Quick pre-bedtime post: I just wanted to draw attention, for those who enjoy reading and listening, to a couple of podcasts-
- the New Yorker fiction podcast features writers (the likes of Roddy Doyle, Richard Ford, Junot Diaz, Orhan Pamuk) who read aloud a short story from the archives of the New Yorker (the likes of John McGahern, Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, William Trevor) - something that's resonated with them. Fab mix of reading, discussion, interesting perspectives.
- and of course, there is the BBC's World Book Club, featuring...well, just about everyone, fielding questions from around the world: Umberto Eco, John Irving, Toni Morrison, James Ellroy, Annie Proulx, Edna O'Brien, Armistead Maupin - you name it!
As for me, I'm off to bed, to read in paper form - I have fewer than 200 pages left in Wolf Hall!
Showing posts with label treaty reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label treaty reading. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Christmas Catch-Up
I'm getting through some photos from the last few weeks. This was Christmas morning in Baltimore, where the village gathers around for the Christmas Swim, before all heading to the home of the lovely Bushe family for a seasonal tipple and treats.
You meet the known world, laugh and cheer together, then get warm and share a drink, and talk presents and recipes, before going home to embark upon Christmas dinner.
As Christmas Day traditions go, it's pretty fabulous.
And picking up the Rilke strand of this blog, I am treasuring 'A Year with Rilke' which offers readings for each day. This was the reading for 1 January:
I Choose to Begin
RM Rilke
You meet the known world, laugh and cheer together, then get warm and share a drink, and talk presents and recipes, before going home to embark upon Christmas dinner.
As Christmas Day traditions go, it's pretty fabulous.
And picking up the Rilke strand of this blog, I am treasuring 'A Year with Rilke' which offers readings for each day. This was the reading for 1 January:
I Choose to Begin
I love all beginnings, despite their anxiousness and their uncertainty, which belong to every commencement. If I have earned a pleasure or a reward, or if I wish that something had not happened; if I doubt the worth of an experience and remain in my past--then I choose to begin at this very second.
Begin what? I begin. I have already thus begun a thousand lives.
RM Rilke
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Roses and Snow
Conversation last night turned to past guests, before Annaghmakerrig was a retreat, when it was personal theatre-friends like Alec Guinness staying here, or since the centre was established. (One person appeared in both, a woman who used to live here, and who lingered here after her death.)
Someone mentioned that when Louis MacNeice stayed there, his room was my room; and that he'd written 'Snow' sitting at the desk, facing the bay window.
I looked up the poem this morning:
The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.
World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.
And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes -
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands -
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.
:-)
Someone mentioned that when Louis MacNeice stayed there, his room was my room; and that he'd written 'Snow' sitting at the desk, facing the bay window.
I looked up the poem this morning:
The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.
World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.
And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes -
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands -
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.
:-)
Monday, July 13, 2009
Return to normal?
Back on the air... I think I'm done with death and the research thereof for a while :-)
Super-social weekend, with delightful friends staying, and fab dinners, and fizzy, and birthdays, and sunshiney pints, and cake, and coffee, and buttermilk pancakes, and late pints, and all manner of treaty things. Concerted effort to get back to normal life today.
So, this Thursday I'm doing a reading at the Irish Writers' Centre in Dublin. This afternoon has been about sorting out what and how much to read, and editing away to make sure the prose is buffed and polished...
Actually, technically speaking, the afternoon's been about Thursday's reading and washing floors. Because nothing says regular life like 'I should really clean that up...'
________________________
Full details about Thursday's reading:
The Stinging Fly Summer Readings Series
7:00 at the Irish Writers' Centre (19 Parnell Square)
Admission €5, which can be used towards any Stinging Fly publication or subscription
16 July: Readings by Featured Poet Richard Halperin (Summer ’09), Alison MacLeod (Summer ’09), Adam Marek, and 2008 Stinging Fly Prize winner Orlaith O’Sullivan. Musical guest Monica Harkin.
The Stinging Fly has worked since 1997 to publish and promote the best new Irish and international writing. We publish three issues per year, available in February, June and October. The Stinging Fly Press imprint was launched in May 2005 with the publication of our first title, Watermark by Sean O'Reilly. The imprint is dedicated to publishing the very best new fiction, and like the magazine, it is particularly interested in promoting the short story. Publications include Rooney Prize Winner Kevin Barry’s There are Little Kingdoms, as well as two anthologies of short stories, These are Our Lives and Let’s Be Alone Together. The latest publication is Michael J Farrell’s highly praised debut short story collection, Life in the Universe. If you are interested in supporting the magazine, you can become a patron by visiting our website, stingingfly.org.
About the writers:
Richard W. Halperin lives in Paris. Since 2005, over seventy of his poems have appeared in journals in Ireland, England, and Scotland. He has given readings at Glencree Centre for Reconciliation, Glenstal Abbey and the Live Poets Society (Paris). A first collection, Anniversary, is in the works. Formerly, he headed UNESCO’s teacher education programme.
