irish writers union

Writers would be better off in manufacturing

A new survey on writers’ earnings makes for sobering reading for those considering writing as a career choice.

The Irish Copyright Licensing Agency (ICLA) recently commissioned a survey of Irish authors' incomes.

There were 466 respondents to the survey, which, per capita, makes it the most comprehensive in Europe.

Only 9.9 per cent of Irish authors surveyed earned more than €30,000.

The latest available Central Statistics Office figures for wages in manufacturing industries show that the average wage in 2006 was €29,900.

If they depended solely on their writing income ninety percent of published authors would be financially better off if they obtained a job in manufacturing by this comparison.

Another important finding with implications for policy-makers, was that the majority of authors earn most of their income from schemes such as busaries, residencies or teaching creative writing.

A full report of this important survey is awaited.

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Arts Council denies funds to Irish Writers Centre

The Irish Writers’ Centre was denied funding for 2010 by the Arts Council in a decision described by the Centre’s Board as myopic.

Until 2009, the IWC received an annual grant to enable it function as an organisation providing a venue and a service to writers and the public, but the grant was withheld last year on the basis of a value-for-money assessment.

Dublin has lodged an application to UNESCO for a special designation as a City of Literature.

But the Arts Council has not seen fit to fund the premier Writing Centre in the Capital city, said the IWC statement.

In response, the IWC Board said: “We will not fold up our tents and go meekly away. We firmly believe that there is an absolute need for the Irish Writers’ Centre at the heart of the literary landscape, and that it should be funded. We will continue to seek funding and support from every quarter.”

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Non-Fiction writers need not apply

Non-fiction writers continue to be excluded from the Arts Council-funded Writers in Schools scheme.

Unless they are creative non-fiction writers.

In response to Irish Writers’ Union representations on behalf of its members the Arts Council responded that its remit does not cover areas such as non-arts biography, educational reference, sports or historical books.

The Writers-in-Schools Scheme was initiated by the Arts Council in 1977.

In January 1996, the operation of WIS was officially devolved to Poetry Ireland. The scheme underwent an extensive evaluation process in 2005 and the issue of including non-fiction writers in the scheme was explored at that stage, said the Arts Council.

The Arts Council has told the IWU that the evaluation concluded that this would present huge difficulties within the current Arts Council/Poetry Ireland delivery of the scheme and would involve additional requirements in terms of resources, professional development, the development of criteria for inclusion, and so.

Easy Access

The report also concluded that students already have relatively easy access to such genres of writing, according to the Arts Council.

“For this reason, the parameters of the Scheme have not been widened to include non-fiction writers,” said Gaye Tanham Head of Young People, Children and Education.

"The Arts Council's remit in literature covers literary fiction, poetry, drama and some works of contemporary literary criticism, literary biography and creative non-fiction,” said the Arts Council.

It would not be appropriate for Arts Council funding to be targeted towards these areas, we have been told.

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Karen Gillece wins European Prize for Literature, Ireland 2009

The Irish jury of the European Prize for Literature for an emerging author of
fiction 2009 chose Karen Gillece as the Irish winner.

She was chosen from a shortlist of six writers for her four novels, Seven
Nights in Zaragoza, Longshore Drift, My Glass Heart and The Absent Wife.

President of the jury, Sorcha de Brún, described her as "a writer of immense promise, whose work has been marked by great artistic development in a relatively short period of time. Her novels display insight into the realms of human experience, as evidenced by her ability to portray a wide range of memorable characters. Her writing is rich and nuanced, and she shows a technical mastery of the narrative structure of the novel. Her voice as a young writer is assured and confident. Her novels are evocative and moving, the dialogue natural and unforced, and she moves seamlessly through complex scene changes and points of view, never losing sight of the direction in which the reader is being taken".

Karen Gillece was born in Dublin in 1974. She studied Law at University
College Dublin and worked for several years in the telecommunications industry
before turning to writing full-time.

She was shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award in 2001 and her
short stories have been widely published in literary journals and magazines.

The €5,000 prize will be presented to Karen Gillece by the European Ambassador of Literature in Brussels in September 2009.

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Nomination to Irish Writers Centre board

The Irish writers Union nominated executive committee board member Brendan Nolan to the board of the Irish Writers Centre, following changes to the board which oversees the development and running of the Irish Writers Centre on Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

The nomination was accepted by the IWC board.

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