CloudNine

It's been a while, I know. I've been so busy with this or that I just haven't had the time to blog!  And it looks like I will be just as busy next year.  I'm on attachment to the National Theatre (UK) next year with my play, Belfast Girls - directed by Svetlana Dimcovic - and I am really looking forward to this. Watch this space as I will be blogging here about my time at the National. Also, I am now represented for fiction by the brilliant AM Heath Literary Agency (agents to John McGahern) so hopefully I'll be bringing you good news soon about my new story collection and novel. Check out the release in April of the 2012 Best British Short Stories Anthology (published by Salt and edited by Nicholas Royle) in which my story, The Visit, is featured. Meanwhile have a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2012.

I have a new poem in the current issue of Poetry Ireland Review , issue 104. This is a lovely issue (with a stunning picture of a red-eyed rooster on the cover) and also includes work from Miriam Gamble, Vona Groarke, Tom French and Thomas Kinsella. Fine company indeed. Also this month, the new issue of Irish Pages , a beautiful bi-annual journal of contemporary Irish writing, explores themes relating to 'Ireland in Crisis'. I have two new poems and a short story in this issue. That's the first time I will have had fiction and poetry published in the one journal. And then later this year I will have a poem in the wonderful Ambit . I always look forward to reading this UK journal as I think it publishes really cutting-edge stuff. I'm going to have to collect these poems, methinks. I'll have to start thinking about who to send them to.

    As I write this post I’m nursing an injured lower back (don’t ask, something to do with cycling) while listening to the Joe Duffy show on the radio. A woman in Tipperary is describing her eviction from her farm. She owes ACC bank 1.5 million euro. The bank has sent in a team of heavy vehicles and diggers manned by a small army of eleven henchmen. There is also a plough. The plough is – as I write – digging up this woman’s land so that no oil, gas, electricity or water supplies reach her farm, and so that she and her animals will be starved out. This is exactly why I wrote my play, Belfast Girls , why I went to the Great Famine as a subject. As early as 2009 I saw parallels between contemporary Irish society and the Famine: evictions and repossessions left, right and centre, Irish people being forced to emigrate and being left with no or little support from the people that run their society. During the Famine there was plenty of food and grain leaving Irish ports – this...

Belfast Girls By Jaki McCarrick Directed by Svetlana Dimcovic Escaping the Irish famine in 1850 five young women seek passage on a ship to Australia. For many of the ‘orphan girls’ on board, the voyage offers a fresh start. But some girls find they cannot easily escape the memory of their past lives ... Belfast Girls is a world premiere of the newest play from award winning Irish playwright Jaki McCarrick, directed by fellow National Theatre Studio graduate   and long-term collaborator,  Svetlana Dimcovic. Cast includes Victoria Armstrong, Martha Barnett, Chereen Buckley,             Angela Costello & Amy Molloy. Belfast Girls is the second production in The King’s Head Theatre’s new writing season Without D é cor. Theatre company Good Night Out Presents continues its mission to bring new work to London stages by producing Without D é cor led by Artistic Director Adam Spreadbury-Maher & Associate...

A quick note to let you know that my new play, Belfast Girls, will have a 'without decor' production at the Kings Head Theatre, London this coming August. I will post much more info about the play in the coming weeks. Watch this space.

  Refle ctions on a Divided City' is a new collection of short stories, poems and essays from the winners of the 2 010 Reading & Reflecting New Writing Competitions held by Monaghan VEC (Youthreach). The project has been in place for the past t wo years, with funding secured from the EU's Peace and Reconciliation body, and involved an inter-school writing competition (of which I was judge) as well as an inter-school debating competition. Students were asked to read novels written on the subject of 'divided cities' such as Theresa Breslin's Divided City and the Joan Linguard Belfast-based Kevin & Sadie novels - and the submitted portfolios of work were all based on readings of these novels - as well as a number of others. The standard was staggeringly high - and the essays in particular were very strong. This book (which I've edited and introduce) brings together all the winning stories, poems, critical pieces and serves as an excellent c...

