From the Front Row

Although Writers’ Week doesn’t start until May 30th, for me, the hooley has already begun. Last Monday, with the help of the lovely festival team, I launched the official festival blog. It’s been a busy week, with interviews flying out and guest posts streaming in, and already, I can feel the excitement building.

The brave, the bold and the beautiful were all out in force on Wednesday evening for the launch of the 41st festival of Writers’ Week at Dublin’s Mansion House.

A small gathering of literary minds in Listowel in 1971 resulted in what is now Ireland’s most prestigious literary festival. After four decades, this festival of books and fun continues to sparkle and provide us with the very best in literature.

Great music + inspirational lyrics = great songwriting

Or at least, that’s what you’d expect when the singer is also a talented fiction writer and prolific blogger. Thankfully, that’s exactly what Derek Flynn delivered in the Long Stone pub recently, surrounded by an army of twitter fans and friends, eager to hear his first album unleashed.

Guest blogger Jean Turbidy brings a flavour of Waterford Writers Weekend (23rd-25th March) to The Front Row and reveals just what magic can be made at writer's workshops...

Waterford Writers' Weekend 2012 came to a close at Christ Church Cathedral to what I now feel is Waterford's anthem 'Come the Sails.' This is a poem by John Ennis, put to music by Sue Furlong. The lines are still ringing in my ears:

The History Press Editor Declan Flynn reports from the tantalising launch of A Parachute in the Lime Tree by Irish author Annemarie Neary, held in London last week. A feast for the senses, this was a book launch with a difference...

I often write reviews of other people’s events but thought I’d offer something from my own experience as a trainer. Over the last year, I’ve been travelling around Ireland and Northern Ireland to various Literary/Arts Centres on a quest to help writers and artists unravel the mysteries of social media, so they can start to build an online profile.

Sarah Maria Griffin was at The Gutter Bookshop in Cow's Lane Dublin to bring us a front row report on the launch of the late Michael Murphy's collected poems...

In a packed room, filled with some of Ireland's top commercial writing talent, glasses chinked as best selling womne's fiction author Sarah Webb launched her twenty third book!

The Scarlet Ribbon is the stunning first release from The History Press...

TYRANNY IN BECKETT: FOUR PLAYS BY SAMUEL BECKETT, DIRECTED BY CATHAL QUINN AND PERFORMED BY MOUTH ON FIRE THEATRE COMPANY

Smock Alley Boys School, Temple Bar, Dublin, 15-20 November 2011

CATASTROPHE, ROUGH FOR RADIO II (European Premiere), AS THE STORY WAS TOLD (World Premiere), WHAT WHERE

The Irish Book Awards are the highlight of the year for the Irish book industry. An opportunity for authors, publishers, booksellers, agents, editors and media folk get together to celebrate all that is brilliant about Irish writing. This year, always, The Bord Gais Energy Book Awards 2011 was an evening of glitter, glamour and gravitas, that for the first time was filmed by RTE.

Sarah Griffin attended the Launch of Máire Mhac an tSaoi's new bi-lingual collection of poems Miraculous Parish

Chaired by author Sarah Webb, and with a stellar panel consisting of; Puffin Ireland editor, Paddy O’Doherty, children’s book writer and illustrator Oisin McGann, literary agent Julia Churchill and debut novelist Anna Carey, this was an extremely informative, yet fun, evening for anyone interested in writing for children and young people. The audience consisted mainly of new writers, including students from Sarah’s creative writing class at the Irish Writers Centre, but there were plenty of established writers also in attendance including Judi Curtin and R.F. Long (both hiding at the back).

Michelle Jackson launches her latest book, 4am in Las Vegas, at Hughes and Hughes.

Michelle Moloney-King is guest blogging in From the Front Row this week with a report from the launch of Alan Early's Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent at The Gutter Bookshop

Barbara Scully, writer of the blog From My Kitchen Table, shares her thoughts after attending 'Inspiring Lives'. Inspiring Lives is part of the Great Writing, Great Places series happening in various unique locations around Dublin until November 19th.  Click here for more details.

The Cork International Short Festival certainly closed on a finale as Edna O’Brien scooped the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award, worth 35,000 euro - a well deserved and impressive result from a prolific and much admired writer. Edna’s acceptance speech was just perfect:

It’s nearly that time of year again, when a short story writers gets rewarded for their dedication and brilliance with a sum of 35,000 euro: The Frank O’Connor Short Story Award. Running since 2005, this remains the biggest award for any short story writer - and this year, I’m the official festival blogger so I’ll be in the thick of it all, watching events unfold.

Join Michelle Moloney King at the Launch of Denise Deegan’s, second novel in the Butterfly trilogy; And for Your Information. Become a teenager again; remember the fun, frivolity and emotional roller-coaster of a 90210ish Dublin teenage story.

The X365 project was started by Dan Waber. The purpose of the project was to write 40 words about 365 people who’ve touched your life in some way. It was never meant to catch on, but it did. That’s the beauty of writing and of good ideas.  I interviewed Dan Waber back in February 2008.