ORIGINATING in Limerick by way of a competition organised by Alliance Francaise de Limerick, ‘Collection of Short Stories / Recueil de Nouvelles’ is a new publication on the scene.
Friday September 28 saw it launched in The Granary Library with Mayor Daniel Butler (French speaking) officiating, members of the Alliance, contributors to the book and French families living locally.
Video: Cian Reinhardt
Happy times for the dozen or so stories, nine of them in French and a scatter in English. AFL’s culturelle coordinatrice Anne Blondelle explains the premise on which entries were encouraged. Along with Maria Hensey, these women are linchpin to another competition, Tres Court International Film Festival which packs out Belltable annually.
“With Maria I organised a meeting last year for the AFL committee to brainstorm people for new ideas for cultural activities….. the competition started in October 2017. It was open to our students, members and French people here, quite a lot of people and not just AFL affiliates.
“I organised some workshops on how to write. These were led by one of our teachers, Vincent Leprince who himself has written a beautiful short story included in ‘Collection of Shorts’, ‘Fiction d’une Realité’.”
There were ground rules: a cap of 1000 words; write in French; if writing in English, a French theme, s’il vous plait; any genre.
A warm recommendation from this reader of Ivan Morris’ tour of golf culture. A French national needs a Carte Verte (licence) from the French Golf Federation, professional instruction, a competency examination and the ability to play nine holes in two hours. Strewth – the country has 600,000 licensed playing golfers. Up-game or what?
The book of shorts is illustrated by Alison Quaid, a Limerick artist and former AFL staff. €5 at AFL events.