Tinderbox's Young Writers Programme FIREWORKS  - application deadline 5th May If you are an aspiring stage writer between 16 and 25 and interested in writing for the stage Fireworks might be something for you. Fireworks is a 5 months long specialised program to take you through the process of writing a play from idea through redrafting and into the rehearsal room. For full information visit the website www.tinderbox.org.uk/dramaturgy/fireworks-young-writers-programme/   International Radio Play Competition This BBC radio competition is for anyone resident outside Britain. You must submit a 60-minute radio drama for up to six characters. The two winners will come to London and see their play made into a full radio production, which will then be broadcast on the BBC World Service.  They will also each receive a £2,500 prize  and there are also prizes for the runners-up. To find out more visit  http://bbc.in/eYAhFs .   BBC Writer...

  Just came back from seeing my little short, The Collectors, at the Arcola Theatre and was blown away by the precision of both actors and director. All I can say is nice work guys, and thank you so very much. The week of Wordplay has been long sold-out, so thanks too to the very appreciative audiences who each night braved the cold weather in London to fill out the brilliantly atmospheric new Arcola building. Because it’s a short run there are few reviews for the six shorts - but so far so good, like this from ayoungertheatre.com: “ The Collectors by Jaki McCarrick begins slowly with Virgil, a kidnapper, waiting for Penelope’s husband to pay her ransom. She persuades him that her husband won’t pay, and after a twist at the end, my presumptions of the piece were blown away. A moving, shocking and powerful piece.” http://www.ayoungertheatre.com/tag/jackie-mccarrick/

  Curio's New Play Reading Series Fresh from Ireland, a story of directionless teens who try to rob a pub owner, and find themselves in way over their heads. FREE to the PUBLIC ,   Audience feedback is encouraged! Come and be a part of the creative process. LEOPOLDVILLE by Jaki McCarrick Presented Monday February 28th at 7pm  in the Calvary Center for Culture and Community 4740 Baltimore Avenue Everywhere is Leopoldville. Everywhere.  Jaki McCarrick's LEOPOLDVILLE shines a bright light on the destructive power of directionless young men.  Set in 1990 in an Irish border town, a gang of teenage boys with few prospects ends a long night of "adventure" by breaking into "The Congo", a pub owned by a well-traveled widower.  When the owner comes back and claims to have no valuables, no African diamonds, nothing more than the cash in the till, the gang starts to fall apart, and things spiral out of control. About the playwright: Jaki McCarr...

My play, Leopoldville (winner of the 2010 Papatango New Writing Award), is to receive its first staged reading in the US on Monday February 28th, directed by Liam Castellan. It will be part of Curio Theatre's New Play Reading series and is the featured International play. For times and directions: http://www.curiotheatre.org/

Spring Workshops and the MAD Festival We've just confirmed dates for our Spring Workshop season as well as for our next writers' opportunity, the hugely popular Monologues and Duologues, or MAD, festival. We've booked three exciting playwrights for our spring season, and as always we'll be keeping prices for these workshops as low as possible to enable as many people as possible to attend. Anyone is welcome to attend WRiTEON workshops but paid up members receive a further discount on the price. Tickets for the workshops will go on sale soon - for now, mark your calendars! The Violent Imagination with Jaki McCarrick Sunday, 6 March 2011, 11am - 5pm Michaelhouse Centre, Trinity St, Cambridge Jaki is a multi award winning playwright, poet and writer of short stories. Her first play, The Mushroom Pickers , won the 2002 best of Old Vic New Voices and the 2005 Scottish Drama Association’s National Playwriting Competition and went on to productions at Southwark Pla...

My play, Leopoldville (winner of the 2010 Papatango New Writing Award), is to receive its first staged reading in the US at the end of February. It will be part of Curio Theatre's New Play Reading series and is the featured International play. The Curio Theatre is in Philadelphia and I have to say I'm thoroughly looking forward to the reading.  The play explores the effects the recession of the 1980s had on an Irish border town and how a gang of unemployed youths get caught up in a terrible and vicious crime.  http://www.curiotheatre.org/   Thank you for the feedback. Report another image Please report the offensive image. Cancel Done