23-30 April, 2017 - www.cuirt.ie - Cúirt International Festival of Literature

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23-30 April, 2017 - www.cuirt.ie - Cúirt International Festival of Literature
23-30 April, 2017

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23-30 April, 2017 - www.cuirt.ie - Cúirt International Festival of Literature
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23-30 April, 2017 - www.cuirt.ie - Cúirt International Festival of Literature
Welcome to Cúirt                                                                                               Contents
                                             International Festival
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             of Literature
                                                                                                                                                            Official Opening 				                            6    Début Panel				29
                                                                                                                                                            Cúirt Table Quiz 				                            6    Conor O’Callaghan & A. L. Kennedy		          30
                                                                                                                                                            Anne Kennedy Writers’ Salon and Residency        7    Digital Literature & Art:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                                            In Person: World Poets			                        8    Interface as Creative Device			              30
                                             The 2017 Cúirt Festival aims to                                                                                Launch: Song of Songs 2.0			                     8    Damon Galgut & Eimear McBride		              31
                                             excite and engage its audience and                                                                             Seisiúin na Cúirte				9                               Elaine Feeney & Josh Idehen			               32
                                             provide a platform for some of the                                                                             Fruition					9                                        Claire-Louise Bennett & Mia Gallagher		      33
                                             most innovative and loved writers                                                                              Found in Translation?                                 Songs from a room: My Fellow Sponges         34
                                             across venues in Galway City and                                                                               France, Ireland and the legacy of Michel Déon    11   An Focal: Grá				35
                                             County.                                                                                                        Launch of Horseman, Pass by!		                   11   Dermot Healy: Writing the Sky		              36
                                             Each year the festival continues to grow: this year                                                            Film: Un taxi mauve / The Purple Taxi		          11   Claire Hennessy, Shirley Anne McMillian
                                             we are proud to introduce LABS as Gaeilge, a day of
                                                                                                                                                            Frédéric Vitoux				11                                 & Dave Rudden				37
                                             workshops for children through Irish. There are two new
                                             masterclasses in sports writing and writing for a young                                                        Launch: Rise				12                                    Jay Griffiths, Richard Hamblyn,
                                             adult audience. The Anne Kennedy Memorial Lecture has
                                             evolved to become a mentored residency, platforming                                                            Calasanctius College Book Launch		               12   Gaia Vince & Paul Kingsnorth			              38
                                             and nurturing emerging poets. While growing bigger we                                                          The Sacrificial Wind				                         13   An interview with Rick O’Shea		              39
                                             still nurture our roots. Poetry readings open and close
                                             the Town Hall Theatre programme. Established and                                                               Consensual				13                                      Sophie Hannah & Denise Mina		                40
                                             début writers are presented side by side.                                                                      Cúirt/Over the Edge New Writing Showcase         14   Stephen Burt, Theresa Muñoz & Jacob Polley   41

                                             On behalf of the Galway Arts Centre Board of Directors                                                         ROPES Launch				15                                    City Lit Talks Back				                      41
                                             and the Cúirt team, we would like to thank all of the
                                                                                                                                                            Persona					15                                        Simon Armitage & Terrance Hayes		            42
                                             participating writers, the funding bodies, sponsors and
                                             the Cúirt audience in city and county, in schools and                                                          David Butler, Yrsa Daley-Ward & Kerrie O’Brien   16   Bardic Brunch				43
                                             theatres, in kitchens and libraries. It is the dedication of
                                                                                                                                                            Martina Evans, Vona Groarke & Mary O’Malley      17   Sara Baume, Jenni Fagan & Paul Kingsnorth    44
                                             the audience that continues to support this festival into
                                             its 32nd year.                                                 Booking Information                             Songs from a room: Sive			                       18   Fermata					45
                                                                                                            Book online at:                                 Merlin Coverley & Michael Winter		               19   Far From Literature We Were Reared		         46
                                             Maeve Mulrennan, Programmer
                                                                                                            www.cuirt.ie or www.tht.ie
                                             Tara O’Connor, Manager                                                                                         Oisín Fagan & Ross Raisin			                     20   An Evening with William McCarthy		           47
                                             Paraic Breathnach, Producer
                                                                                                            Box Office                                      Jami Attenberg, Sinéad Gleeson & Cheryl Tan      21   Cúirt Labs				48
                                             April 2017                                                     Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square            Spoken Word Platform			                          22   Workshops				52
                                                                                                            Galway, Ireland
                                                                                                                                                            Ó Íochtar Mara – Saothar Chaitlín Maude          23   Pop-up Literature				54
                                                                                                            00353 (0) 91 569777
                                                                                                                                                            No Childhood Back in Our Day		                   23   Exhibitions				55
                                                                                                            Early Bird Tickets                              John Boyne & Kit de Waal			                      24   Library Events				56
                                                                                                            Early bird tickets available until Tuesday 20   Launch: Poems for Patience			                    26   Plaque Unveilings				58
                                                                                                            March. (Early bird price does not apply to
                                                                                                            Simon Armitage & Terrance Hayes).               Songs from a room: Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola      27   Poetry Ireland and Cúirt Bursary		           58
                                                                                                            		                                              Pete Mullineaux, Mark Wagenaar & William Wall 28      Day by day				62
                                                                                                            Daytime Readings Ticket                                                                               Map					64
                                                                                                            Bundle
                                                                                                            Attend 4 daytime readings (before 8.00pm)
                                                                                                            for the price of 3.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Cover design by Marielle MacLeman
                                             4                                                                                                                                                                                                                      5
23-30 April, 2017 - www.cuirt.ie - Cúirt International Festival of Literature
Official Opening                                                                                                Anne Kennedy
                                                                                                                                                                 Writers’ Salon
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                                 Venue    Hotel Meyrick

                                                                                                                                                                 and Residency
                                                 Date     Sunday 23 April
                                                 Time     7.00pm
                                                 Price    Free

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 www.cuirt.ie
                                                 Come along to the official opening of Cúirt 2017. Be entertained
                                                 with music from Galway Youth Jazz Orchestra and the musings of                                                  The Writers’ Salon is an afternoon of poetry readings and audience
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Venue: Nun’s Island Theatre
                                                 some special guest speakers.                                                                                    participation. Each guest will read from their work, followed by a panel
                                                                                                                                                                 discussion about writing. The audience is invited to join the discussion with   Date:       Monday 24 April
                                                 Refreshments are provided and a great night is guaranteed!                                                      an opportunity for questions. The Salon is a relaxed environment where
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Time:       2.00pm
                                                                                                                                                                 writers from all walks of life can discuss aspects of writing with a panel of
                                                                                                                                                                 published writers who will share their pearls of wisdom.                        Price:      €5

                                                                                                                                                                 The Anne Kennedy Residency was developed to support writers by creating         Refreshments provided.
                                                                                                                                                                 a platform to mingle in a social arena, and promote the exchange of ideas,
                                                                                                                                                                 guidance and encouragement. Sarah Clancy has been acting as a mentor to
                                                                                                                                                                 emerging writer Daniel Mulcahy as part of the Anne Kennedy Residency.

                                                                                                                                                                 The event is open to everyone, and will particularly benefit those pursuing a
                                                                                                                                                                 career in writing.