Alison MacLeod has published two novels, The Changeling (1996) The Wave Theory of Angels(2005). Her short stories collection, Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction, was published in 2007. In 2008 she was the recipient of the Society of Authors’ Olive Cook Award for Short Fiction. She is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester and teaches on the MA programme in Creative Writing. (alison-macleod.com)
Adam Marek’s short story collection, Instruction manual for swallowing, was published by Comma Press in 2007, and was described in The Guardian as a 'transgressive thrill to read' and The Independent as showing a 'genuine unsettling talent'. His stories have also appeared in Prospect magazine and in anthologies including When it changed, Parenthesis and The new uncanny from Comma Press, two Bridport Prize collections and the British Council’s New Writing 15. He is working on his first novel.
Orlaith O’Sullivan was named as the winner of the Stinging Fly Prize for 2008 for ‘A Tall Tale’ which appeared in Issue 10 Volume Two (Summer 2008) of the magazine. She is an award-winning writer with a PhD in Renaissance literature. She has recently relocated from Madeira to West Cork, where she is working on the thriller Mortal Treasures. (orlaithosullivan.com)
Music by:
Monica Harkin and piano player Michael Allen have been playing together since late 2007. Earlier this year they recorded some songs with doublebass player Ciaran Broughan and the latest recruits are Aaron on drums, Dave on the guitar and OisÃn on the viola. (myspace.com/monicaharkin)
New Writers...New Writing
Super-social weekend, with delightful friends staying, and fab dinners, and fizzy, and birthdays, and sunshiney pints, and cake, and coffee, and buttermilk pancakes, and late pints, and all manner of treaty things. Concerted effort to get back to normal life today.
So, this Thursday I'm doing a reading at the Irish Writers' Centre in Dublin. This afternoon has been about sorting out what and how much to read, and editing away to make sure the prose is buffed and polished...
Actually, technically speaking, the afternoon's been about Thursday's reading and washing floors. Because nothing says regular life like 'I should really clean that up...'
________________________
Full details about Thursday's reading:
The Stinging Fly Summer Readings Series
7:00 at the Irish Writers' Centre (19 Parnell Square)
Admission €5, which can be used towards any Stinging Fly publication or subscription
16 July: Readings by Featured Poet Richard Halperin (Summer ’09), Alison MacLeod (Summer ’09), Adam Marek, and 2008 Stinging Fly Prize winner Orlaith O’Sullivan. Musical guest Monica Harkin.
The Stinging Fly has worked since 1997 to publish and promote the best new Irish and international writing. We publish three issues per year, available in February, June and October. The Stinging Fly Press imprint was launched in May 2005 with the publication of our first title, Watermark by Sean O'Reilly. The imprint is dedicated to publishing the very best new fiction, and like the magazine, it is particularly interested in promoting the short story. Publications include Rooney Prize Winner Kevin Barry’s There are Little Kingdoms, as well as two anthologies of short stories, These are Our Lives and Let’s Be Alone Together. The latest publication is Michael J Farrell’s highly praised debut short story collection, Life in the Universe. If you are interested in supporting the magazine, you can become a patron by visiting our website, stingingfly.org.
About the writers:
Richard W. Halperin lives in Paris. Since 2005, over seventy of his poems have appeared in journals in Ireland, England, and Scotland. He has given readings at Glencree Centre for Reconciliation, Glenstal Abbey and the Live Poets Society (Paris). A first collection, Anniversary, is in the works. Formerly, he headed UNESCO’s teacher education programme.
Alison MacLeod has published two novels, The Changeling (1996) The Wave Theory of Angels(2005). Her short stories collection, Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction, was published in 2007. In 2008 she was the recipient of the Society of Authors’ Olive Cook Award for Short Fiction. She is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester and teaches on the MA programme in Creative Writing. (alison-macleod.com)
Adam Marek’s short story collection, Instruction manual for swallowing, was published by Comma Press in 2007, and was described in The Guardian as a 'transgressive thrill to read' and The Independent as showing a 'genuine unsettling talent'. His stories have also appeared in Prospect magazine and in anthologies including When it changed, Parenthesis and The new uncanny from Comma Press, two Bridport Prize collections and the British Council’s New Writing 15. He is working on his first novel.
