TWO OF Ireland’s leading contemporary writers - Michael Longley and Jennifer Johnston - will be reading at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature later this month.
Longley will replace the American poet Charles Simic who is unable to travel due to unexpected ill health. Johnston will replace US writer Amy Bloom who is unable to attend Cúirt due to unexpected work commitments.
Belfast poet Michael Longley will read in the Town Hall Theatre on Saturday April 24 at 8.30pm, along with Scotland’s Robin Robertson, who has previously edited Longley’s work.
Longley was born in 1939 and educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and read classics at Trinity College, Dublin.
His first collection of poetry, No Continuing City: Poems 1963-1968, was published in 1969, and the collection Poems 1963-1983 was published in 1985. There was a 12-year gap between the publication of The Echo Gate: Poems 1975-1979 (1979 ) and the acclaimed Gorse Fires (1991 ), winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award. The Weather In Japan (2000 ), won the Hawthornden Prize, the TS Eliot Prize, and the Belfast Arts Award for Literature. He is editor of 20th Century Irish Poems (2002 ).
Longley has written widely on the arts in Northern Ireland and he also contributes to Encounter and The Phoenix. He lives in Belfast with his wife, the critic Edna Longley.
Jennifer Johnston will join winner of the US National Book Award, Colum McCann in conversation on Friday April 23 at 9pm at the Town Hall.
Johnston was born in 1930 to renowned actor and director Shelah Richards and the playwright Denis Johnston. She was educated at Trinity College Dublin. She was the winner of the Whitbread Book Award for The Old Jest in 1979, a novel about the Irish War of Independence. It was later made into a film called The Dawning starring Anthony Hopkins. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1977 and currently lives in Derry.
The Hotel Meyrick is the official accommodation provider to the festival guests and will play host to the Cúirt 2010 Festival Club in the Oyster Bar where writers and readers will gather informally each evening during the festival.
Tickets are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 or www.tht.ie