                                                                                                                                                                 Jenna Clake is studying for a PhD in                                                     Antony Huen is a PhD student at
                                                                                                                                                                 Creative Writing at the University of                                                    the University of York, researching
                                                                                                                                                                 Birmingham; her research focuses                                                         contemporary poets’ appropriation
                                                                                                                                                                 on the feminine and feminist Absurd                                                      of artistic material. His recent
                                                                                                                                                                 in twenty-first century British and                                                      publications include a poem in Cha:
                                                                                                                                                                 American poetry. She is the Arts and                                                     An Asian Literary Journal, a book
                                                                                                                                                                 Poetry Editor of the Birmingham                                                          review in Eborakon, and a chapter
                                                                                                                                                                 Journal of Literature and Language.                                                      in the edited volume, Exploring
                                                                                                                                                                 Her debut collection is forthcoming                                                      Creative Writing (Cambridge
                                                                                                                                                                 from Eyewear in 2017.                                                                    Scholars Publishing). He is one of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Eyewear Publishing’s Best New
                                                                                                                                                                 Sarah Clancy is a page and                                                               British and Irish Poets 2017.
                                                                                                                                                                 performance poet from Galway. She
                                                                                                                                                                 has published three collections of                                                       Daniel Mulcahy is a third year
                                                                                                                                                                 poetry, the most recent The Truth                                                        student of Creative Writing at NUI
                                                                                                                                                                 and Other Stories from Salmon                                                            Galway. Recently he has had poems
                                                                                                                                                                 Poetry in 2014. Her work has been                                                        published in The Galway Review,
                                                                                                                                                                 published in the US, Canada, the UK                                                      with more work set to be published
                                                                                                                                                                 and in translation in Mexico, Poland,                                                    in the near future. Daniel earnestly
                                                                                                                                                                 Slovenia and Italy. She is slowly                                                        hopes to continue to develop as a

                                                    Join us for a night of quizzing and craic in the Galway
                                                                                                                                                                 working on a new collection.                                                             writer, performer and human being
                                                                                                              Venue        The Galway Arms                                                                                                                for as long as he is able.

                                                    Arms with Quiz Masters Vinnie Browne and Gerry
                                                                                                                                                                 Elaine Cosgrove’s work has been
                                                                                                              Date         Thursday 06 April
                                                                                                                                                                 published in The Stinging Fly                                                            Paul Nash studied at Trinity College
                                                    Hanberry overseeing proceedings on the night.             Time         8.00pm                                Magazine (Featured Poet, Winter
                                                                                                                                                                 2015), The Penny Dreadful, The
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Dublin, where he received a PhD
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          in modern literature and film.
                                                                                                              Price        €40 per table of four                 Bohemyth, and New Binary Press.                                                          After contract lecturing in TCD,

                                                    It promises to be a night of fun and entertainment with   (Includes a complimentary drink and finger food)   Elaine was selected for the 2017                                                         Maynooth University, and the
                                                                                                                                                                 Fifty Best New British & Irish Poets                                                     National College of Art and Design
                                                    some friendly rivalry thrown in to keep us on our toes!                                                      Anthology (Eyewear Publishing),
                                                                                                                                                                 and longlisted for the 2016 London
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          he taught in London state schools.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          He returned to Dublin during the
                                                                                                                                                                 Magazine Poetry Prize. Her debut                                                         Celtic Tiger to work in a software
                                                                                                                                                                 collection of poetry will be published                                                   company. He is also an active
                                                                                                                                                                 by Dedalus Press in 2017.                                                                songwriter and has written and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          self-published a novel Whispering
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Crates.
                                             6                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              7
23-30 April, 2017 - www.cuirt.ie - Cúirt International Festival of Literature
In Person:                                                                                                                     Seisiún na
                                             World Poets                                                                                                                    Cúirte
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             Launched at Cúirt, In Person: World Poets is an international collaboration
                                             between Bloodaxe Books and award-winning film-maker Pamela Robertson-
                                             Pearce, who worked with Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley on this sequel to In
                                             Person: 30 Poets (2008), the world’s first poetry DVD-anthology. Her style
                                                                                                                                           Venue:
                                                                                                                                           Date:
                                                                                                                                                     Nun’s Island Theatre
                                                                                                                                                     Monday 24 April
                                                                                                                                                                            Seán Tyrrell
                                             of filming combines directness and simplicity, sensitivity and warmth – the                   Time:     5.30pm

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                                                            The Cúirt session this year will celebrate musician Seán Tyrrell. Seán has been
                                             perfect combination for the intimate readings by poets from around the                                                                                                                                            Venue:    The Crane Bar
                                                                                                                                           Price:    €5                     recording music for over forty years. During the 1960s, he performed with
                                             world included in this highlights film. It’s as if the poets were sitting in a room                                            Johnny Mulhearn, Davy Graham, Rambling Jack Elliot and Paul Simon.                 Date:     Monday 24 April
                                             with you, giving informal, one-to-one readings to you in person.                                                               In 1992 he produced a traditional operatic version of Cúirt An Mheán Oíche
                                                                                                                                                                            (The Midnight Court) by Brian Merriman, which was regarded by critics as the       Time:     8.00pm
                                             This hour-long film features a selection from the nine hours of footage on In                                                  hit of Galway Arts Festival. In 1994 his first solo project Cry of a Dreamer was   Price:    €10/€8
                                             Person: World Poets. All of the poems are included in the book which comes                                                     released worldwide and voted Best Folk Album of the Year by Folk Roots and
                                             with three DVDs. The project covers poets from many parts of the world,                                                        Hotpress. He has performed at major festivals and concert halls and on TV
                                             including America, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Guyana,                                                       and radio in Ireland, England, Europe, Australia and the USA.
                                             India, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, the Netherlands,
                                             Pakistan, Poland, Romania and Sweden, as well as from Britain and Ireland.                                                     Seán will be joined by Ronan Browne, Johnny Mulherne, Liam Lewis, Steve
                                                                                                                                                                            Hanks and Fergus Feeley.
                                             Pamela Robertson-Pearce’s films include IMAGO: Meret Oppenheim (1996), winner of
                                             the Swiss Film Board’s Prize for Outstanding Quality and the Gold Apple Award at the

                                                                                                                                                                            Fregoli presents
                                             National Educational Film and Video Festival in America. Bloodaxe editor and founder
                                             Neil Astley’s many books include the Staying Alive trilogy of anthologies.

                                                                                                                                                                            Fruition: A New
                                             Book Launch:
                                                                                                                                                                            Plays Project
                                             Song of Songs                                                                                                                  Last October Fregoli Theatre released an open call for short original plays,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Venue:    Nun’s Island Theatre

                                             2.0: New & Selected
                                                                                                                                                                            five pieces from four new writers were selected. These works were selected
                                                                                                                                                                            for brilliantly conceived characters, imaginative use of language, and the         Date:     Monday 24 April
                                                                                                                                                                            potential to create a world that an audience can become immediately
                                                                                                                                                                            immersed in. We are very excited to debut the following five pieces for            Time:     8.30pm

                                             Poems by Kevin Higgins                                                                                                         performance. The performance of all five pieces is approximately 70 minutes,
                                                                                                                                                                            and suitable for those aged 14 years plus.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Price:    €10 / €8

                                                                                                                                                                            Find me in Spring                         Wristbands                               The Streets are Ours
                                             Song of Songs 2.0: New & Selected Poems is published by Salmon and                                                             by Rory O Sullivan                        by Orla McGovern                         by Robert Higgins
                                                                                                                                           Venue: The House Hotel           Billy Duffy, a 10 year old aspiring       Smuggling cans, messers and banter       Two ageing boy racers gather in
                                             includes a substantial number of new poems as well as selections from his six
                                             previous poetry collections.                                                                  Date:    Monday 24 April         hunter with an overactive                 at the gate - all part of a normal day   the car park of a local Tesco on the
                                                                                                                                                                            imagination, sees his father throw        for Jimmy and Jono, two bouncers.        evening their old friend is due to
                                             Kevin Higgins is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events in Galway. He teaches          Time:    7.30pm                  the body of a rotten deer off a cliff.    But for Jono, today is different.        return from abroad.
                                             poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre, Creative Writing at Galway Technical Institute,
                                                                                                                                           Price:   Free                    Or so he was told it was a deer.          Today is when there is no way to
                                             and is Creative Writing Director for the NUI Galway Summer School. Kevin has published                                         What repercussions can a child’s          keep a lid on it.
                                             four collections of poetry with Salmon, The Ghost In The Lobby (2014), Frightening New                                         misunderstanding bring?
                                             Furniture (2010), Time Gentlemen, Please (2008), and his best-selling first collection, The
                                             Boy With No Face (2005), which was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First                                                                                 Tick Tock
                                             Collection by an Irish poet. His poetry is discussed in The Cambridge Introduction to                                          Afterimage                                 by Orla McGovern
                                             Modern Irish Poetry and features in the generation defining anthology Identity Parade                                          by Jonathon Ryan                          A mother and daughter with a
                                             –New British and Irish Poets (Ed. Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010) and in The Hundred
                                                                                                                                                                            A window, a sink, a bookshelf, three      strained relationship. A realisation
                                             Years’ War: modern war poems (Ed. Neil Astley, Bloodaxe, April 2014). A collection of
                                             Kevin’s essays and book reviews, Mentioning The War, was published by Salmon Poetry                                            items taken for granted, three            of time. A last chance to speak in
                                             in 2012 and 2016 - The Selected Satires of Kevin Higgins was published by NuaScéalta in                                        items that dictate three characters.      between the moments.
                                             early 2016. The Stinging Fly magazine recently described Kevin as “likely the most read                                        Afterimage is a short exploration of
                                             living poet in Ireland.”                                                                                                       the small victories, the big losses and
                                                                                                                                                                            the surreality in between.
                                             8                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        9
This year Cúirt, in collaboration with the French                                               Also on Tuesday                  Conference: Found                                               Film: Un taxi mauve /
                                             Embassy and NUI, Galway, pays tribute to the
                                             memory of Michel Déon, renowned French                                                          11.00am Pop-up with Miquel       in Translation? France,                                         The Purple Taxi
                                                                                                                                             Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:
                                             writer, and resident of Tynagh, Co. Galway from                                                                                  Ireland and the legacy of                                       Venue:      An Taibhdhearc
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                                                                                                                             Bell, Book and Candle
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Date:       Tuesday 25 April
                                             the late 1960s until his death on 28 December                                                   3.00pm Pop-up with Miquel        Michel Déon                                                     Time:       4.00pm
                                             2016. In recognition of his major contribution to                                               Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:    Venue:    Moore Institute Seminar Room,
                                                                                                                                             The Dough Bros                                                                                   Price:      Free
                                             French literature, and of his generosity to NUIG,                                                                                           Hardiman Research Building, NUI Galway
                                             the Galway City Library and other local bodies,                                                 4.00pm Paul Durcan Plaque         Date:     Tuesday 25 April                                     Director: Yves Boisset. Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Fred
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Astaire, Philippe Noiret, Peter Ustinov, David Kelly, Niall
                                             the events organised for Tuesday, 25 April are                                                  Unveiling: Grattan Road

