Irish Short Story Week-Major Update-Extended Until July 1

Irish Short Story Week Year Two
March 11 to July 1

Resources for Irish Short Story Week Year Two

I am very glad that the 1000th post on The Reading Life will be an update for Irish Short Story Week Year Two.   I  have extended the event until July 1.  I will in this post update all the wonderful posts by event participants.  If I leave you out accept my apologies and advise  me and I will fix it at once.  I have also added a fixed page on the top of my blog for a list of links to the post of participants and I will be including a link to this in all my subsequent posts.   I will talk about some of the mini events I hope to have for ISSW Year Two in my next post.

This is a completely open event.   Everyone is invited to joint and guests posts are very welcome.  All you are asked to do is post on an Irish Short Story or a non-fiction work that has a tie, such as a biography or a history of Galway during the Famines and let me know about it.  If you have any questions or suggestions I will take them very seriously.   This will be kind of a long and perhaps rambling post but it helps me keep a sense of direction for the event.  

Congratulation to  Event Participants 

Listed for the Frank O'Connor Prize

I wish to offer my congratulations to two participants in ISSW Year Two for being listed for the Frank O'Connor Prize for best collection of short stories.  This is one of the world's top literary prize.  

Nuala Ní Chonchúir has been nominated for her soon to be published collection Made in America.  I will be posting a sneak peak at this work soon.  I have previously posted on two of her works, Nude and her marvelous  collection of poetry, Juno.

Órfhlaith Foyle has been nominated for her Somewhere in Minnesota., a wonderful collection of short stories.

I wish them both the best of luck.  I think if someone does an Irish Short Story Week thirty years from now both of these writers will be included.

Post by Participants 

Posts by Participants

Irish Short Story Week

Year Two

March 11 to July 1

You Can Never Have Too Many Books "No Angel" by Bernie Mcgill
Susan has also now done a post on James Joyce's "The Sisters" that I learned a lot from-Additionally she has posted on "Ghosts" by Bernie McGill.

Beauty is a Sleeping Cat Stories by Kevin Barry, James Joyce, and Elizabeth Bowen

Free Listens  "The Wine Breath" by John Mcgahern

Lakeside Musings- "The Empty Family" by Colum Toibin

Parrish Lantern  Overview of Irish Folk and Fairy Tales by William Butler Yeats-Parrish Lantern now has a wonderful post on a story by Gerald Griffin about the horrors of the famine years and a folk take from William Trevors' Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories

A Simple Clockwork  Two Oscar Wilde Fairy Tales-Nancy,  the Host of Short Stories on Wednesday has done two illuminating posts on stories of Marie Edgeworth, the first serious Irish Woman short story writer. Nancy has also done a post on one of William Trevor's short stories

Buried In Print an Anthology of stories by Mary Lavin, In the Middle of the Field

From Kafka to Kintergarden "The First Confession"  by Frank O'Connor, "The Reaping Race" by Liam O'Flaherty, "Janey Mary" by James Plunket, and "The Confirmation Suit" by Brendan Behan.  There is a new post on The Space between Louis and Me by Mary O'Donnell and Sightseeing in Louth by Bernadette M. Smyth.  Both of these are new to me authors.  

Vapor Trails  "The Old Man of the Sea" by Maeve Brennan, and also "Something Special" which is Iris Murdoch's only published story story There is also a post on "Spring of Affection" by Maeve Brennan.

New Posts since the first update

The Sill of the World has an excellent post on "The Dead" by James Joyce


Bibliophiliac  has done a great post on "The Will" which  Frank O'Connor says is Mary Lavin's best story

Shauna Gilligan, a widely published short story writer from Dublin has contributed a very welcome guest post to Irish Short Story Week Year Two  devoted to Somewhere in Minnesota,  a powerful collection of short stories by Órfhlaith Foyle

Jillian of A Room of One's Own has done a very insightful moving post on "The Dead" by James Joyce

A Work in Process has done great posts on "The Happy Autumn Fields" by Elizabeth Bowen, this is one of Bowen's WWII stories and is a great cultural treasure.  There is also a very good post on William Trevor's "The Ballroom of Romance".

Winston's Dad has posted on a story by Oliver Goldsmith "The History of the Man in Black

Tales from the Reading Room has done a great post on Colm Toibin's new book New Ways to Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families.

Vishy's Blog has done a wonderful post on two stories by James Joyce, and one by James Stephens, Elizabeth Bowen and Liam O'Flattery as well as six folk and fairy tales.   

Novroz of Polychome Interest, cohost of Indonesian Short Story Week has posted on some of the paranormal folk tales of Thomas Crofton.

semi-fictional has done a great post one of Elizabeth Bowen's World War Two Stories.

ds of Third Story Window has done a very educational post on a tradition Irish folk tale, "Children of Lir".

Ethel Rohan, author of two collections of short stories, has done a wonderful post on a brand new short story from "The Stinging Fly".


Suko's Notebook has done excellent posts on Mary Lavin and Edna O'Brien

In my next post I will talk about some of the plans for the remainder of Irish Short Story Week Year Two.

My thanks to all who have joined in so far.

mel u