MERE DAYS after the programme for the 2020 Cúirt International Festival of Literature was announced, the Republic of Ireland went into Lockdown. And yet, in the face of that unprecedented setback, Cúirt emerged triumphant.
Between the launch in mid-March and the festival itself in late April, Cúirt switched from being an event that took place in theatres, bars, stages, and streets, to being an online event, watched via phones, laptops, and tablets. Every evening, an average of 3,800 people watched live; 15,000 watched the events in the days following, and overall 30,000 tuned into the premiere Galway literary event.
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Sasha de Buyl.
In that week in late April, Cúirt became a pioneer, showing that a festival could thrive in the teeth of a pandemic, and that online events and interactions could attract an audience hungry for connection and community. It was a victory for Cúirt, and especially for its director, Sasha de Buyl in her first year in charge.
Connection
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Today marks the launch of the 2021 Cúirt International Festival of Literature programme - which runs from April 21 to 25 - and it is a strong one, boasting Marian Keyes, Booker winner Douglas Stuart, Pulitzer prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen, Sara Baume, Lisa McInerney, and Nuala O’Connor, to name but a few.
With the pandemic still very much in effect, Cúirt will once again go online, but Sasha de Buyl is confident audiences will again respond warmly. “We were blown away last year by the response,” she tells me during our Monday afternoon conversation. “The sense of community created by the online interaction was something we couldn’t have foreseen. People spoke about how much it made them feel like they were not alone, and that it had something of the buzz of being at a festival.”
Connection with others and the feeling of being at a festival are driving forces behind Cúirt 2021, which is why a number of events will be broadcast from the Town Hall Theatre and Ashford Castle. “We want to make it seem as though you are there, bring you somewhere, and add a dynamism and a visual effect,” says Sasha.
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Maija Sofia.
Connection will also be central to the festival’s opening event: The Times were Grand in Size and We Were Small, where Oein DeBhairduin, Arnold Thomas Fanning, Una-Minh Kavanagh, Maija Sofia, Suad Aldarra, Lisa McInerney, and MC Louise Bruton will reflect on their experiences of finding, losing, and maintaining connection throughout the past year (April 22, 8.30pm ).
“Connectivity has been weighing on the minds of writers and artists,” says Sasha. “The way we connect has changed forever. For me, when I came back to Ireland, I was looking forward to making new friends and meeting people, but that’s not been easy. The opening event will look at how we maintained and lost connections in a very strange year.”
Irish writers at Cúirt
Irish writers will, as ever, be central to the festival, and highlights could very well come in the form of Marian Keyes, Nuala O’Connor, and Emma Dabiri.
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Marian Keyes. Photo:- Tony Baines
Marian Keyes has long been a much loved author by the public, and is held in huge regard by fellow writers, while in more recent years she has become noted for her activism and advocacy. All of this will come into focus on Voice of a Nation (April 24, 8pm ), in what will be Marian’s Cúirt debut.
“Mairian is a national treasure,” declares Sasha. “She is the voice of the nation. This will be a retrospective of her work so far, her writing, her advocacy of other women writers. It’ll be a celebration.”
April will see the launch of Ballinasloe writer Nuala O’Connor’s fifth novel, Nora, a work of historical-fiction on the life of Nora Barnacle, and her life of loving and enduring James Joyce (April 23, 5.30pm ). “It’s great that Nora Barnacle is getting the Nuala O’Connor treatment,” says Sasha. “She often gets passed over with all the focus being on Joyce, but this is a chance to read about her life.”
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Emma Dabiri. Photo:- Jermaine Francis
Irish-Nigerian author Emma Dabiri, one of the nation’s most outspoken and fearless critics of racism and discrimination, came to attention in 2019 with her book, Don’t Touch My Hair which explored an aspect of anti-Black discrimination so commonplace as to be almost invisibilised. At Cúirt she will be talking about her second book, What White People Can Do Next (April 22, 7pm ).
“Emma is unique and brings an important voice to this conversation,” says Sasha, “and festivals have an opportunity to reflect the world, not as the media portrays it, but as it actually is.”
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Douglas Stuart. Photo:- Clive Smith
Scottish writer Douglas Stuart’s won the 2020 Man Booker prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain, and in 2021 he makes his Cúirt debut where he will be in conversation with Colm Tóibín (April 25, 8pm ).
“He’s an exceptional writer,” says Sasha. “Shuggie Bain is an unrelenting portrayal of working class life in 1980s Glasgow. It deals with alcoholism, class, and models of masculinity and how limiting they can be.”
Irish Queer Archive
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One of the most exciting aspects of Cúirt 2021 will be Finding ourselves: Writing through the Queer Archive, where Seán Hewitt, Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, Kit Fryatt, and Llaura McGee will discuss how a contemporary queer canon in Ireland serves to build a living history for LGBT+ writers today and in the future (April 24, 2pm ).
Late last year, Cúirt announced a new commission, in partnership with the National Library of Ireland, and which saw the appointment of Seán Hewitt as the first poet in residence at the Irish Queer Archive in the NLI. Seán will spend three months working through the archives, and in response write 10 poems, which he will present at Cúirt 2022.
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Seán Hewitt. Photo:- Bríd O'Donovan
“The existence of the Irish Queer Archive is essential,” says Sasha. “As a queer person growing up in rural west Cork, I felt I had to leave to find a community and support, but now Ireland has changed so much and it’s really embraced that change. I was blown away to find out it existed. It’s full of papers, writings, videos, testimonies. I can;’t wait to see what Sean uncovers.”
Given the festival programme also includes Louise O’Neill, Manchán Magan, Sophie White, Mona Eltahawy, Derek Owusu, and Sarah Davis-Goff, among others, those five days in April promise to be something special. “Cúirt 2021 will make you think,” says Sasha, “it will entertain you, and it won’t hold back just because it’s online.”
For more information see www.cuirt.ie