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                                                               Time:     9.30am                                               Buggy et al. Filmed in the west of Ireland in 1977, based
                                             dedicated to his memory.                                                                        4.00pm Pop-up with Miquel         Price:    Free                                                 on the 1973 novel by Michel Déon.
                                                                                                                                             Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:                                                                   The film rapidly became a point of reference for the
                                             Michel Déon                                                                                                                       To register email karen@cuirt.ie                               French vision of Ireland, like Man of Aran or The Quiet
                                                                                                                                             Sonny Molloy’s
                                             Michel Déon was born in Paris in 1919. He began studying law there in 1937, but was                                                                                                              Man. Against a backdrop of magnificent scenery and
                                             mobilised during WW2. In 1942, he remained in the free zone, returning to Paris in 1944,                                          Speakers are: Sarah Berthaud (on theoretical aspects of        local life, it recounts the drama which brings together an
                                             where he worked as a journalist and began his first novel. In the following decades he          7.00pm Placing The Word           translation), Marie Blom (on translating humour in Roddy       assortment of individuals, including the French narrator,
                                             continued to write, while frequently living abroad. From 1963 to 1968, he lived in Greece,      Exhibition Opening: Black         Doyle’s writing), Gavin Bowd (on translating Michel            who for various reasons find themselves in a remote part
                                             but eventually settled in Tynagh, Co. Galway with his wife and children. A member of            Gate Cultural Centre              Houellebecq), and Clíona Ní Ríordáin (on translating
                                             the Académie française since 1978, he is the author of more than 50 works, which have                                                                                                            of Ireland.
                                             received many prizes, among them the Prix Interallié for Les poneys sauvages (1970) and                                           Michel Déon).
                                             the Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie française for Un taxi mauve (1973).

                                             He leaves an enduring literary legacy as one of the leading voices of the ‘lost generations’                                     Book Launch:               Frédéric Vitoux
                                             of the 1930s and 1940s and as an independent observer of late twentieth-century society.                                                                    Venue: An Taibhdhearc
                                             Michel Déon est né en 1919, à Paris. En 1937 il s’inscrit en droit à Paris, mais est mobilisé
                                                                                                                                                                              Horseman, Pass by!         Date:  Tuesday 25 April
                                             au début de la deuxième guerre mondiale. Après 1942 il reste en zone sud jusqu’en 1944,
                                             puis regagne Paris où il travaille comme journaliste et prépare son premier roman. À                                             by Michel Déon, translated Time: 8.00pm
                                                                                                                                                                              by Clíona Ní Ríordáin
                                             partir de 1946 il séjourne souvent à l’étranger et publie régulièrement des romans. De
                                             1962 à 1968 il habite en Grèce, mais finit par s’installer à Tynagh, Co. Galway avec sa
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Price: €10/€8
                                             femme et leurs deux enfants. Membre de l’Académie française depuis 1978, il est l’auteur
                                             de plus de 50 ouvrages et a reçu de nombreux prix, parmi lesquels le Prix Interallié pour                                         Venue:    Aula Maxima, NUI Galway                              The reading will be in French, with translation of extracts
                                             Les poneys sauvages (1970) et le Grand prix du roman de l’Académie française pour Un                                                                                                             available, and discussion in French and English.
                                             taxi mauve (1973).                                                                                                                Date:     Tuesday 25 April
                                                                                                                                                                               Time:     2.00pm                                               French writer, novelist and essayist, Frédéric Vitoux was born in
                                             Il nous laisse un héritage littéraire de grande valeur, et est maintenant considéré comme                                                                                                        Paris in 1944. In addition to his novels and biographical writing, he
                                             l’une des voix les plus importantes des ‘générations perdues’ des années 1930 et 40.                                              Price:    Free                                                 was for many years a film critic and literary columnist. In 2001, he
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              was elected to the Académie française. His work has been widely
                                                                                                                                                                              These reflective essays about Déon’s life and experiences       translated, and has won many awards, including the Goncourt
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Prize for Biography for his Vie de Céline (1988), and the Grand Prix
                                                                                                                                                                              in the west of Ireland describe the colourful and varied        du Roman de l’Académie française for La Comédie de Terracina
                                                                                                                                                                              personalities that he came across since he and his family       (1994). Recent publications include Jours inquiets dans l’île Saint-
                                                                                                                                                                              settled there in the mid 1970s. From his friendship with        Louis (2012), Les Désengagés (2015), set in Paris in May ’68, and
                                                                                                                                                                              John McGahern and Ulick O’Connor to Tim, the sturdy             Au Rendez-vous des Mariniers (Fayard, 2016).
                                                                                                                                                                              old postman who prefers his wind-blown country round
                                                                                                                                                                              to retirement in sunny California, Horseman, Pass By! is        Frédéric Vitoux. Écrivain français, romancier et essayiste, né
                                                                                                                                                                              alive with fascinating characters and encounters.               le 19 août 1944. Longtemps critique cinématographique et
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              chroniqueur littéraire à l’hebdomadaire Le Nouvel Observateur. Élu
                                                                                                                                                                              The book launch will be accompanied by a display of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              à l’Académie française en 2001. Ses ouvrages ont été traduits en
                                                                                                                                                                              Michel Déon’s books.                                            une dizaine de langues, et ont été couronnés de nombreux prix, y
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              compris le prix Goncourt de la Biographie pour La Vie de Céline
                                                                                                                                                                              “Horseman, pass by! is filled with nostalgia, humour, colour,   (1988) et le Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie française pour La
                                                                                                                                                                               and ghosts. It is a declaration of love for Ireland”.          Comédie de Terracina (1994). Parmi ses derniers ouvrages parus :
                                                                                                                                                                               Le Magazine Littéraire                                         Jours inquiets dans l’île Saint-Louis (2012), Les Désengagés (2015)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              et Au Rendez-vous des Mariniers (Fayard, 2016).