Orlaith O’Sullivan was named as the winner of the Stinging Fly Prize for 2008 for ‘A Tall Tale’ which appeared in Issue 10 Volume Two (Summer 2008) of the magazine. She is an award-winning writer with a PhD in Renaissance literature. She has recently relocated from Madeira to West Cork, where she is working on the thriller Mortal Treasures. (orlaithosullivan.com)
Music by:
Monica Harkin and piano player Michael Allen have been playing together since late 2007. Earlier this year they recorded some songs with doublebass player Ciaran Broughan and the latest recruits are Aaron on drums, Dave on the guitar and OisÃn on the viola. (myspace.com/monicaharkin)
New Writers...New Writing
Monday, April 27, 2009
Bring out your dead
Oh wait now, that's not right... I mean bring out your Chaucer, while it's still April.I finally dug out Chaucer this morning (and by 'dug' I mean read online, since I'm still parted from my lovely well-worn Riverside). Ah, the General Prologue in April, how fitting. Most Aprils I find my way back to it, and then go onwards to a couple of tales. Hmm... I think The Knight's Tale this year, and something to balance that, perhaps The Miller's - sexual intrigue, bawdy humour, apocalyptic foreboding, fake Flood - that tale's got it all.
Anyhoo, here's the opening (you can hear the fab Larry D. Benson reading the Middle English here):
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages...
Dun dun dunnnnn... love this time of year: feels like all of nature is on the move.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
words words words
Spent happy hours today talking about books.
In this month's Book Club, up for discussion was John Updike's Gertrude and Claudius, which on finishing, made me want to go back through Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and then pore over all the original sources. Then, I might be ready to re-read Updike to discover a few of the delightful in-jokes and intertextual references that surely slipped past the first time around. But that's a whole separate endeavour... Also discussed was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - filled with resonant quotes, along the lines of "Let me be something every minute of every hour of my life". Both treaty selections.
After Book Club was coffee and catch-up, which inevitably turned to book talk. And now I'm sitting, trying to decide between two things I've been loaned: whether to start reading The Kite Runner (I know, I am probably the last person on earth to read that book; there aren't even enough of us to play bridge) or to start watching a newly unwrapped Brideshead Revisited (663 minutes of viewing pleasure). Decisions decisions...
And the Shona Voice in my head pipes up: Why not have a drink while you're deliberating?
So helpful, that lady :-)
In this month's Book Club, up for discussion was John Updike's Gertrude and Claudius, which on finishing, made me want to go back through Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and then pore over all the original sources. Then, I might be ready to re-read Updike to discover a few of the delightful in-jokes and intertextual references that surely slipped past the first time around. But that's a whole separate endeavour... Also discussed was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - filled with resonant quotes, along the lines of "Let me be something every minute of every hour of my life". Both treaty selections.
After Book Club was coffee and catch-up, which inevitably turned to book talk. And now I'm sitting, trying to decide between two things I've been loaned: whether to start reading The Kite Runner (I know, I am probably the last person on earth to read that book; there aren't even enough of us to play bridge) or to start watching a newly unwrapped Brideshead Revisited (663 minutes of viewing pleasure). Decisions decisions...
And the Shona Voice in my head pipes up: Why not have a drink while you're deliberating?
So helpful, that lady :-)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Reading for fun
One of the treatiest things about this book-in-progress is the research aspect: indulging in hours of reading about medieval art or deco architecture or the eclectic group of artistic types that once inhabited the studios of Carnegie Hall.
This morning has been all about flora & fauna. The Medieval Garden Enclosed - the blog emanating from The Cloisters - focuses on the three cloister gardens within the museum. It places their distinct plantings within a larger context of medieval culture, life, ideology, while still offering a practical how-to approach that would appeal to a gardener (click away, Mom!).
Each Christmas the gardeners, volunteers and staff work to deck the halls, creating beautiful, symbolically-laden wreaths, swags and arches (just taken down last week). Last year I visited around this time, and people were still enthusing about the decorations: the clear winner was the enormous wreath hung in the Romanesque Hall. It's made from golden wheat, bay and hazelnuts (nuts: purdy to look at; gakky to eat).
Its neat lines and segments reminded me of Madeiran decorations (how they love making carpets out of flowers), and one in particular - the highlight of Canico's onion festival:
An onion gown. How would that even occur to someone?
Anyhoo, back to botany. Tum de dum...
This morning has been all about flora & fauna. The Medieval Garden Enclosed - the blog emanating from The Cloisters - focuses on the three cloister gardens within the museum. It places their distinct plantings within a larger context of medieval culture, life, ideology, while still offering a practical how-to approach that would appeal to a gardener (click away, Mom!).
Each Christmas the gardeners, volunteers and staff work to deck the halls, creating beautiful, symbolically-laden wreaths, swags and arches (just taken down last week). Last year I visited around this time, and people were still enthusing about the decorations: the clear winner was the enormous wreath hung in the Romanesque Hall. It's made from golden wheat, bay and hazelnuts (nuts: purdy to look at; gakky to eat).Its neat lines and segments reminded me of Madeiran decorations (how they love making carpets out of flowers), and one in particular - the highlight of Canico's onion festival:
An onion gown. How would that even occur to someone?Anyhoo, back to botany. Tum de dum...
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