your Novel Published competition. I was in good company on the shortlist with Tara Sparling, Jessica Traynor and Stephen Murray, but the ultimate winner was Don Cameron. His novel Marked Off will be published by New Island in early 2015. I’m more hopeful than ever that Winter Journey will find a home soon.

At the end of February I took a trip to Galway for the launch of Crannóg 35. It was a great night and I was delighted to read my featured sonnet To Youth. Last September I joined the Hibernian Poets, a really talented and open group of poets who meet in the Teachers’ Club on Parnell Square every month, and combined with the advice I’ve been getting from the brilliant John Murphy my work has come on a great deal. I have a poem forthcoming in Ropes 2014 which will be launched during Cúirt Festival in Galway on 10th April. I also have a poem forthcoming in the newly revived Honest Ulsterman in April. And just the other day I learned that my poem Life is Elsewhere has been shortlisted for the Galway University Hospital Arts Trust Poetry Competition. This list is very strong and includes fellow Hibernian and serial poetry competition winner Breda Wall Ryan!

I just learned last week that my short story The Sommelier was placed second in the Labello Press International Short Story Prize. The story will feature alongside the winning and shortlisted stories in the second Gem Street anthology later this year. The Penny Dreadful is a relatively recent literary journal coming out of Cork. My story There is Magic features in Issue 3 which will be launched in the Twisted Pepper on Abbey Street at 8.30pm on Friday 4th April. It’s brilliant to be part of a publication which features some of the most important poets and writers working in Ireland right now. Check out who is featured and buy a copy – or better still, come to the Dublin launch on 4th April. And what a great cover image!

 

 

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To all you poets out there, here’s a gentle reminder of upcoming deadlines for submission to poetry competitions and journals.

Strokestown Poetry Competitions – closing date 28th February 2014.

Phizzfest Poetry Award– closing date 14th March 2014.

Rebel Poetry, Fermoy,  is calling for submissions for their forthcoming anthology ‘Fathers and what needs to be said’. There is no charge for entries and the book launch will be at the Grand Hotel in Fermoy and televised live via www.fermoypoetryfestival.com. Fermoy International Poetry Festival will host the launch on Friday April 4th 2014.

A maximum of three poems will be accepted. Poets may enter only once and cannot enter under a different name. Only Microsoft Word Docs will be accepted and all poems should be kept to a single page. All poems must be in English and emailed to rebelpoetryireland@gmail.com. The email subject should clearly say, ‘Father Anthology Submissions’. Notifications of accepted poems will be emailed to the successful poets on Friday 14 March 2014. Closing date for entries is 12.00 midday on Friday 28 February 2014.

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust annual poetry competition – closing date 7th March 2014.

The Cardiff International Poetry Competition – closing date 14th March 2014.

Listowel Single Poem Competition – closing date 1st March 2014.

Listowel Poetry Collection Competition – closing date 1st March 2014.

Trócaire Poetry Ireland Poetry Competition – closes on 28th March 2014.

The Stinging Fly – submissions are open throughout the month of March 2014.

Southword – submissions are open until 18th March 2014.

Wordlegs – submissions are currently open for Issue 18 until 31st March 2014.

Bare Hands Poetry – rolling submissions for this so well worth submitting at any time.

Poetry Bus  are currently open for subs, but bear them in mind – they come back really quickly which is great.

The Shop is a publication that every one wants to be in and they are quick enough to respond too.

Poetry Ireland Review are slow I’m afraid, but always worth sending to.

Advice? I don’t know, try and do a bit of research on the relevant editors – there’s no point in sending in formal poems to a free verse journal etc. Common sense applies to this as it does to any part of life. Keep writing and keep sending out work. If poems come back and look at them again. If you’re happy with them and believe in them send them out somewhere else, but if you get offered advice from an editor, don’t ignore it, take it – at least in part.

I’m sure I’m leaving out many competitions and certainly tons of journals, but if you contact me I’ll be glad to include your competition / journal in my next update. Best of luck to you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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