                                             “Our lives would be all the richer if we read a
                                              Michel Déon novel”.
                                              William Boyd

                                             “Déon is an outrageous storyteller”.
                                             Times Literary Supplement

                                             10                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 11
Book Launch:
                                                                                                                                                              The Sacrificial
                                             Rise                                                                                                             Wind
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             by Elaine Feeney
                                                                                                                                                              by Lorna Shaughnessy
                                             “An absolutely extraordinary poet…
                                                                                                                                                              Directed by Max Hafler
                                             in the world of Kate Tempest meets
                                             Warsan Shire and we’ll throw in Tom                                                                              “Blame is a coin passed down from hand to hand: it

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Venue:     The Town Hall Studio
                                             McIntyre for the rural influences.                                                                                starts off hidden in the fists of powerful men”                             Date:      Tuesday 25 – Fri 28 April
                                             Brilliant.” RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena
                                                                                                                                                              This spoken word poetry performance event uses movement, rhythm,             Time:      8.00pm
                                             Elaine Feeney is an award-winning poet. She was born in Galway                                                   masks, words and music. It explores the blame game, the engine and
                                             in 1979. She has published three collections of poetry, Indiscipline                                             machinery of war, and examines our seeming helplessness in the wake of       Price:     €10/€8
                                             (Maverick Press, 2007), Where’s Katie? (Salmon Poetry, 2010) and The                                             catastrophe, through the characters surrounding the start of the Trojan
                                             Radio was Gospel (Salmon Poetry, 2013). Most recently, her work
                                             has appeared in Stonecutter Journal (US), The Wide Shore (US), The
                                                                                                                                                              War. The audience becomes judge and jury not just of the characters          Lorna Shaughnessy was born in Belfast

                                             Stinging Fly (IRE), The Manchester Review (UK), Solas Nua (US), New                                              but of themselves too. This project emerged from a section in Lorna          and lives in Co. Galway. She has published
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           three poetry collections, Torching the
                                             Writing (Canada), Pilgrimage Magazine (US) and Oxford Poetry                                                     Shaughnessy’s most recent work, Anchored, published by Salmon.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Brown River, Witness Trees and Anchored
                                             (UK). Elaine was recently commissioned by Liz Roche Company                                                                                                                                   (Salmon Poetry), and a chapbook, Song
                                             to write the poetic narrative to Wrongheaded, a feature stage                                                    The performers are Catherine Denning, Michael Irwin and Orla Tubridy.        of the Forgotten Shulamite (Lapwing). Her
                                             production accompanied by a film directed by Mary Wycherley. It                                                                                                                               work was selected for the Forward Book of
                                             premiered at the 2016 Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival. The piece is       Venue:   Bite Club
                                                                                                                                                              A post-performance discussion will take place on Thursday, 27 April.         Poetry, 2009.
                                             included in her new collection, Rise (Salmon Poetry, 2017).
                                                                                                                    Date:    Tuesday 25 April
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Max Hafler is a theatre tutor, director and
                                                                                                                    Time:    6.00pm                                                                                                        writer who now specialises primarily in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Michael Chekhov Technique and Voice. His
                                                                                                                    Price:   Free                                                                                                          book, Teaching Voice, was published by
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Nick Hern Books in 2016. He recently set up
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Chekhov Training and Performance Ireland

                                             Calasanctius
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           to make the West of Ireland a hub for the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           acting technique.

                                             College
                                             Book Launch
                                                                                                                                                               Centre for Drama, Theatre and
                                                                                                                                                               Performance, NUI Galway present

                                                                                                                                                               Consensual
                                                                                                                                                               by Evan Placey
                                             At Calasanctius College the students have come
                                                                                                                    Venue:   Calasanctius College, Oranmore
                                             together to launch their annual book, a collection of their
                                             skills, talents, and creative ability. Here you will find fact         Date:    Tuesday 25 April
                                             and fiction, art and photography, poetry and opinion.
                                                                                                                    Time:    7.00pm
                                             Our book explores the experiences of adolescents as
                                             they move towards adulthood. These young artists bring                 Price:   Free                             An explosive play that explores what happens when buried secrets catch up    Venue      Nun’s Island Theatre
                                             a clarity and freshness to familiar artistic forms that must                                                     with you. Diane, Head of Year 11, hasn’t seen Freddie since that night six
                                             be seen to be believed.                                                                                          years earlier when he was fifteen. She thinks he took advantage of her. He   Date       Tuesday 25 - Sat 29 April
                                                                                                                                                              thinks she groomed him for months. Neither is sure. But when it comes to
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Time       8.00pm
                                             Music, art and readings will complement each other                                                               sex and consent, are there really any blurred lines?
                                             in a fantastic evening of creativity, refreshments and                                                                                                                                        Price      €14/€12
                                             entertainment.                                                                                                   Directed by Andrew Flynn.

                                             12                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    13
Also on Wednesday
                                             11.00am Pop-up with Miquel
                                                                                     Cúirt/                                                                                ROPES
                                                                                     Over the Edge                                                                         Launch
                                             Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             Hewlett Packard Enterprise

                                                                                     New Writing
                                             11.00am Reading & Discussion with
                                             Michael Winter: Ballybane Library                                                                                             ROPES is a Literary and Arts Journal produced solely by the students of the    Venue:   Town Hall Theatre Bar
                                                                                                                                                                           Masters in Literature and Publishing at NUI Galway. Launching at Cúirt, all
                                             12.00pm Kitchen Reading with                                                                                                  proceeds will be in aid of Pieta House, a nationwide charity that focuses on   Date:    Wednesday, 26 April

                                                                                     Showcase
                                             Alan McMonagle & Kerrie                                                                                                       helping those dealing with issues such as suicide and self-harm.  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Time:    5.00pm
                                             O’Brien: Tuam

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                                                           The theme of this year’s publication is ‘Silence’ and features work from       Price:   Free
                                                                                                                                                                           writers such as Brian Leyden and Kevin Higgins. ROPES 2017 also contains an
                                             12.00pm Kitchen Reading with
                                                                                                                                                                           array of exciting art, photography, prose, poetry and drama from new and up
                                             Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan & Pete
                                                                                                                                                                           and coming artists and writers.  
                                             Mullineaux: Ballinasloe                 Highlighting emerging talent in
                                                                                     poetry and fiction, The New Writing       Venue: Town Hall Theatre
                                             1.00pm Little John Nee Plaque           Showcase features readers and             Date:     Wednesday 26 April
                                             Unveiling: Threadneedle Road            winners from the popular Over the
                                                                                     Edge Literary Series in Galway and        Time:     3.00pm
                                             3.00pm Pop-up with Miquel               the 2017 Cúirt New Writing Prize.         Price:    Free
                                             Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:          This event is a firm favourite amongst
                                             Sheridans Cheesemongers                 Cúirt audiences, and one not to be
                                                                                     missed. Winners of the 2017 Cúirt New Writing Prize (to be announced on
                                             4.00pm Pop-up with Miquel               www.cuirt.ie) will join the showcase line-up to read their winning entries.
                                             Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:                                                                                                Anam Theatre presents

                                                                                                                                                                           PERSONA
                                                                                                                            Rena Garrett is a graduate of the MA
                                             Dock 1 Seafood Bar & Restaurant                                                in Writing from NUI Galway. She has
                                                                                                                            participated in poetry workshops at Galway
                                             8.00pm The Sacrificial Wind:                                                   Arts Centre. Her poetry has been published
                                             Town Hall Theatre Studio                                                       in The Moth Magazine, and Spontaneity.
                                                                                                                            org and was shortlisted for the Galway
                                                                                                                            Rape Crisis Centre Short Story Competition
                                             8.00pm Consensual:                                                             2016. Rena was a Featured Reader at the
                                             Nun’s Island Theatre                                                           August 2016 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

                                             Joyce’s                                                                        Eileen P Keane is from North Connemara,

                                             Love Letters
                                                                                                                            Co. Galway. She has completed the MA in
                                                                                                                            Writing at NUI Galway. Eileen has written
                                                                                                                            and performed for theatre and stage and her

