Begorrathon 2017: Week Four

So here we, round the bend and the final leg, the finish line in sight.

With only a few days left in March, it’s time to get those Reading Ireland posts in.

Some housekeeping announcements:

The Hennessy Literary Awards take place tomorrow evening in Dublin. Congratulations and best of luck to all the shortlisted writers, including friend of the Begorrathon, Clare O’Dea. I attended last year’s ceremony as I was on the shortlist [modest bow] and it’s a lovely evening.

I had planned to go this year as well, but alas I won’t be attending as my invitation appears to have been lost in the post.

The lovely people at Banshee are launching their new issue later this week in Dublin. It just so happens I have a story in it [another modest bow] and the issue, which also features work by Stephanie Conn, Alice Kinsella, Kate Dempsey, Michael Dooley, Graham Allen, Deirdre Daly, and many more, is available in all good bookshops and here.

I was hoping to post some more Begorrathon posts this week, but other than a couple, I didn’t have time to write any. I did, however, make time to attend the launches of two important books in Dublin: poet David Butler‘s latest collection, All the Barbaric Glass, and Alan McMonagle‘s debut novel, Ithaca.

Reviews of both will appear in these pages very soon.

My Reading Ireland cohort Cathy is down with lurgy, but that didn’t stop her from posting a couple of great reviews, including a wonderful review of Kerrie O’Brien’s Illuminate (one of my favourite Irish poetry collections of 2016).

Other posts of note from this week:

We also had not one, but two reviews of Brian Moore’s classic novel The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.