Circle & Square

I’m delighted to be a contributor to this terrific publication CIRCLE & SQUARE

to be launched as part of the RED LINE FESTIVAL

Tuesday the 13^th October 2015

RUA RED Arts Centre

7.00 p.m. – 8.30 p.m.

Admission FREE, but booking is required via (01) 4515860 or by email, boxoffice@ruared.ie

Quasimodo by Mia Gallagher

Curled up in front of the fire this evening I set about catching up on my reading material, delighted to be one of 100 lucky folks who acquired a copy of Quasimodo by Mia Gallagher, a limited edition chapbook from Spolia, with full color illustrations by Kirsetn Stolle. 

“Quasimodo” begins with two sisters doing something they've done a hundred times before: entering their parents’ house. But something is different. The lighting is wrong. The normally soft hues and gentle lamp-lit shadows have been washed out by hard fluorescent overhead bulbs. Carpet stains– once hidden– are exposed and the wallpaper is peeling. It isn’t pretty but it’s the truth. What is light after all, if not revealing? Their father has been left in charge after their mother’s stroke. He does not share her knack for ambiance.

Ann, one of the daughters, knows about strokes. Her husband suffered three of them. The story takes its title from the way they left his face partially paralyzed, half-melted like that of Notre Dame’s famous hunchback. It’s a bitter association that Ann keeps to herself. And yet, the phrasequasi modo means ‘almost the standard measure,’ which connotes the skewed shape of relationships in crisis. Everything is almost how it’s supposed to be. The pieces are there but nothing looks quite the way you need it to.

The light in Ann’s parents’ house is without magic, like when the auditorium lights pop on after a play. The story itself points a flashlight into the mouth of a cave and asks how deep people will go for the sake of their loved ones. When is it selfish to distance yourself from a situation? When is it foolish to keep getting closer? “Quasimodo” offers no certain answer to those questions, except to say there is a time and place for everything.

To get your hands on a copy, you can order HERE

This book is an absolute delight, limited to 100 copies, is a treasure to have.

Short Sharp Shocks and Chekovs!!

An Evening Dedicated to the Short Story Thursday 21st March - 7 p.m.  @ The Irish Writers' Centre Parnell Square   There will be wine, music and great readings, an evening not to be missed!! Readings by Jack Harte, Mia Gallagher, Louise Phillips & Ferdia Lennon

Anton Chekov championed the short story in the 19th Century, a literary baton picked up from the Russian master and carried forward in the 20th by Irish literary figures from Sean O'Faolain and Frank   O'Connor to John McGahern and Mary Lavin. Irish writers have traditionally utilised this genre to record the lives and thoughts of ordinary people, their struggles and desires. The Irish Writers’ Centre is delighted to present an evening celebrating the short story with four contemporary authors maintaining that tradition: Louise M. Phillips, Jack Harte, Ferida Lennon and Mia Gallagher. Refreshments will be served and live music with historical harpist Brenda Malloy. All are welcome €5 / €3 (members)

Jack Harte was born in Killeenduff, Co Sligo, in 1944 and grew up in Lanesboro, Co Longford. His short story collections are Murphy in the Underworld (1986), Birds and Other Tails (1996), and From Under Gogol's Nose (2004). A CD of his stories and songs, Lament for the Birds, was released in 2004. Collections of his stories in translation have appeared in Russia, India and Bulgaria. He had a novella, Homage, published in 1992. His first novel, In the wake of the Bagger, commissioned under the Government's Per Cent for Art scheme, was published in 2006. The following year his second novel, Reflections in a Tar-Barrel, was published in Bulgarian translation before appearing in English in 2008. For many years Jack worked as Principal of Lucan Community College. Louise Phillips returned to writing in 2006, after a 20 year gap. Her work has been published as part of many anthologies, including County Lines from New Island, and various literary journals. In 2009, she won the Jonathan Swift Award for her short story Last Kiss, and in 2011, she was a winner in the Irish Writers’ Centre Lonely Voice platform. Louise has also been short-listed for the Molly Keane Memorial Award, Bridport UK, and long-listed twice for the RTE Guide/Penguin Short Story Competition. In 2012, she was awarded an Arts Bursary for Literature from South Dublin County Council. Also that year, her debut novel Red Ribbons, a psychological crime thriller was published. It was subsequently shortlisted for ‘Best Irish Crime Novel of the Year 2012’, in the Irish Book Awards. In 2013, her second novel, The Doll’s House will be published by Hachette Books Ireland. Mia Gallagher is a fiction writer, playwright and performer based in Dublin. Her short fiction has been published in the UK, US and Ireland; it won the START Chapbook Short Fiction award (2005) and was shortlisted for the Fish, Hennessy and William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen Awards. Her debut novel HellFire (Penguin Ireland, 2006) was critically acclaimed and received the Irish Tatler Literature Award, and an extract from her second novel Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland appeared in the spring 2012 issue of Literary Imagination (Oxford University Press). Between 2009-2010, Mia was Writer-in-Residence with IADT/dlr arts office. She has performed widely in Ireland and abroad, most recently as Rosamund Jacob in TG4’s The Enigma of Frank Ryan. In autumn 2012, ‘The Trick’ and ‘Burning Love’ two of her adaptations from the classic Grand Guignol Theatre of Horror were produced by Carpet Theatre for Absolut Fringe. She is developing a third novel with the support of an Arts Council bursary. Ferdia Lennon is from Dublin. He recently returned from Paris, where he co-wrote the comedy sketch show Fifth Wall which played at the Petit Théâtre du Bonheur, Montmartre. His short fiction has appeared in journals such as Southword, The Galway Ropes Anthology and Wordlegs 30 under 30. In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Sean O' Faolain Short Story Competition. You can read his story here.