Warming with words for winter in Olivia Smith and Kevin Barry's annual arts anthology

Olivia Smith and Kevin Barry have produced another eclectic volume of their annual arts anthology, writes Marjorie Brennan

OLIVIA Smith and Kevin Barry certainly know how to encapsulate the pleasures of reading. In the introduction to Winter Papers, the second volume of their annual arts anthology, they exhort the reader to:

“Put out the cat.

Open the biscuits.

Turn off the phones.

Uncork the bottle(s).

Put at least five briquettes on the fire.

Draw them ’aul drapes.

And dig in —”

The brainchild of Smith, an academic, and her husband, the writer Kevin Barry, the anthology is a collection of short fiction, essays, poetry, and interviews, bound in a beautiful cloth cover with gold- embossed lettering and an illustration of an umbrella turned inside-out by the wind, perhaps symbolising the inclement weather conditions which provide the perfect excuse to snuggle up with a book.

Smith says the decision to publish a second volume was made easier by the positive feedback the first one received last year.

“When you start something like this, it’s always a punt. If it hadn’t worked we wouldn’t have done another one, but people just really bought into it, what we were trying to do. We wanted to produce a stunning beautiful object, to be matched by the quality and range of content,” she says.

“We got lots of great feedback, a lot of people got it as a present for friends and relatives who were abroad, and I got a lot of messages through the website that it made them less homesick, which is a nice affirmation.”

The book features a huge range of subjects and a wealth of writing and artistic talent.

But when I ask Smith for personal highlights, she demurs. “There’s such a great variety and range of fascinating contributions, including a lot of visual stuff. I can’t pick a favourite.”

Smith says one of the main reasons for the positive response to the anthology is that people still appreciate the aesthetic pleasure of reading.

“That’s what has kept us working, that love for the book as a physical object,” she says.

“People also want the immersive experience that a book allows you. It’s harder and harder to get away from screens but with this book you can go back to that sacred space that reading occupied in the past.”

Winter Papers Vol 2 gets its Cork launch at the Triskel Arts Centre tomorrow at 2pm, featuring readings by Kevin Barry, Eimear Ryan, and Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Free but ticketed. The anthology itself costs €40

Don't forget that we'll be launching Winter Papers vol. 2 on Saturday 17 December. Edited by Olivia Smith and Kevin Barry. pic.twitter.com/rccCkc4sWb

— Triskel Arts Centre (@TriskelCork) December 6, 2016

Winter Papers: some of the highlights

• Winter Papers Volume 2 gets off to a stunning start with a poem by Cork-based Rooney Prize winner Doireann Ní Ghríofa, ‘At Half Eleven in the Mutton Lane Inn, I am Fire, Slaughter, Dead Starlings’, a work which is as evocative and striking as the title suggests.

• Eimear Ryan, the co-editor of literary journal Banshee, brings her writing talent and sporting experience to bear in the beautifully-written essay, ‘The Fear of Winning’. The former Tipperary camogie player writes about her life in hurling, including the summer she would only answer to the name ‘Nicky’, in honour of the famous Nicky English.

• For film buffs, Peter Murphy interviews Withnail and I director Bruce Robinson while Kevin and Seán Lynch are in conversation with veteran Irish filmmaker Bob Quinn, still making his mark on the Irish film industry.

• ‘The Squire’s Bad Dream’ is a graphic poem by Max Porter which was the inspiration for his haunting novella, Grief is the Thing with Feathers.

• Finally, a new short story by Kevin Barry is always a cause for celebration; the co-editor makes an appearance here with a piece titled Old Stock. Look forward to more electrifying prose from the Limerick writer.