                                             to Nora
                                                                                                                            CD Spaces was released in 2014. She writes
                                                                                                                            poetry, memoir and non-fiction. Her poems
                                                                                                                            appear in the latest edition of The Galway
                                             Venue     Tigh Nora, Cross St.                                                 Review and her Flash Fiction was shortlisted
                                                                                                                                                                           To be or not to be, that is the question…
                                                                                                                            for Allingham Festival 2015. Eileen was a                                                                                     Venue    Nun’s Island Theatre
                                             Date      Wed 26 to Friday 28 April                                            Featured Reader at the March 2016 Over The
                                                                                                                            Edge: Open Reading.                            When the outside world and her roles within it become too much to bear,        Date     Wed 26 to Friday 28 April
                                             Time      3.00pm                                                                                                              actress Elizabeth Harker ceases to speak and move. Declared physically and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Time     6.00pm
                                             Price     Free                                                                                                                mentally sound, she is sent to her doctor’s seaside cottage where she is
                                                                                                                                                                           looked after by Alma. A close and complex relationship develops between        Price    €10/€8
                                             Approximately 20 minutes duration                                              Una Mannion teaches Performing Arts            the two women which crosses the bounds of sanity, identity and reality.
                                                                                                                            in IT Sligo. In March 2016, her poetry
                                             A theatrical reading of James Joyce’s                                          was published in the New Irish Writing         This work-in-progress adaption from Anam Theatre explores transposing the
                                             love letters to Nora Barnacle.                                                 page in The Irish Times and her fiction        famously disintegrative form of Ingmar Bergman’s radical, minimalist classic
                                                                                                                            was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing
                                                                                                                            Prize. She won the Yeats’ Society’s Seamus
                                                                                                                                                                           from the cinema to theatre and pursues its urgent question of whether it is
                                             When the young Joyce met Nora                                                                                                 possible to cease to be without ceasing to live.
                                                                                                                            Heaney Prize and came second place
                                             in 1904 it marked the beginning of                                             in Dromineer Flash Fiction 2015. She has
                                             a long relationship that eventually                                            been shortlisted in the Listowel, Bridport,    Adapted by Sarah O’Toole from Ingmar Bergman’s 1965 screenplay
                                             led to marriage and continued                                                  Fish Memoir and other competitions. She        Design by Elaine Mears
                                             until Joyce’s death. Joyce’s love                                              recently completed an MA in Writing at NUI
                                             letters give an insight into this                                              Galway. She lives in Sligo with her husband
                                             intense, intimate and often inspiring                                          and three children. Una was a Featured
                                                                                                                            Reader at the May 2016 Over The Edge:
                                             relationship.
                                                                                                                            Open Reading.  
                                             14                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            15
David Butler,                                                                                                  Martina Evans,
                                             Yrsa Daley-Ward                                                                                                Vona Groarke &
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             & Kerrie O’Brien                                                                                               Mary O’Malley
                                                                                                                                                            Venue:   Town Hall Theatre
                                             Venue   Town Hall Theatre

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                                            Date:    Wednesday 26 April
                                             Date    Wednesday 26 April
                                                                                                                                                            Time:    8.30pm
                                             Time    6.30pm
                                                                                                                                                            Price:   €16/€13
                                             Price   €10/8

                                                                          David Butler is a novelist, poet and playwright. His most recent novel City of                                  Martina Evans was born in County Cork and has lived in London for 28 years.
                                                                          Dis (New Island) was shortlisted for the 2015 Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award.                                  She is a poet and novelist, the author of eleven books of prose and poetry.
                                                                          In 2016 David received a Per Cent Literary Arts Commission to compose                                           Her awards include the Premio Ciampi International Prize for Poetry. Burnfort
                                                                          a poetry sequence for Blackrock Library. Literary prizes include the Fish                                       Las Vegas was short-listed for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2015. The
                                                                          Short Story contest, Poetry Ireland’s Ted McNulty prize, and the Brendan                                        Windows of Graceland: New and Selected Poems was published by Carcanet
                                                                          Kennelly award for poetry. All the Barbaric Glass, David’s second poetry                                        in July 2016.
                                                                          collection, was published by Doire press in March. All the Barbaric Glass
                                                                          consists of poems written over a five-year period which interrogate nature                                      “I work mainly with dramatic monologues
                                                                          —specifically the sea — in order to broach such perennial human concerns as                                      as I am interested in the human voice as an
                                                                          ageing, loss and love, as well as the prevalence of social media with its (mis)
                                                                          representations of the contemporary world.                                                                       instrument. Working with memory, history and
                                                                                                                                                                                           dreams, I am interested in creating cinematic
                                                                          Kerrie O’ Brien is a writer from Dublin. She has won multiple awards for her
                                                                          poetry and prose and featured in Miscellany, RTÉ Arena, The Stinging Fly,                                        effects.”
                                                                          Poetry Ireland Introductions Series, Cyphers, The Irish Times and Hennessy
                                                                          New Irish Writing among others. She was the Editor of Looking At The Stars,                                     Vona Groarke has published ten titles with Gallery Press, including seven
                                                                          an anthology of Irish writing which raised over €21,000 for the Dublin Simon                                    poetry collections, the latest being Selected Poems (2016). Her most recent
                                                                          Community. She has given talks on art and poetry in the National Gallery                                        publication is a book-length essay on art frames, Four Sides Full, which
                                                                          of Ireland and has spoken about literary activism in universities and literary                                  was the Book on One on RTÉ Radio 1 in January 2017. Her poems have
                                                                          festivals. Illuminate is her debut collection of poetry and was made possible                                   recently appeared in The New Yorker, Threepenny Review, The Guardian and
                                                                          by a literature bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland. It was chosen as a                                    Poetry Review. A former editor of Poetry Ireland Review, current selector
                                                                          New Statesman Book of the Year by Sebastian Barry and an Irish Times Book                                       for the UK’s Poetry Book Society and a member of Aosdána, she
                                                                          of the Year by Joseph O’ Connor.                                                                                teaches poetry in the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester.

                                                                          “My poems are raw and powerful reflections on                                                                   Mary O’Malley was born in Connemara. She served on the council of Poetry
                                                                           lineage, faith and love which explore the concept                                                              Ireland and was on the Committee of Cúirt International Poetry Festival
                                                                                                                                                                                          for eight years. She has published seven books of poetry, the most recent
                                                                           of oneness and the transcendent nature of art and                                                              Valparaiso arising out of her residency on the national marine research
                                                                           creativity.”                                                                                                   ship. Playing the Octopus is her latest book of poems. She is working on
                                                                                                                                                                                          a memoir of childhood, as well as essays on place. She is a member of
                                                                          Yrsa Daley-Ward is an actor, writer and poet of mixed West Indian and West                                      Aosdána and has won a number of awards for her poetry. She writes for
                                                                          African heritage, born and raised in Lancashire and now living in London.                                       RTE Radio and broadcasts her work regularly. She was the 2016 Arts Council
                                                                          Drawing heavily on her own experiences, Yrsa interweaves each discipline to                                     Writer-in- Residence at University of Limerick.
                                                                          fuse poetry with theatre, music and storytelling and has been writing for as
                                                                          long as she can remember. Her debut collection of poetry and prose, bone,
                                                                          is available on Amazon. Yrsa has performed her work at several theatre and
                                                                          performance spaces in London including the Soho and Lyric theatre, Rich Mix
                                                                          and the Albany. Her poetry has also been exhibited at the Tate Modern. She
                                                                          has worked in South Africa in conjunction with The British Council in Cape
                                                                          Town and Johannesburg.

