Speaking on the first day of the Dublin Book Festival at the Séamus Brennan Memorial Seminar on Irish Publishing, Editor of the Irish Pages journal, Irish-American poet Chris Agee, said that Irish Pages was the equal of any journal on the international scene, proclaiming, ‘we are not second fiddle to Granta’.
Speaking about how Irish Pages saw itself and its position in the world of literature, Agee, who was short-listed last week for the Ted Hughes Award, admitted to some problems saying ‘over the last 8 years that we’ve been doing this journal there is considerable resistance within Britain to be being treated as equal. They just assume in London that anything in Belfast is a backwater, ipso facto anything in Ireland cannot rival the TLS or the LRB.’
But Agree said that he and his colleagues at Irish Pages rejected this, ‘basically our project is to say no, we are not second fiddle and a lot of English and British writers, who we publish, about a quarter of our publication is from Britain, are seeing that because we are very different.’
Agee compared the identity and brand of Irish Pages to illy coffee, ‘I would say illy is the model. Yes it is Italian, yes it comes from a small family firm in Trieste, and Trieste is a small provincial Italian city, but it competes with everything else on its own terms, not because it’s Italian and we’re competing because of the writing, because of the interest not because it’s Irish.’
Agee was speaking on a panel with Clodagh Feehan of Mercier Press and Lisa Hyde of Irish Academic Press, the panel was chaired by Jean Harrington of Maverick House. Discussion title for the seminar was: Irish Literary and Cultural Publishing: Obstacles and Opportunities
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3 Comments
IMHO, the Irish Pages just looks boring and academic. Granta is pretty, lovely photos and artwork and appealing. Names are more exciting too. Why doesn’t the Irish Pages do ‘emerging writers’ to watch every decade or something similar like Granta does?
Irish Pages has no academic writing or reviews whatsoever, and every issue has a sixteen-page colour photographic supplement. Every issue has had, moroever, one or more new or emergent writers. The quote on the back of the current issue is from one such writer. This writer has perhaps “looked” rather read the journal.
[Comment author name was edited by IPN Editor to ensure there was no confusion]
As EmergingWriter said, Irish Pages ‘looks’ academic and boring. Judging a book by its cover happens whether you like it or not. If something looks boring then it’s perceived to be boring. In a more media conscious world, where colourful imagery demands our attention, it’s important to realise that layout and design plays a significant part in attracting magazine and online readers. And perhaps thats why EmergingWriter looked at rather than read the journal.