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News and Events
UCC writers keep up college's proud tradition in creative sphere !
From Today's Irish Examiner and well done to Danny, Lara, Mark, Joy, Jack and all of those involved!
A group of writers based in UCC have created a new publication to showcase their output. Sonder has been released by the writers from the Cork college's School of English after months of lockdown-related delays.
“We initially came together as a group in 2019, in a workshop run by the then writer in residence Danny Denton," explains editor Lara Ní Churrín. "The workshop lasted six weeks or so, and in it we worked together, peer-reviewing each other's work, and analysing texts, under Danny's guidance.
"When the workshop was finished, Danny suggested that we keep meeting as a group, and he helped us to find a room in which we could work, and it was his idea that we create some kind of publication. He was very encouraging, and very helpful in securing funding.”
The cover image is striking, while the layout of the collection itself is also impressive.
“The cover image was designed by group member E Monroe. They had expressed an interest in designing the cover from the beginning, and I am not one to stand in the way of someone's talent! I think that's a really important part of working with people - understanding when other people know more than you and trusting them, giving them space to do their thing.
“It was the same with the designer, Joy O'Leary - I had seen some stuff that Joy had done, and I knew that she was good, so I sent her the cover image, and trusted her to do the rest.”
Sonder follows in a rich tradition of writers and poets involved with UCC, as residents, lecturers, and graduates, from contemporary voices like Kathy D’Arcy and Doireann Ní Ghriofa, to veterans like Theo Dorgan, the late John Montague and many others. While the collection was very much a DIY exercise in many respects, Ní Churrín discusses the supports the university has offered the project.

“It feels great to have that support, and to feel like we're some way aligned with all the fantastic, talented writers and poets who have passed through this campus.”
All proceeds from sales of the physical edition go to the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI), providing assistance for people in Direct Provision. Ní Churrín discusses the importance of outreach to those in the system
School of English Online Reading Series 2021
We are very pleased to announce that our 2021 online reading series will commence on Wednesday 3rd February, at 6 pm, with Kevin Barry talking about his new collection of short stories That Old Country Music
Kevin Barry is the author of the novels Night Boat To Tangier, Beatlebone and City of Bohane. He has also written three short story collections, That Old Country Music, Dark Lies The Island and There Are Little Kingdoms. His stage credits include the plays Autumn Royal, There Are Little Kingdoms and Burn The Bad Lamp, along with a half-dozen radio plays for RTE and the BBC. His screen credits include the feature Dark Lies The Island and several short films. He has won the IMPAC Award, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize, the European Union Prize for Literature, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the BBC Northern Ireland Drama Award, and many others. He has been translated into 18 languages, and his stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Harpers, and elsewhere. He is the co-editor and publisher of the annual anthology Winter Papers. He lives in County Sligo, Ireland
Keep an eye out here for details of how to register for the online reading !
Our exciting series of readers will include ....
Wednesday 17th February, Sean Hewitt
Credit Matthew Thompson
Wednesday 14th March Eimear Ryan, UCC Writer in Residence 2021
Danielle McLaughlin, Wednesday 24th March.
Wednesday 31st March Sandra Beasley
Credit Andrew Lightman
Wednesday 14th April Nuala O'Connor.
credit Una O'Connor
Poetry Competition: Frederick Douglass - Past, Present, Future
Poetry Competition:
Frederick Douglass -
Past, Present, Future
Poems should reflect upon Douglass’s work in some way; writers
may wish to consider his time in Ireland or, more generally, his
social activism and fight for equality. Poems should be 40 lines
maximum (not including the title) The winning submission will be showcased during the events of #Douglassweek, where
internationally acclaimed actor Roger Guenveur Smith will
perform a reading of the winning poem.
The winner will also receive a €100 gift voucher for Vibes and
Scribes bookstore.
The closing date for submissions is January 7th, 2021.
Entries should be sent to info@douglassinireland.com, with the
subject line “#DouglassWeek Poetry”
Submission: January 7th,
2021 | 11PM (CET)
info@douglassincork.com
Join Eibhear Walshe and Nuala O'Connor on Tuesday 5th January
DATE Tuesday Jan 5th
TIME 3pm NY / 8pm Ireland
LOCATION

This conversation brings together two novelists who thread the needle between fiction and biography. Nuala O’Connor’s Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce (HarperCollins) and Eibhear Walshe’s The Last Day at Bowen’s Court (Somerville Press) are told from the point of view of two very different Irishwomen—Nora Barnacle and Elizabeth Bowen—and draw from biographical material but are not beholden to it. In this discussion moderated by Heather Bryant Jordan, the authors will consider the relationship between history and fiction, writing writer’s lives, and writing women’s lives.