                                             16                           “I tell stories. Some tall, some dark.”                                                                                                                                                   17
Also on Thursday
                                             10.00am Poetry workshop with      Songs from a                                                               Merlin Coverley
                                                                               Room: Sive                                                                 & Michael Winter
                                             Martina Evans: Hotel Meyrick
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             11.00am Pop-up with Miquel
                                             Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:
                                             Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop           Sive is a songwriter and multi-                                           Merlin Coverley is the author of six books: London
                                                                                instrumentalist with a voice that     Venue:   The King’s Head            Writing, Psychogeography, Occult London,
                                             12.30pm Lindsay J. Sedgwick       “sweeps along displaying folk and      Date:    Thursday 27 April          Utopia, The Art of Wandering, and South. He lives in
                                             on Writing for TV & Film: GMIT     jazz influences with the confidence                                       London. Moving between geography and mythology,
                                             CCAM                               of one who knows.” Her unique         Time:    1.00pm                     literature and history, South is the first book to look

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                sound weaves together her love for                                        at all things Southern in one volume. It examines the
                                                                                                                      Price:   €10/€8
                                             1.30pm Screenwriting workshop      the craft of song writing with her                                        South as a symbol of freedom and escape, the South
                                             with Lyndsay Sedgwick: GMIT        enthusiasm for experimentation and                                        as the location of Northern visions of Utopia, and the
                                             CCAM                               intricate arrangements.                                                   South as the imagined site of decadence, poverty and
                                                                                                                                                          backwardness. From Tahiti to the streets of Peckham,
                                             2.00pm Pop-up with Miquel         Sive released her debut album to critical acclaim in 2012 and since then   from Naples to New Orleans, Merlin Coverley’s brilliant
                                             Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:    has toured extensively across Ireland, The UK, Europe and New Zealand,     and wide-ranging study throws light on how and why the
                                             Galway University Hospital        sharing stages with the likes of Kila, Mick Flannery, John Spillane and    idea of the South, in all its forms, has come to exert such
                                                                               Gemma Hayes. Her second album The Roaring Girl will be released in         a powerful hold on our imaginations.
                                             3.00pm Joyce’s letters to Nora:   April.
                                             Tigh Nora                                                                                                    “My work explores the relationship
                                                                               “Keeps the toes tapping and both ears alert.                                between places, both real and                                Venue: Town Hall Theatre
                                             4.00pm Pop-up with Miquel
                                             Barceló & Sarah Maria Griffin:
                                                                                Brilliant stuff. Sive is a real find.”                                     imagined, and those who write about                          Date:   Thursday 27 April
                                                                               Jackie Hayden, Hot Press
                                             Tigh Neachtain                                                                                                                                                             Time    1.00 pm
                                                                                                                                                           them, especially in respect to my own
                                                                                                                                                           city, London. I am also interested in                        Price   €10/€8
                                             6.00pm Persona:
                                             Nun’s Island Theatre                                                                                          the relationship between walking and
                                             6.00pm Sports Writing workshop                                                                                writing, and in the literary tradition                       Michael Winter has published two collections of stories,
                                             with Gerard Siggins: Hotel                                                                                    which this has inspired.”                                    five novels, and one work of non-fiction. He has won
                                             Meyrick                                                                                                                                                                    the CBC short story contest and is the only writer ever
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        to win the Notable Author award, conferred by the
                                             8.00pm The Sacrificial Wind:                                                                                                                                               Writers Trust. His novel Minister Without Portfolio was a
                                             Town Hall Theatre Studio                                                                                                                                                   Canada Reads finalist and he’s been twice nominated for
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        the Giller Prize. His most recent book, Into the Blizzard,
                                             8.00pm Consensual:                                                                                                                                                         sets out to retrace the steps of the Newfoundland
                                             Nun’s Island Theatre                                                                                                                                                       Regiment during the First World War. He divides his time
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        between Toronto and Newfoundland.
                                             10.00pm Festival Club:
                                             Hotel Meyrick                                                                                                                                                              “In June a few years ago I set out to
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         visit some of the World War One
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         battlefields of Europe – the slope
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         and valley and river and plain that
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         the Newfoundland Regiment trained
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         on, and fought over and through and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         under.”  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Part unconventional history, part memoir-travelogue,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        part philosophical inquiry, Michael Winter uniquely
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        captures the extraordinary lives and landscapes, both
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        in Europe and at home, scarred by a war that is just
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        now disappearing from living memory. In subtle and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        surprising ways, he also tells the hidden story of the very
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        act of remembering – of how the past bleeds into the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        present and the present corrals and shapes the past.

                                             18                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  19
Oisín Fagan &                                                                                                   Jami Attenberg, Sinéad
                                             Ross Raisin                                                                                                     Gleeson & Cheryl Tan
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             Oisín Fagan is a writer and activist. He has previously been published in The      Venue: Galway Arts Centre    Jami Attenberg is The New York Times best-selling author of five novels,        Venue:    Town Hall Theatre
                                             Stinging Fly, New Planet Cabaret and Young Irelanders and his work has                                          including The Middlesteins and Saint Mazie. She has contributed essays
                                             featured at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. In 2016, he won the inaugural          Date:    Thursday 27 April   about sex, urban life, and food to The New York Times Magazine, The             Date:     Thursday 27 April
                                             Penny Dreadful Novella Prize for The Hierophants. Hostages, published by                                        Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and Lenny Letter. She lives in Brooklyn,
                                                                                                                                Time:    5.00pm                                                                                              Time:     6.30pm
                                             New Island, is his first collection. He is a recipient of the Literature Bursary                                New York.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                www.cuirt.ie
                                             Award from the Arts Council of Ireland.                                            Price:   €10/€8                                                                                              Price:    €10/€8
                                                                                                                                                             Powerfully intelligent and wickedly funny, All Grown Up delves into the
                                                                                                                                                             psyche of a flawed but mesmerising character. Readers will recognise
                                             “The stories in Hostages are blends of histories,                                                               themselves in Jami Attenberg’s truthful account of what it means to be a
                                              mythologies, revolutions, science fictions and                                                                 21st century woman, though they might not always want to admit it.
                                              mysteries, all concerned with the possibility of                                                                                                                                               “My books explore the
                                                                                                                                                             Sinéad Gleeson’s essays have appeared in Granta, Banshee, Winter Papers,         intimate folkways and
                                              communities to bring about change, and the ability                                                             gorse and Autumn. Her short story ‘Counting Bridges’ was longlisted at
                                              of normal people to care for others under extreme                                                              the 2016 Irish Book Awards. In 2015, she edited The Long Gaze Back: an           rhythms of Singapore,
                                                                                                                                                             Anthology of Irish Women Writers, which won Best Irish Published Book at         where I grew up, with a
                                              circumstances.”                                                                                                the 2015 Irish Book Awards, and in 2016, The Glass Shore: Short Stories by
                                                                                                                                                             Women Writers from the North of Ireland, which won in the same category.         focus on the collision of
                                             Ross Raisin was born in 1979 in West Yorkshire. His first novel, God’s Own                                      She is currently working on a collection of non-fiction and also a novel. She    old traditions and heady
                                             Country was published in 2008 and was shortlisted for nine literary awards,                                     presents The Book Show on RTE Radio 1.
                                             including the Guardian First Book Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.                                                                                                                       modern materialism,
                                             In 2009 Ross Raisin was named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year.                                        Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan is a New York-based journalist and author of the new          post-colonial gender
                                             In 2013 he was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British writers. He                                    novel Sarong Party Girls, which was named one of Amazon’s 10 “Best Books
                                             lives in London. A Natural delves into the heart of a professional football                                     of the Month” for July 2016. A native of Singapore, she also wrote A Tiger       and racial politics, as well
                                             club: the pressure, the loneliness, the threat of scandal, the fragility of the                                 In The Kitchen: A Memoir of Food & Family, and was editor of the fiction         as the traditional role
                                             body and the struggle, on and off the pitch, with conforming to the person                                      anthology Singapore Noir. She was a staff writer at The Wall Street Journal,
                                             that everybody else expects you to be.                                                                          In Style magazine and Baltimore Sun. Her stories have also appeared in The       of women -- specifically
                                                                                                                                                             New York Times and The Paris Review.                                             Asian women -- in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              society and how that is
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              changing.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

                                             20                                                                                                                                                                                                                            21
Spoken Word                                                                                           Ó Íochtar Mara -
                                             Platform                                                                                              Saothar Chaitlín Maude
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                                                                                                                                                  Venue       Ionad Cultúrtha an
                                             This exciting, high-energy event will showcase both poetry and short      Venue   The King’s Head                    Phiarsaigh, Rosmuc, Co. na Gaillimhe
                                             fiction. Performers will have up to three minutes to present their
                                             piece to a panel of three judges with MC Pete Mullineaux overseeing       Date    Thursday 27 April                  Date        Thursday 27 April
                                             proceedings. The top three participants will go on to perform at the

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                       Time    6.30pm                             Time        7.00pm
                                             Cúirt Showcase at Electric Picnic in September.
                                                                                                                       Price   €6                                 Price       €10/€8
                                             Guest Performer to be announced.
                                                                                                                                                                  Ba dhuine de phríomhfhilí a linne í
                                             Open submissions are invited for the Spoken Word Platform and entry is
                                                                                                                                                                  Caitlín Maude (1941 -1982), chomh
                                             open to all. Your poem or fiction piece should take up to three minutes
                                                                                                                                                                  maith le bheith ina hamhránaí sean-
                                             to perform.
                                                                                                                                                                  nóis, drámadóir, aisteoir, scríbhneoir,
                                                                                                                                                                  oideachasóir agus gníomhaí polaitiúil.
                                             Please submit to:
                                                                                                                                                                  Déanann an taibheoir Caitríona Ní
                                             Spoken Word Platform,
                                                                                                                                                                  Chonaola míreanna as prós, filíocht
                                             Galway Arts Centre,
                                                                                                                                                                  agus amhráin Chaitlín a chur i láthair
                                             47 Dominick Street,
                                                                                                                                                                  ag 7pm Déardaoin 27 Aibreán 2017
                                             Galway
                                                                                                                                                                  in Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh, Ros
                                             or email petemullineaux@gmail.com by Thursday, 13 April.
                                                                                                                                                                  Muc.

