An invitation for inclusion in Cork Words Anthology 2^nd Edition

As part of a project supported by Cork City Council and Creative Ireland, Cork City Libraries are seeking submissions of existing work from writers living in or from Cork and/or writing inspired by Cork city.

Pieces will be included in the second anthology of CorkWords which will be published in November this year. The anthology will be distributed by representatives of the city on international visits, and will also be given to Cork’s sister cities: Shanghai, San Francisco, Rennes, Köln. The book will also be for sale in Waterstones as well as other locations citywide.

The first anthology published last year was a wonderful success. It was launched by the Lord Mayor, Cllr Joe Kavanagh in Triskel on September 24, 2020. Installations of selected works from CorkWords were located across the city as a literary trail for Culture Night 2020 and the anthology got special recommendation from Tania Banotti, Director of Creative Ireland. With the publication of the second anthology of CorkWords in 2021, we look forward to more in person events as restrictions will hopefully continue to be lifted as we progress through the year.

You are invited to submit:

a)     A maximum of three poems

          or

b)    Prose no longer than 2000 words. Due to space restriction shorter pieces are encouraged and standalone extracts are also invited.

Email your submissions to: patricia_looney@corkcity.ie by Saturday 19 June, 2021.

A small fee will be paid to all selected contributors.

We are excited to announce that our 2021 online reading series will conclude on Wednesday 28th April, at 6 pm, with a reading by the poet Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe.

Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe is a poet, pacifist and fabulist. Born in India, she grew up across the Middle East, Europe and North America, before calling Ireland home. Founder of the P[l]ay It Forward Fellowships, she is poetry editor at Skein Press and Fallow Media, and contributing editor with The Stinging Fly. She is a recipient of the Next Generation Artist Award in Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and the inaugural Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award. Her debut poetry collection, Auguries of a Minor God, is forthcoming from Faber & Faber in July 2021.

You can book tickets for this online event via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/creative-writing-at-university-college-cork-reading-nidhi-zakaria-eipe-tickets-151455739193

Cover of The Disposable Stories

On Wednesday, April 21, from 8.30pm onward, De Barra’s Spoken Word will host a reading of the ‘The Disposable Stories’, a new multimedia literary magazine, created by Emily Titsworth.

Originally from Mount Olive, Illinois in the US, Emily has been resident in Cork in the past year. The ten contributors on the night – including DeBarra’s very own Lauren Cavanagh – are all students on the Creative Writing MA programme at University College Cork and also contributors to the magazine.

For this particular project, each participant took two photographs using a disposable camera. Once developed, the photos were randomly distributed among them, the pictures serving as ekphrastic writing prompts: Hence ‘The Disposable Stories’ title.

Ekphrasis is a Greek word. According to the dictionary it means, ‘Calling up a subject before the eyes with visual vividness’. So words are used to create a ‘picture in the mind’ but one that can be compared to the actual picture that inspired it. It says something about how all our minds can work so differently, even when faced with the exact same visual (or crime scene, but that’s a different story).

Further information about the event can be found on DeBarra’s Spoken Word YouTube channel that features a video. Emily explains on the video how a search for inspiration led her to come up with the disposable camera idea and why she likes the restriction of “having to capture something in just two shots” instead of the seemingly endless (but often meaningless) possibilities of a digital phone camera. Plus, how her home town is connected to this part of Ireland via a remarkable woman called Mother Jones, aka Mary G. Harris, ‘the most dangerous woman in America’ who was probably born in Blarney Street, Cork, and buried in the Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive. Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night also gets a look-in.

Following the readings, a brief exercise that will encourage audience members to write their own piece in response to one of the ‘disposable photos’ that hasn’t been used yet. They can then read out loud what they’ve produced, if they so want. The prize? A virtual pint of genuinely Irish Guinness “from the comfort of your own home”. The evening will close with an Open Mic that is open to all-comers from everywhere.

A Zoom link will be sent to the mailing list and posted on DeBarra’s Spoken Word on the day. If you wish to be added to the list, please email debarrasspokenword@gmail.com.

Congratulations to Laura McKenna!

Her debut novel, Words to Shape My Name, has been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2021!

What a wonderful achievement and best of luck  !

The next event in the School of English  UCC 2021 Reading Series is with the author Sandra Beasley, in conversation with Eibhear Walshe.

(Photo by Andrew Lightman)

We are delighted to announce that our 2021 online reading series will hold its next event on Wednesday 10th March, at 6 pm, with Eimear Ryan talking about her debut novel Holding Her Breath.

Eimear Ryan is the 2021 Arts Council Writer in Residence in UCC. Eimear Ryan’s debut novel, Holding Her Breath, will be published by Penguin Sandycove in June 2021. Her writing has appeared in Winter Papers, Granta, The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, The Long Gaze Back (New Island) and Town & Country (Faber). She is a co-founder of Banshee Press, an independent publisher that produces a literary journal, Banshee, and a select list of books.

Register for this event at Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/creative-writing-at-university-college-cork-reading-series-eimear-ryan-tickets-143289285109

Call for Submissions

The Same Page is a Cork-based print anthology curated by UCC MA in Creative Writing students. We are currently working on a publication and have a particular interest in publishing poetry, short stories, and creative non-fiction.

                            Title: Blue Is The Colour Of Distance

                 Work on all subjects welcome or use the title as a prompt.

The submission deadline to be included in the 2021 Anthology is March 17th.

If you would like to submit, please consider the guidelines in full.

Submission Guidelines

What We Publish

We publish new, previously unpublished work: a mix of poetry and fiction, alongside works of non-fiction. We also welcome submissions of poetry and prose in translation.

How to Submit

• Submissions should be emailed to the team before March 17th – contact details below
• Submit all work as an email attachment in a word document (.docx) along with a brief author bio

Please Note

• Submissions in more than one category are welcome
• Each category submission should be sent in a separate email
• Submission emails should be titled “Same Page Submission: Category”
• Work must be previously unpublished and ideally should not be under consideration elsewhere. If it is accepted for publication elsewhere please notify us immediately – contact details below
• For poetry submissions, send up to 3 poems. Poems should be submitted together in one single word document
• All submissions are read. The editors’ decision may not be correct but it is final. We aim to contact everyone within three months of the closing date
• Copyright remains in all cases with the author. Some work published may also be included on UCC websites

Contact Details

Please send all submissions and queries to

Thesamepageteam@gmail.com

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/creative-writing-at-university-college-cork-reading-series-sean-hewitt-tickets-140862249781