Please click here to register.
Co-Sponsors: NYC Irish Studies Consortium, SOF/Heyman, NYU Glucksman Ireland House, The Wellesley College Writing Program, and Columbia University Seminar in Irish Studies.
Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce
For a video of Nuala O'Connor reading from Nora, please see the following link: https://youtu.be/7OSO5Wb815c
Acclaimed Irish novelist Nuala O’Connor’s bold reimagining of the life of James Joyce’s wife, muse, and the model for Molly Bloom in Ulysses is a “lively and loving paean to the indomitable Nora Barnacle” (Edna O’Brien).
Dublin, 1904. Nora Joseph Barnacle is a twenty-year-old from Galway working as a maid at Finn’s Hotel. She enjoys the liveliness of her adopted city and on June 16—Bloomsday—her life is changed when she meets Dubliner James Joyce, a fateful encounter that turns into a lifelong love. Despite his hesitation to marry, Nora follows Joyce in pursuit of a life beyond Ireland, and they surround themselves with a buoyant group of friends that grows to include Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and Sylvia Beach.
But as their life unfolds, Nora finds herself in conflict between their intense desire for each other and the constant anxiety of living in poverty throughout Europe. She desperately wants literary success for Jim, believing in his singular gift and knowing that he thrives on being the toast of the town, and it eventually provides her with a security long lacking in her life and his work. So even when Jim writes, drinks, and gambles his way to literary acclaim, Nora provides unflinching support and inspiration, but at a cost to her own happiness and that of their children.
With gorgeous and emotionally resonant prose, Nora is a heartfelt portrayal of love, ambition, and the quiet power of an ordinary woman who was, in fact, extraordinary.
The Last Day at Bowen’s Court
“A subtle, compelling and detailed reimagining of one of the great enduring love affairs of the literary twentieth century. Eibhear Walshe has brought a vanished time back to life.”
John Banville
This remarkable novel explores the life of the Irish novelist, Elizabeth Bowen, her time in London during the Second World War and her ‘reporting’ on Irish neutrality for the Ministry of Information. At the centre of the novel is her Blitz love affair with the Canadian diplomat, Charles Ritchie, a wartime romance that inspired her most famous novel, The Heat of the Day, a gripping story about espionage and loyalty that became a best-seller. The story is told from the point of view of Bowen herself, and also from that of her lover Charles Ritchie, her husband Alan Cameron and Ritchie’s wife Sylvia. It is set in wartime London, Dublin and North Cork, and deals with the private and public conflicts of love and of national identity in a time of upheaval and liberation. At the centre of the novel is a portrait of Elizabeth Bowen, one of Ireland’s most influential writers.
Participants:
Heather Corbally Bryant teaches in the Writing Program at Wellesley College; she is the author of the prize-winning book, Elizabeth Bowen and the Landscape of War, and ten books of poetry. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and her chapbook, James Joyce’s Water Closet, won honorable mention in the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition. She is currently at work on a book of essays, A Memoir in Snapshots.
Nuala O’Connor was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1970. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, she is a novelist and short story writer, and lives in County Galway with her husband and three children. Nuala has won many prizes for her short fiction including the Short Story Prize in the UK and Ireland’s Francis MacManus Award. She is editor at flash e-zine Splonk.
Eibhear Walshe was born in Waterford, studied in Dublin, and now lives in Cork, where he lectures in the School of English at University College Cork and is Director of Creative Writing. He has published in the area of memoir, literary criticism and biography, and his books include Kate O’Brien: a Writing Life (2006), Oscar’s Shadow: Wilde and Ireland (2012), and A Different Story: The Writings of Colm Tóbín (2013). His childhood memoir, Cissie’s Abattoir (2009) was broadcast on RTE’s Book on One. His novel, The Diary of Mary Travers (2014) was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year in 2015 and longlisted for the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award. He was associate editor, with Catherine Marshall, of Modern Ireland in 100 Art Works, edited by Fintan O’Toole and shortlisted for the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Award. His novel on Handel, The Trumpet Shall Sound was published in 2019 was described as ‘fascinating, deep and utterly absorbing’ by the Irish Times and ‘a plausible, sensuous coming-of-age story about a genius wrestling with love and ambition across eighteenth century Europe’ by Emma Donoghue