One space remains on the CW2 course that starts Tuesday, September 14. Five spaces remain in the CW1 course that starts Thursday, September 2. Thanks to all those who registered and booked online. If you have any questions about courses, please contact SBA using the online contact form or email workshops at someblindalleys dot com.
To book the course, please use the online booking form.
Thanks to all who submitted autobiographical work as part of the final event in the SBA Summer Reading Series. The selected winners will have an opportunity to read with legendary man of letters Carlo Gébler, who will be discussing death. I’ve seen a draft of the talk, and I’ve spoken with Gébler about it: it’s going to be something else, so I hope you’ll all attend.
There were over thirty submissions. I want to sincerely thank everybody who sent in work; it was a real pleasure to read them all, and great to see so many people working in literary autobiography. I want to recognize six standout submissions. I’ll be selecting two from this list to read on August 27. The shortlist is:
Theresa Barnett
Jean Hanney
Pete Harpur
Alie Moore
Ryan Van Runkle
Ross Weldon
They have a Facebook fan page. Their events are kind of like Some Blind Alleys events, except they shout and sing and every once in a while there’s a striptease.
Many thanks to all those who submitted autobiographical work for the August 27 SBA reading event. The two readers will be selected shortly and notified.
The Some Blind Alleys autumn course list has been posted. Online booking is available for CW1 and CW2.
CW1 starts on Thursday, September 2. CW2 starts on Tuesday, September 14. The CW3 course on offer is full.
For more information about the Some Blind Alleys Workshops, please contact workshops [ at ] someblindalleys [ dot ] com.
This Thursday, August 1, is the deadline for submissions to read at the third and final SBA Summer Reading Series event, Death, with Carlo Gébler.
Send no more than 1,500 words of a personal essay to editor ( at ) someblindalleys ( dot ) com.
The Guardian: “From St Augustine to Nietzche, the author chooses the fearless autobiographical writers who taught him how to write his own, A Preparation for Death“
Enter a draw at Asylum to win one of five free copies.
Become a reader in the third and final event in the Some Blind Alleys Summer Reading Series – Death, with Carlo Gébler.
Send no more than 1,500 words of a personal essay to editor ( at ) someblindalleys ( dot ) com by August 1, 2010.
Brian Dillon Headlines Second SOME BLIND ALLEYS Summer Reading Series Event
Some Blind Alleys presents the second event in its 2010 Summer Reading Series: Issues in Contemporary Autobiography. The event takes place on Saturday, July 3 at the Joinery in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, with featured speaker Brian Dillon. The theme for his talk is Art.
Dillon, the author of Tormented Hope: Nine Hypchondriac Lives (Penguin Ireland, 2009), as well as a memoir, In the Dark Room (Penguin Ireland, 2005), will give a short talk on the subject of “art” in autobiography.
His focus will be autobiography as self-portrait, in his own writing and in literary masterworks. His talk will be followed by five short readings by up-and-coming autobiographical talents.
The event is open to the public. Doors open at 7p.m. Price of admission is €5, but free wine will be available.
RSVP: There are 70 spaces available. To guarantee a spot, please RSVP to thejoinery at gmail.com with subject line: “SBA Summer Reading.”
About Brian Dillon
Brian Dillon was born in Dublin in 1969. He is the author of Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives (Penguin, 2009). His first book, In the Dark Room (Penguin, 2005) won the Irish Book Award for non-fiction. He is UK Editor of Cabinet, a quarterly magazine of art and culture based in New York, and writes regularly for such publications as the Guardian, the London Review of Books, the New Statesman, etc. His novella, Sanctuary, will be published by Sternberg Press in 2010.
"Greg Baxter is an essayist and fiction writer with a mission: to get Dubliners reading good literature." 
