Irish Short Story Week Year Three March 1 to March 31, 2013

Free Irish Breakfast for all Participants!

 Irish Short Story Week Year III will begin on March 1 and end on March 31.  In 2011 I planned for a week and kept it open for ten days.  In 2012 I planned on ten days and ending up keeping the event going for four months.  This year it will run for a month.  I know a month is a long week but we are in Ireland so magic is always near.

Last year I had lots of great participants in the event and some guests posts by well known Irish writers.  I also had a number of mini-events in 2012, including what was to be ten days devoted to emerging Irish women short story writers.  This turned into a permanent event that opened up my blog, and my own reading life, to all sorts of exciting possibilities.  I developed a better understanding of the creative process through my contacts with the writers and I have now begun to post on emerging writers form all over the world in order to help promote new writers of the short story.

  One question everyone eventually asks is  why has a country with six million produced such a large volume of very high quality literature.  Taking just the city of Galway, 70,000 people, we find a city that has produced more quality literary works than many cities with a population of 7,000,000.


The main purpose of this event is to read a lot of Irish short stories, to learn about new to us writers, and to increase our understanding of the short story.

"Please consider joining us"
Carmilla

I think I will do a few special projects.  Here are some of my ideas.

1. The WWII Stories of Elizabeth Bowen-a world heritage -about 12 stories 
2. Or-The Elizabeth Bowen stories set in Ireland-about 6 stories
3. Irish Portraits-Short Stories of Liam O'Flaherty-A major figure in the Irish Literary Renaissance
4. Ethel Rohan-Cut Through the Bone-one of my favorite writers-a collection 
5. Frank O'Connor-the war stories
6. The Love Object by Edna O'Brien  -early stories
7. William Trevor-selected stories-neglected on my blog for way too long
8. Mary Costello-more stories from The China Factory
9. The to World of Men, Welcome by Nuala Ni Chonchuir a wonderful collection of short stories
10. Stories by Desmond Hogan
11. Tales from the Fey world
12. More horror and ghost stories 
13. I hope some more emerging Irish writers-some of the writers I posted on 2012 are already taking their place on the world literary stage.  Others will in time.  If you want to be featured, do not hesitate to contact me.
14. Read more in the four ebook anthologies of Irish Short Stories I have.  

I am very open to suggestions and joint projects and guest posts

The Reading Life staff from 2012 will be returning for this event.  Hopefully Rory and Carmella will conduct themselves with a bit more dignity this year but they are beyond my control.  Ruprecht will also join us.