Irish writers protest over Victoria Amelina’s murder; Edge Hill Prize longlist; Michael McLaverty story award

In The Irish Times this Saturday, Rosemary Mac Cabe talks to Róisín Ingle about her new book about her relationship history, This Is Not About You – A Menmoir. Patrick Freyne recalls his meeting in Dublin last year with Victoria Amelina, the Ukrainian author killed in a Russian missile strike on a civilian target last week. And there is a Q&A with novelist and Forward Prize winning poet, Nick Laird.

Reviews are Patrick Freyne on What about Men? by Caitlin Moran; Jenny McAuley on Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit by Antonia Fraser; Éilís Ní Dhuibhne on Writers and Their Teachers, edited by Dale Salwak; Declan Hughes on the best new crime fiction; Nicholas Allen on A People Under Siege The Unionists of Northern Ireland, from Partition to Brexit and Beyond by Aaron Edwards; Danny Denton on Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane; Edel Coffey on The Couples by Lauren Mackenzie; Helen Cullen on Speak to Me by Paula Cocozza; Lucy Sweeney Byrne on Kala by Colin Walsh; Ray Burke on Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages by Carmela Ciuraru; Neil Hegarty on Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein; Houman Barekat on The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt; and Alex Peake-Tomkinson on This Is Not About You by Rosemary MacCabe.

This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is the bestselling thriller Run Time by award-winning author Catherine Ryan Howard. You can buy it with your newspaper for just €5.99, a €5 saving.

Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann, Fighting Words and Ukrainian Action Ireland have issued a statement in response to the murder of the Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina.

“We are shocked and appalled by the news that renowned Ukrainian author and human rights activist, Victoria Amelina, has been murdered by a Russian missile strike on a popular restaurant in Kramatorsk on June 27th, 2023. Twelve other people, including children, are known to have been killed in this vicious attack. Sixty people were injured.

“Victoria was a dear friend and much loved colleague. She has visited Dublin several times. Everyone who has met her, read her work or heard her speak here, has been moved and affected by her words and by her presence. At an Irish PEN event in Smock Alley during the Dublin Arts and Human Rights Festival last October, she spoke powerfully and movingly about the Russian invasion of her native country, and of Russia’s intention to obliterate all traces of Ukrainian culture. She also described her own work in progress: War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War, and her ongoing humanitarian work as a war crimes investigator with Truth Hounds.

“During that same visit to Dublin, Victoria kept young children enthralled and entertained during a storytelling session at Pearse Street Library. Both of these Irish PEN events were supported by Dublin Unesco City of Literature. At a Vicar Street concert earlier this year, organised by, among others, Fighting Words and Ukrainian Action Ireland, Victoria stilled the packed theatre with her words, redolent of her courage and determination to secure justice. Two of her essays in English were republished here last year: Nothing Bad Has Ever Happened, in the Irish Times, and Homo Oblivious in the Dublin Review of Books. Both predate the illegal Russian invasion of February 2022.

“Although she was an award-winning novelist, Victoria set her own career aside, as many other Ukrainians have, in order to work for her country. She spoke of turning to poetry in the midst of this challenging work: ‘As if shells hit language/ the debris from language/ may look like poems/ But they are not/ This is no poetry too/ Poetry is in Kharkiv/ volunteering for the army’.

“When asked how she managed to bear the emotional impact of dealing with atrocities on a daily basis, she said lightly of her and her colleagues’ hugely challenging work: ‘We hug a lot’.

“Victoria was due to come back to Dublin in November, to moderate an Irish PEN/ Dublin Book Festival event exploring the role of culture in times of war and the absolute necessity to preserve it, describing writers as ‘caretakers of cultural memory’.

“Philippe Sands says that Victoria’s death is ‘emblematic of a merciless and terrible war, prosecuted by men who feel no compunction acting in manifest violation of the most basic precepts of humanity. Victoria Amelina is gone, but she will always be present, her values embodied in the decency she represented and the accountability she sought. Her killing is a most terrible crime - her legacy will include a renewed and unbreakable commitment to accountability for those who perpetrate such horrors, in a land she cared for with passion and brilliance.’