                                                                                                                                                                  *Is i nGaeilge ar fad a bheidh an
                                                                                                                                                                  taispeántas seo. (This event is in the Irish
                                                                                                                                                                  language.)

                                                                                                                                                   No
                                                                                                                                                   Childhood
                                                                                                                                                   Back in our
                                                                                                                                                   Day            Venue:
                                                                                                                                                                  Date:
                                                                                                                                                                              Róisín Dubh (upstairs)
                                                                                                                                                                              Thursday 27 April
                                                                                                                                                                  Time:       10.00pm
                                                                                                                                                                  Price:      €10/€8

                                                                                                                                                                  An evening of song, poetry, social
                                                                                                                                                                  history and tall tales with Seamus
                                                                                                                                                                  Ruttledge, Martina Evans, Sarah-
                                                                                                                                                                  Anne Buckley, Conor Montague and
                                                                                                                                                                  special guests.

                                                                                                                                                                  Tickets are available from the Town
                                                                                                                                                                  Hall Theatre or www.roisindubh.net

                                             22                                                                                                                                                              23
John Boyne &
                                             Kit de Waal
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             “Long before we discovered that he had fathered                                                                  A brother chosen. A brother left behind. And a
                                                                                                                                  Venue: Town Hall Theatre
                                              two children by two different women, one                                                                        family where you’d least expect to find one.
                                                                                                                                  Date:   Thursday 27 April
                                              in Drimoleague and one in Clonakilty, Father James                                                              Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                  Time    8.30pm
                                              Monroe stood on the altar of the Church of Our                                                                  gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly
                                                                                                                                  Price   €16/€13             like Father Christmas. But the adults are speaking in low voices, and
                                              Lady, Star of the Sea, in the parish of Goleen, West                                                            wearing Pretend faces. They are threatening to give Jake to strangers. Since
                                              Cork, and denounced my mother as a whore”.                                                                      Jake is white and Leon is not.

                                             Cyril Avery is not a real Avery, or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell                               Evoking a Britain of the early eighties, My Name is Leon is a heart-breaking
                                             him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?                                         story of love, identity and learning to overcome unbearable loss. Of the
                                             At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, and struggling with his sexuality at                                    fierce bond between siblings. And how - just when we least expect it - we
                                             a time where to be gay was to be a pariah, he will spend a lifetime coming to                                    manage to find our way home.
                                             know himself and where he came from – and over his three score years and
                                             ten will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.                                      Kit de Waal writes about forgotten and overlooked places, where the best
                                                                                                                                                              stories are found. Her debut novel My Name is Leon, a heart-breaking
                                             John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971. He is the author of ten novels for                                       story of love and identity, is a Times and international bestseller, and was
                                             adults, five for young readers and a collection of short stories. Perhaps                                        shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. Her prize-winning flash fiction
                                             best known for his 2006 multi-award-winning book The Boy in the Striped                                          and short stories appear in various anthologies. In 2016 she founded the Kit
                                             Pyjamas, John’s other novels, notably The Absolutist and A History of                                            de Waal Scholarship at Birkbeck University.
                                             Loneliness, have been widely praised and are international bestsellers. In
                                             2015, John chaired the panel for the Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious
                                             literary award. The Heart’s Invisible Furies is his most ambitious novel yet.

                                             24                                                                                                                                                                                              25
Also on Friday
                                             10.00am Fiction workshop with
                                                                                  Launch Poems                                                                 Songs from a
                                                                                  for Patience                                                                 Room:
                                             Jami Attenberg: Hotel Meyrick
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             12.00am Pop-up with Miquel
                                             Barceló & Stephen Burt:
                                             McDonagh’s Fish & Chip shop
                                                                                  Venue:    University Hospital, Galway                                        Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola
                                             12.00pm Kitchen Reading with         Date:     Friday 28 April                                                    Lasairfhíona (pronounced Lah-sah-reena) is a singer/songwriter
                                             Damon Galgut, Theresa Muñoz &                                                                                                                                                                 Venue:   The King’s Head
                                                                                  Time:     11.00am                                                            from Inis Oírr, the Aran Islands in the West of Ireland. Her debut
                                             Jacob Polley: Galway City

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                                               album An Raicín Álainn (pronounced An Rackeen Ah-lyn) generated a           Date:    Friday 28 April
                                                                                  Price:    Free                                                               very favourable response in Ireland and abroad. It was selected by Hot
                                             1.00pm Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, writing                                                                                Press music magazine as one of the best folk albums of 2002. Her second     Time:    1.00pm
                                             on Food: GMIT Library                Poems for Patience is a long running programme established by Galway         solo album released in 2005 appropriately called Flame of Wine, a literal   Price:   €10/€8
                                                                                  University Hospitals Arts Trust in which poems are displayed on the Arts     translation of her name, was also very well received. Tracks from the
                                             2.00pm Pop-up with Miquel            corridor of the hospital and in waiting areas throughout the hospital and    album were used on the award-winning BBC programme Coast. Her new
                                             Barceló & Mary O’Malley:             associated hospital units.                                                   album One Penny Portion demonstrates Lasairfhíona’s rare ability to sing
                                             Galway City Library                                                                                               songs from an ancient Gaelic tradition while being equally at home with
                                                                                  In the past, the series has featured poems by leading Irish and              contemporary songs.
                                             3.00pm Joyce’s letters to Nora:      international poets such as Seamus Heaney, Vona Groarke, Jane
                                             Tigh Nora                            Hirschfield and Colette Bryce.

                                                                                  Since 2013 Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust runs an annual poetry      ‘’One Penny Portion is a vibrant and subtle return of
                                             4.00pm Pop-up with Miquel
                                                                                  competition. The 2017 winner will be introduced at the launch and will        a major song stylist.’’  
                                             Barceló & Mary O’Malley:
                                                                                  read their winning poem.                                                      fRoots Music Magazine
                                             The Quay’s Pub

                                             6.00pm Persona:                      ‘It is great to be able to stop for a minute and                             ‘’A pure breath of everything that is beautiful about
                                             Nun’s Island Theatre
                                                                                   forget everything and share in a silent way with the                         Ireland.”
                                                                                   world’                                                                       BBC Folk & Acoustic Reviews  
                                             8.00pm The Sacrificial Wind:
                                             Town Hall Theatre Studio
                                                                                  ‘Wonderful collection to ease the mind of even
                                             8.00pm Consensual:
                                             Nun’s Island Theatre                  the most impatient patient!’’
                                                                                  This year’s selection has been chosen by Yrsa Daly-Ward.
                                             10.00pm Festival Club:
                                             Hotel Meyrick
                                                                                  Yrsa Daley-Ward is a poet, actor and writer. Drawing heavily on her own
                                                                                  experiences, Yrsa interweaves each discipline to fuse poetry with theatre,
                                                                                  music and storytelling and has been writing for as long as she can
                                                                                  remember. Her debut collection of poetry and prose, bone, is available
                                                                                  on Amazon.

