Eddie’s tales to re-hit the shelves

CLARE folklorist Eddie Lenihan may have missed out on winning one of the world’s most prestigious children’s literature prizes, but it hasn’t been a bad week for the Crusheen man with news that five of his books are to be reprinted.
The Crusheen man and Clare Champion contributor was one of just three Irish people nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award late last year. The award brings with it more than €500,000, making it the world’s richest prize for children’s and young people’s literature. The award is administered by the Swedish Arts Council and is open to authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and those active in reading promotion.
Dutch author Guus Kuijer, who has published over 30 titles and whose works have been translated into more than 10 languages, was named as the winner of the award on Tuesday.
“It was an honour for me to be nominated for this award and congratulations to him and to all the others who were in it as well. I was delighted to get to the final 168 in the world. I was surprised but this is not something that is simply drawn out of a hat, it is recognition of something I have been doing for a long time,” Eddie told The Clare Champion.
Despite missing out on the award, Eddie said he is not disappointed.
“There is no disappointment. I am well on the way to finishing my next book. I am on the last story now. I haven’t decided on the title of it yet. It will be for children and I am thinking, simply because of the times we live in and also because of the content of the stories, the title will be something to do with spells and magic. That will be published by Mercier,” the well-known story teller outlined.
Eddie also revealed his delight at the republishing of four books, Stories of Old Ireland for Children, Strange Irish Tales for Children, Gruesome Irish Tales for Children and Defiant Irish Women, all of which were out of print.
“I was sorry they were gone because the first two were always really popular but it is great they are being reprinted. Then it was a funny thing, I found out lately that Meeting the Other Crowd will be reprinted in mid-May by another publisher Gill and MacMillan. So things are going well,” he outlined.