The Irish Short Story-A Reading Life Event-March 14 to March 20
I have decided in honor of St Patrick's Day and Irish Literature to host what I hope will become an annual event on The Reading Life, Irish Short Story Week. Ireland might not be a huge country but it has produced some of the best writers of all time. In the Twentieth Century, many would say the best novelist is James Joyce and the best Poet W. B. Yeats. Oscar Wilde has tremendous iconic standing and helped to define a new sensibility. Samuel Beckett taught us about nothing and won the Nobel Prize doing it. Elizabeth Bowen's (Anglo-Irish are included) stories about WWII in London are part of the canon and her The Heat of the Day is considered one of the best novels set in London during the Blitz.
During the week of March 14 to March 20 (St Patrick's Day is March 17) I will post on a short story by an Irish Author every day. Five will be authors that are new to me. One of them was lucky enough to have a romance with Elizabeth Bowen and another with Ayn Rand. Four of the stories I will post on can be read online. Wikipedia has a good introductory article on Irish Literature.
As of now I plan to post on James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Frank O'Conner, Oliver Goldsmith, Sean O'Faolain, Oscar Wilde, and Liam O'Flaherty. I hope to also post on the late Victorian, George Moore
If anybody wants to join in that would be great and I will link to your posts.
I am looking for suggestions also-
I am also joining the 2011 Ireland Reading Challenge-this will be my second year in the challenge
Mel u
I was actually planning to read and post on "St Patrick's Day in the Morning" by Robert J. Martin.
ReplyDeleteI might join you for the whole event, but can't promise anything as March is guaranteed to be as busy as February for me.
An author you don't mention is William Trevor. I haven't read anything by him yet, but he is one of the masters of the Irish short story.
Em
emeire-I hope you can join in-just post on one day if you can-I will research William Trevor and if I can find one of his stories online I will include it-thanks for the suggestion
ReplyDeleteThis is great! Anne Enright has a short story collection which is excellent (review on my blog) and Colm Toibin also has a collection - I will try to read that during your event and post on it!
ReplyDeleteBooksync-that would be great if you could do that-I am more or less restricted to reading public domain stories are stories in the collection I have-no public libraries in Manila!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I have Oscar Wilde down already on a book challenge, so I will cover him in a few posts that week. Thanks for doing this!
ReplyDeleteOoh, I'll definitely try to participate on at least one day. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteHello! I saw your comment on my blog. Thank you so much for inviting me to participate. I would love to participate, but I'm sorry to say I won't be able to.
ReplyDeleteMy son's estimated due date is March 21st, and there is no telling when he will come. I think he will be coming sometime soon.
I would hate to join and not be able to participate through the whole event.
I"ll be very busy making sure everything is ready for when he arrives.
I'll try my best to stop by your blog, though, and see your posts on the event. :)
Have fun, and happy reading!
I would love to participate in this!! I will have to research on the Irish authors and try to do a different author and story a day. We'll see how I do. Thanks for doing this one.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to join but I don't have any shorts / novels by Irish writer :(
ReplyDeleteIs there an online shorts?
I should tell you why I love to join.... *smilling* it's because of Cillian Murphy, he made me want to know more about Ireland
Novroz-yes lots of online possibilities-stories of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Bram Stoker, Frank O'Conner and other can be found online easily. Most of these stories are ten pages or less-I still get people coming to read my posts on Indonesian Short stories!
ReplyDeleteHey there,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great idea! I'll try to do at least one or two shorts.
Rob
In celebration of St Patrick's day I have posted on my blog about my favorite Irish fairy tales, folk lore and one of my favorite poets Yeats. Come by and visit!
ReplyDeletehttp://sharonhenning.blogspot.com
In celebration of St Patrick's day I have posted reviews on Irish fairy tales, folk lore and my favorite poet, Yeats.
ReplyDeletehttp://sharonhenning.blogspot.
I would love to join in!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for inviting me...
Thanks for inviting me!
ReplyDeleteI've posted on “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” by James Joyce.
(The post will be live in a couple hours.)
http://jillianisreading.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/%e2%80%9civy-day-in-the-committee-room%e2%80%9d-by-james-joyce/