There are plenty of literary treats in-store all round Galway this week for the 38th Cúirt International Festival of Literature, which is on until Sunday April 23.
Award-winning and celebrated Irish writers Donal Ryan and Wendy Erskine will be in conversation with Edel Coffey on Saturday April 22 at 4pm in the Town Hall Theatre.
That evening, at 8pm, Sebastian Barry, award-winning author and former Laureate for Irish Fiction, will join acclaimed Irish writer Clare-Louise Bennett in the Town Hall Theatre to bring his latest novel, Old God’s Time, to Galway.
Born in Dublin in 1955, Sebastian’s Barry’s novels and plays have won numerous awards, including the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, Costa Book of the Year award, Irish Book Awards Best Novel. Two consecutive novels, A Long Long Way (2005 ) and The Secret Scripture (2008 ), were shortlisted for the MAN Booker Prize. His novel Days Without End (2016 ) won the Costa Book of the Year Award and The Walter Scott Prize, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize.
Anne Enright, one of Ireland’s most prolific and celebrated writers, and the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction, will join Louise Kennedy and Glenn Patterson on stage for the finale of Cúirt International Festival of Literature, on Sunday April 23 at 7pm.
Anne Enright’s novel The Gathering (2007 ) won the Man Booker Prize and The Green Road (2015 ) won the Bord Gáis Energy Novel of the Year Award. In 2018 she received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature and her latest novel, Actress (2020 ) was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020. Her work has been translated into almost 40 languages.
Louise Kennedy’s debut novel Tresspasses won the An Post Novel of the Year in 2022.
On Friday April 21, 8:30pm, multi-award winning author Max Porter (author of Grief is a Thing with Feathers ) will be joined in conversation by Sinéad Gleeson, where they will discuss his new book Shy. Porter will also perform a dramatic interpretation from the novel.
Tonight, (Thursday April 20 ), American author Carmen Maria Machado will discuss her body of work with Sinéad Gleeson at 8:30pm in An Taidhbhearc. Her work has been awarded many prizes, including the Folio Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and been shortlisted for the National Book Award. Machado writes beautifully about contemporary horrors, touching on queer and feminist issues with a revolutionary, eclectic style that has made her one of the most influential writers in today’s literary scene.
writer and documentary-maker, Manchán Magan, will be taking part in two events during the festival - one on Friday April 21 at 5:30pm, where he will discuss memoir and nature with Séan Hewitt and Amanda Thomson; and another on Saturday April 22 at 1pm, where he will be joined by Eoghan Daltun and Emma Must for a talk on climate change and activism.
Some events are sold out, so book tickets as soon as you can from cuirt.ie
