Poolbeg Press are running an online campaign for Brian O’Connor’s Bloodline.

The ads, running on Writing.ie, are combined with editorial content on the website including interviews and giveaways. It is designed to support a wider campaign for the title that includes serialization of the book in The Irish Times.

Bloodline is O’Connor’s first non-fiction title he previously published two non-fiction titles, Add A Zero and Kings Of The Saddle, with Poolbeg.

Writing.ie is the world’s first national writing resources website and is supported by the Arts Council whose technology grant has been invaluable in making the site possible.

A new site designed to help Irish authors has been launched. Billed as home of Irish writing online, Writing.ie is the creation of Vanessa O’Loughlin who also runs Inkwell Writer’s Workshops.

The site features a writer’s toolbox, guest blogs from bloggers and writers like Catherine Ryan Howard, Alison Wells, Kristi Thompson and Kate Dempsey as well as listings for editorial services, events and competitions. It also offers forums, a readers area and will offer how to and author videos in the future.

The site is supported by an Arts Council Of Ireland grant under the Councils Project Awards*.

*Eoin Purcell, Irish Publishing News Editor, was a member of the Panel that discussed the merits of the various applications for this grant.

The Arts Council will have to shift its programs and funding to accommodate a 5% cut in exchequer funding.

The 2011 budget for the council is €65.2million down from€ 69million in 2010. The budget puts the council back to 2005 levels of funding.

In previous year the Council has shown a preference for strategic cuts rather than across the board cuts.

Literature has seen organisations like The Irish Writers Centre lose all its funding. However, the Centre has recently been awarded funding under the Touring and Dissemination scheme.

The deadline for the next round of Bursary Awards is Thursday 20 January, 2011 at 5.30pm.

The window for making an application opens on Monday 6 December 2010.

The following awards are available:

* Architecture Bursary Award

* Arts Participation Bursary Award

* Dance Bursary Award

* Film Bursary Award

* Literature Bursary Award

* Music Bursary Award

* Theatre Bursary Award

* Traditional Arts Bursary Award

* Visual Arts Bursary Award

The Arts Council provides Bursary Awards in order to assist individual artists in the development of their arts practice. The award emphasises the value and benefit to an artist’s development that is derived from an extended process of engagement with their practice.

Please note

Applications will only be accepted through the Arts Council’s online services website. Applicants who have not previously used this system must register in advance of making an application. It is recommended that applicants allow five days for registration prior to making an application. Please note that there will be no registrations between Friday 24 December 2010 and Tuesday 4 January 2011.

via Newsletter – Vol 8 Issue 3 – 1. Bursary Awards next closing date – 5:30 p.m, Thursday, 20 January 2011.

Two publishers were awarded sums from the Touring and Dissemination of Work 2011 scheme by the Arts Council this week.

Little Island will be funded to the tune of €5,300 , ‘to tour a series of readings and creative writing workshops by Little Island authors aimed at female transition year students.’

Salmon Poetry will get €3,200, ‘to tour a series of readings across the country to celebrate Salmon’s 30 years of literary publishing.’

Also under the Literature heading, the Irish Writers’ Centre received some €28,000 to fund the touring element of ‘a series of prose readings, the Peregrine Readings, in 2011.’

The full set of decisions can be searched for on the Arts Council’s Decision Database

New Island, the Dublin based publisher of literary fiction, poetry and non-fiction has laid off one full-time and two part-time staff.

A source close to the company said that the publisher will ‘continue to operate as normal, just with a reduced staff.’

Despite the lay offs, the source said, ‘all contracted titles will be published and the sales and marketing operations will continue to function as they were.’

Earlier this year, New Island launched children’s imprint Little Island.

Joseph O’Connor, Nuala O’Faolain, Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes and Cecilia Ahern are among the authors that have been published by New Island.

The publisher receives funding from the Arts Council.

Results from a survey carried out in late 2008 and early 2009 and released by the Arts Audiences project as part of the Arts Attendance in Ireland report show that 2.1 million Irish adults reported buying at least one book in the preceding 12 months.

The project plans to release a second batch of data in August and is calling on interested parties to offer their ‘input about what you would find most useful. Marketing information by artform? More information about websites? Let us know by posting a comment’.

The survey was conducted in Ireland by Kantar Media UK in from October 2008 to April 2009 and involved in depth interviews with over 3,000 participants.

The Arts Audience project is a joint venture by the Arts Council and the Temple Bar Trust.

Ed O’Loughlin And Molly McCloskey are the highest profile of 26 Arts Council Literary Busary Awards announced yesterday. 22 of the busaries went to English language writers and poets while four went to Irish language applicants include Maire Mhac an tSaoi.

O’Loughlin and McCloskey recieved Multi-annual grants, the only two such bursaries awarded to literary applicants. Gerard Fanning received the largest literary bursary this year having been awarded the maximum bursary of €15,000.

The 2010 literary bursaries came to a total of €162,650 (plus €21,000 committed for 2011) of which €30,000 was awarded to Irish language. This represents 18.22% of the €892,295 awarded. The full list of literary bursaries is below.

Successful applicants in other art forms included traditional musician Ciaran Somers; film-makers Agnieszka Grandowicz and Joe Lawlor; dance artists Colin Dunne and Tanya McCrory; and visual artists Clea Van der Grijn and Brendan Earley.

It has been a busy month for Irish Publishing News. So busy we didn’t get a round up post out so here, as a monthly digest, it is! To celebrate the iPad launch in the UK and the forthcoming launch here in July we’ve added a rather nice image from Flickr User Jesus Belzunce.

Lots more to come in June!

Young People Ready To Breathe Life And Arts Into Derelict Buildings
Young people have vowed to transform derelict and unused buildings into vibrant cultural centres – if Nama and local authorities around the country give them the space and the opportunity.
Read more…

Bloomsbury repackages Harry Potter
An interesting decision!
Read more…

Wherever green is worn…
The Most Famous Irish People You’ve Never Heard Of by Colin Murphy gets a great review too!
Read more…

Herstories
And a great review by Sean McMahon for Mná na Héireann: Women Who Shaped Ireland by Nicola Depuis
Read more…

An interview with Colum McCann
This Readdiscovery initiative is interesting!
Read more…

Irish Tapestry
Verbal is a veritable history review treat! A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes by Jonathan Bardon
Read more…

Second City
A quick review of Freedom to Choose: Cork and Party Politics in Ireland 1918-1932 by Micheál Martin
Read more…