Novel Fair Launch

Novel Fair Launch & Information Night

7pm- Irish Writers Centre - 25th July 213

All Welcome

Are you thinking of entering The Irish Writers Centre's Novel Fair? If so, you might be interested in coming along to this event...

'The Irish Writers' Centre is launching the 3rd annual Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair Competition. The evening will include talks by Patricia Deevy from Penguin Ireland and two past participants in the Novel Fair, Niamh Boyce author of The Herbalist and Janet Cameron author of Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World.'

To read about my experience of the novel fair, click here

Launch Of This Years Novel Fair Competition

Gabriele Munter

The Girl With the Red Ribbon

National Gallery Of Ireland

All are welcome to the second Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair Competition which will be launched at 7.30, on Wednesday June 27th: its a great opportunity for anyone who plans to enter the competition as it will involve a question and answer session with the Novel fair organisers.

From The Irish Writers Centre Site...

"The Novel Fair was a new initiative by the Irish Writers’ Centre launched in 2011. It aims to introduce up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of publishers and agents.

Due to the success of the Fair we have decided to run it again in 2013, with an additional prize of a place on a seminar on 'How to Pitch Your Novel' to help the novelists perfect their presentations and material for the day.

The deadline for the competition this year is October 17th and the Novel Fair itself will take place on February 16th, 2013.

This year a judging panel will be asked to select a shortlist of ten successful entries, presented to them anonymously. There is no limitation on style, genre, or target market, the only requirement being that the writer has not published a novel before. Publishers and agents will be invited to come along on the day to the Irish Writers’ Centre and meet the ten selected writers in person. Each writer in attendance will have a stand at the Fair with copies of the synopsis of their novel, the finished novel itself and biographical material."

Good News!

I'm delighted to annnounce that Penguin Ireland have bought my novel The Herbalist, and it will be published in 2013!

From the press release:

"The Herbalist is a vivid and atmospheric story set in a midlands town over a summer in late 1930s. An Indian man appears in the market square, sets up a stall and declares himself a herbalist. The people of the town flock to the exotic visitor, who seems to have a cure for everything that ails them. But the visitor also helps get rid of some of the town’s more sordid secrets and as the summer progresses life becomes complicated and dangerous for the herbalist and his devotees. A rich multi-layered story of life in 1930s Ireland told through the eyes of four women, each of whose lives is changed irrevocably by the herbalist."

Patricia Deevy, Editorial Director, Penguin Ireland said, ‘I’m absolutely thrilled to have bought Niamh’s dazzling novel. Niamh vividly conjures both the warmth and the darkness of life in a provincial Irish town during those years before the Emergency. In particular, she handles the now familiar shadow side of Irish life – the rigid social stratification, the fear of sex, the double standards – in a wholly fresh and confident way. Her characters are fascinating women and she has written a thought-provoking, moving and viscerally engaging novel that marks her out as a remarkable and original new talent.’

... and I'll be reading from The Herbalist at the Novel Fair 2013 Launch on June 27th at the Irish Writer's Centre !


From Irish Publishing News:
Penguin Ireland Signs Hennessy XO Winner

From Carry On Writing @ Writing.ie
Journalist & Author Hazel Gaynors Blog

From Book2Book:
 Penguin Ireland Is Delighted To Announce The Acquisition Of The Herbalist By Hennessy Award Winning Author Niamh Boyce