Christodoulos Makris

Writing 3.0 is a festival co-programmed by Fingal County Libraries and the Fingal Arts Office, and runs from 1 October to 26 October 2010. On offer are readings and author talks, film screenings, workshops (performance poetry, creative writing, screenwriting, animation) and many more. As part of the programme I will be hosting an open-mic poetry session , preceded by readings from guest poets Colm Keegan and Dave Lordan. This will take place on Wednesday 6 October at 7pm. The venue is Swords Castle. All events are free - though all those completing the online booking form will be entered into a lottery for tickets. *Update, 30/09/10 * The venue for the open-mic session has been changed. It will now take place in the Council Chamber in County Hall (Swords) - which charges the event with a new dimension.

On Monday 20 September I will be reading at Cork city's weekly poetry event, Ó Bhéal . Ó Bhéal has been running since April 2007 and typically presents a guest poet followed by an open-mic session, while the evening kicks off with a 'poetry challenge'. Ó Bhéal has also been promoting the art of the poetry-film. I was delighted to read on its website that the Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin will be screening The Lammas Hireling , a film of Ian Duhig's poem of the same name made by Ó Bhéal founder and director Paul Casey, as part of its programme in October. My thanks to all at Ó Bhéal for having me as a guest poet. The venue is The Long Valley Bar (upstairs) on Winthrop Street, and start time is 9pm. Entrance is free.

The question of 'sincerity' or 'authenticity' in writing, and whether it exists or is even desirable, is something that has been concerning me more and more. I am being forced to mull over it again after reading Michael Kindellan's essay "'The Labor of Revision': George Oppen's Sincerity" published in the current issue of The Wolf . Kindellan writes: "It is the nature of Oppen's 'test' to reject as insincere anything which is already known at the time of writing; which is to say anything unlearned during the process of writing itself is corrupt." I am also halfway through Melissa Lee-Houghton's book Patterns of Mourning (Chipmunka Publishing, 2009). A book-length 'poetic diary' comprised of a series of 'songs' or epistles to various persons, it is a difficult read in terms of the circumstances of its composition and subject matter ("I wrote this book while undergoing what was later termed a Mixed ...

Kit Fryatt of Wurm im Apfel writes: Wurm gets no money at all from official sources. Arts Council , Poetry Ireland, nada. They've been generous in the past; I'm grateful. It's a rotten time for arts funding; nobody has it easy. Wurm is a pretty cost-effective operation though -- a couple of hundred euro will keep us going for the rest of the year and into 2011. So here's the deal: You become a subscriber, a Wurmfreund as it were, and in exchange for 50 euro to those in gainful employment , 20 euro to students & those on fixed or low incomes (no means test) -- you'll get an acknowledgement on the website (undergoing redevelopment as we speak) free copies of Wurm Press publications until 2012, a piece of stylish Wurmwear, and that fuzzy, faintly Medici-ish feeling attendant on becoming a patron of the arts. Donations of any amount can be sent by Paypal to puisingormdana@yahoo.co.uk , or you can register as a Wurmfruend at any Wurm event. Do pass the info on to ...