“Paul Muldoon writes: ‘Let’s be clear about this. This was not an accident. The type of missile used in this attack is deadly accurate. This was a civilian target and represents a war crime pure and simple.’

“The world is a darker place today. Victoria Amelina, award-winning writer and war crimes investigator, has become the most recent victim in a long list of brutal war crimes perpetrated by Russia against the civilian population of Ukraine. Our sincere condolences go to her family, her many friends, and to her colleagues in PEN Ukraine and Truth Hounds. We call for an immediate end to such atrocities.”

Irish short story writers Rosemary Jenkinson (Love in the Time of Chaos - Arlen House), Bernie McGill (This Train Is For - No Alibis Press) and Sam Thompson (Whirlwind Romance - Unsung Stories) have made the longlist for the 2023 Edge Hill Prize, along with Giselle Leeb, Rebecca Miller, Clare Morgan, Jane Campbell, Tim Craig, Rose McDonagh and Naomi Booth.

This year’s judges are Saba Sams, winner of last year’s prize, Lucy Luck, agent at C&W Agency, and short story writer and Edge Hill lecturer Andrea Ashworth.

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The Gerard Manley Hopkins International Literary Festival will run from July 21st to 27th in Newbridge College Theatre, Newbridge, Co Kildare. As well as lectures on Hopkins with speakers from Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, US, Poland and Ireland, the festival will also provide music (classical concert with legendary Swedish pianist Hans Palsson on Friday at 8pm; Irish Night, 23rd July 9pm, Cummins’s Main Street) art and poetry reading (International Poetry Celebration with poets from 10 countries at 8pm on 25th July in Newbridge College Theatre). For more information visit gerardmanleyhopkins.org/ or contact 045 433613.

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The Linen Hall Library in Belfast has announced the launch of the 2023 Michael McLaverty Short Story Award. Running since 2006, it is open to entrants born in, citizens of, or resident in Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland, and offers a prize of £2,000 for the winning story, with £250 each for the two runners-up. Writers are invited to submit their entries by October 31st, 2023.

The award is a tribute to the writer Michael McLaverty (1904–1992), whose archive was generously donated to The Linen Hall by his executors in 2005. Writer Bernie McGill and editor Emma Warnock are this year’s adjudicators.

McGill said: ‘Michael McLaverty is a writer I have long admired and it is a great privilege to be judging this short story award named in his honour by the Linen Hall Library. I was a second-place winner in this competition in 2010 and I know what a difference a prestigious prize such as this can make to the career of an emerging writer. Good luck to everyone with their submissions. I’m looking forward to reading the stories.’

Enter here.

The Spike Island Literary Festival returns to the former prison in Co Cork with a thrilling line-up of crime writers, from Friday to Sunday, August 18 to 20, following the resounding success of its inaugural event in 2022.

A stellar line-up includes Sam Blake, Amanda Cassidy, Tadhg Coakley, Cónal Creedon, Catherine Ryan Howard, Arlene Hunt, Catherine Kirwan, Andrea Mara, Michelle McDonagh, and Kitty Murphy as well as singer-songwriter John Spillane.

Festival organiser and author Michelle Dunne said, “The second Spike Island Literary Festival will have something for everyone. We have so many international best-selling authors coming to let us in on their writing secrets and meet their fellow crime fiction fans, but in addition to household names we’ll also be introducing readers to a new wave of breakout talent, like Alice Bell. Budding authors will have the rare opportunity to meet with a world-class literary agent to discuss their work and there will be free pop-up readings to be enjoyed by anyone visiting the island. We had a lot of visitors last year who told us that they don’t normally attend book events, but loved it nonetheless. This isn’t just a book event. It’s a fantastic day out for all the family.”

Visitors will also be treated to a short guided tour upon arrival, offering insights into the darker tales from Spike Island’s storied past. Tickets for all events are on sale now at spikeislandcork.ie/spike-island-literary-festival-2023/