Brenda gets Writers’ Week shortlist out, with An Post’s help
THERE might not be a Writers’ Week ‘in-person’ this year, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t as hungry as ever for the world of books.
In fact, thanks to the lock-down and another brilliant Writers’ Week Kerry Group Irish Fiction prize, readers have been more hungry for riveting, thought-provoking reads.
Online sales of books are stronger than ever on the back of the global lock-down, but the traditional book-sellers remain firmly in the market – as they await the re-opening of their physical stores on June 8.
And in the home of Writers’ Week, bookseller Brenda Woulfe is fielding more Week-related queries than ever.
There’s no problem getting the titles out to the public either, especially thanks to a special rate An Post introduced for books and which Brenda – of Woulfe’s Bookshop on Church Street – described as a lifeline for her trade.
“People are hungry for new titles and the Writers’ Week shortlist for the Kerry Group prize is creating as much of a buzz as ever,” Brenda told The Kerryman this week.
“An Post’s special new rate of €2.95 for up to 1okg anywhere in Ireland is a Godsend as well for us, you would have been looking at up to €12 previously for parcels of that weight.
“But they have really helped the trade facilitating sales to customers with that rate.
“I’m going back to the post office every second day now sending off parcels to customers everywhere. They’re supporting the traditional print media with the rate, be it books or newspapers, and it’s making a huge difference for so many people.”
Brenda has dispatched parcels across the county since the lock-down saw the closure of shops everywhere.
The closure is a sad fact of the pandemic at a time when her popular bookshop would be coming into its own once more, as a hive of frenzied Writers’ Week activity.
Chief among the usual concerns of the literati would be the anticipation of the big Kerry Group fiction winner. In the running this year are The River Capture by Mary Costello (Canongate); Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession (Bluemoose Books); Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry (Canongate); Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker Random House); andGirl by Edna O’Brien (Faber).
“We always have a lot of fun trying to pick a winner, and that’s still the case this year over the phone. Will it be Edna O’Brien this year? Or should it be Mary Costello? I’m staying neutral as ever!” Brenda joked.
As for the impact of COVID on her trade? “We haven’t died a winter yet, we’ll soldier on. There’s no use complaining, no-one would listen to us!”