                                             26                                                                                                                                                                                                                       27
Pete                                                                                 Venue:
                                                                                                                                  Date:
                                                                                                                                           Town Hall Theatre
                                                                                                                                           Friday 28 April     Début
                                             Mullineaux,                                                                                                       Panel
                                                                                                                                  Time:    1.00pm
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                                                                                                                  Price:   €10/€8

                                             Mark Wagenaar                                                                                                      Venue
                                                                                                                                                                Date
                                                                                                                                                                          Town Hall Theatre
                                                                                                                                                                          Friday 28 April

                                             & William Wall                                                                                                     Time      3.00pm

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    www.cuirt.ie
                                                                                                                                                                Price     €10/€8

                                             Originally from Bristol UK, Pete Mullineaux now lives in Galway and
                                             works in development education. His first published poem, aged 13,                                                                           Paula Cocozza is a staff feature     Roisín O’Donnell was born in
                                             was recorded on an album along with music by Ewan MacColl and                                                                                writer at The Guardian and has       Sheffield with family roots in
                                             Peggy Seeger. He has been featured on RTE’s Arena and published                                                                              covered everything from soccer       Derry. Her stories have been
                                             widely in Ireland, UK, USA as well as Spain, France, Japan & India. His                                                                      to fashion to fourth-wave            anthologised in The Long Gaze
                                             four collections are: Zen Traffic Lights (Lapwing 2005) A Father’s Day (Salmon                                                               feminism. Her writing, which         Back, Fugue, Young Irelanders,
                                             Poetry 2008) Session (Salmon 2011) and most recently, How to Bake a                                                                          has also appeared in Vogue,          Unthology and The Glass Shore.
                                             Planet (Salmon 2016).                                                                                                                        The Telegraph, the Independent,      She has been shortlisted for
                                                                                                                                                                                          and the TLS, received the            several international prizes,
                                             “Pete Mullineaux’s poetry merges the personal and the global,                                                                                2013 David Higham Award.             such as the Cúirt New Writing
                                             while music and visual art are also recurring themes. Wry and philosophical,                                                                 Paula lives in London with her       Prize, the Pushcart Prize,
                                             his work has been described by various reviewers as ‘tender & lyrical’,                                            husband, two children, and a garden full of foxes. How         the Forward Prize, and the
                                             ‘gorgeous and resonant’, ‘grimly funny’ and comparisons made with Brian                                            to Be Human is her first novel.                                Brighton Prize. Wild Quiet is
                                             Patten, Roger McGough and John Cooper-Clarke.”                                                                                                                                    her first collection.
                                                                                                                                                                                           Lisa Harding completed an
                                             Mark Wagenaar is the winner of the 2015 CBC Poetry Prize and the 2016                                                                         MPhil in Creative Writing at        Amanda Reynolds teaches
                                             winner of Red Hen Press’ Benjamin Saltman Prize, for his forthcoming book                                                                    Trinity College. Her stories         Creative Writing in Cheltenham,
                                             Southern Tongues Leave Us Shining. His first two books, The Body Distances                                                                    have been published in The          where she lives with her family.
                                             (A Hundred Blackbirds Rising), and Voodoo Inverso, won UMass Press’                                                                          Dublin Review and The Bath           Close To Me is her debut novel.
                                             Juniper Prize & U of Wisconsin Press’ Pollak Prize, respectively. His poems                                                                  Short Story Anthology. She
                                             have appeared in or are forthcoming from The New Yorker, 32 Poems, Field,                                                                     has just been awarded a            “Close To Me is a gripping
                                             Southern Review, Image, & many others. He holds a PhD in English Literature                                                                   DLR Professional Development        psychological thriller about
                                             from the University of North Texas & an MFA from the University of Virginia,                                                                 Arts grant for her prose writing.    secrets and lies, an incredibly
                                             and this year he is serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Valparaiso                                                                  Harvesting is her first novel and    accomplished debut novel with
                                             University.                                                                                                        was inspired by her involvement with a campaign against        a quality of prose that will keep
                                                                                                                                                                sex trafficking run by the Children’s Rights Alliance.         the reader gripped from the
                                             “Mark Wagenaar’s poems are brimful of the world, generous, fluid, packed                                                                                                          first page.”
                                             with an avid music, with praise and astonishment. In poem after poem,                                              Alan McMonagle has written for radio, published two
                                             Wagenaar renders a sense of ‘a still life with everything in the world,’ not in an                                 collections of short stories, and contributed to many          Rhea Boyden (Chair) has
                                             attempt to freeze-frame the moment but in order to register everything in the                                      journals in Ireland and North America. Ithaca is his first     been published in the Irish
                                             moment, in all its registers, as the moment passes.”                                                               novel.                                                         Times Magazine and had her
                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Documenta Art Show review
                                             William Wall is the author of four novels, including This is the Country,                                         “Compelling from start to finish. Read it.”                     published in Roll Magazine,
                                             longlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize; three collections of poetry; and                                         Patrick McCabe		                                               New York. She is currently
                                             two volumes of short stories, including his latest, Hearing Voices/Seeing                                                                                                         collaborating with PHEVER.
                                             Things (Doire Press). His work has won and been shortlisted for many prizes                                       ‘‘Right from its remarkable opening sentence, this              ie TV-Radio in Dublin on
                                             including The Virginia Faulkner Award, The Patrick Kavanagh Award, the                                              extraordinary debut had me hooked. A fierce, funny, on-       various projects including the
                                             National Book Award and the Hennessy Award. His work has been translated                                            its-own-terms, beautiful, heartbreaker of a novel.”           upcoming Irish Electronic Music
                                             into many languages including Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Latvian. He                                          Joseph O’Connor                                               Awards 2017.
                                             is the 2017 winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and the only European
                                             recipient of the award.

                                             “The stories in Hearing Voices/Seeing Things are inspired by overheard
                                             conversations, chance phrases, isolated encounters and each story is a
                                             brief, intense, confessional moment in a character’s life. These are stories of
                                             ordinary people coping with an extraordinary world, a little lost and uncertain
                                             of their future.”

                                             28                                                                                                                                                                                                                29
Conor O’Callaghan                                                                                                Damon Galgut
                                             & A.L. Kennedy                                                                                                   & Eimear McBride
Cúirt International Festival of Literature

                                             Conor O’Callaghan is from Newry           A.L. Kennedy is the author of 18                                        Damon Galgut was born in 1963 in        Eimear McBride grew up in the
                                                                                                                                Venue:   Town Hall Theatre                                                                                      Venue: Town Hall Theatre
                                             in County Down, and now lives in          books: 6 literary novels, 1 science                                     Pretoria, South Africa, and published   west of Ireland and studied acting
                                             Manchester. He has published four         fiction novel, one storybook for         Date:    Friday 28 April       his first novel when he was 17 years    at Drama Centre London. Her debut        Date    Friday 28 April
                                             acclaimed poetry collections: The         children, 7 short story collections                                     old. In total he has published 8        novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing
                                                                                                                                Time:    6.30pm                                                                                                 Time    8.30pm
                                             History of Rain (1993); Seatown           and 3 works of non-fiction. She                                         books, which have won and been          took nine years to publish and

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         www.cuirt.ie
                                             (1999); Fiction (2005); and The Sun       was included in the Granta Best          Price:   €10/€8                shortlisted for numerous awards,        subsequently received the Bailey’s       Price   €16/€13
                                             King (2013). He also wrote the non-       of Young British Novelists list on                                      including two shortlistings for the     Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kerry
                                             fiction book Red Mist: Roy Keane          two occasions and has won various                                       Man Booker Prize. He currently lives    Group Irish Novel of the Year, the       The writers
                                             and the Football Civil War (2004).        awards in various countries including                                   in Cape Town.                           Goldsmiths Prize, Desmond Elliot         will be
                                             He lectures at Sheffield Hallam           the 2007 Costa Award and the 2016                                                                               Prize and the Geoffrey Faber             interviewed by
                                             University in the UK and at Wake          Heinrich Heine Preis. Her prose is                                     “Damon Galgut’s work covers a variety    Memorial Prize. Her short fiction        JP O’ Malley,
                                             Forest University in North Carolina.      published in a number of languages.                                     of themes and subjects, ranging from    has appeared in Dubliners 100, The       a freelance
                                             Nothing on Earth is his first novel.      She is also a dramatist for stage,                                      the personal to the political. He is    Long Gaze Back and on Radio 4. She       journalist,
                                                                                       TV, film and radio. She is an essayist                                  fascinated by isolated individuals at   occasionally reviews for the Guardian,   cultural critic,
                                             It was a time when nobody called.         and commentator in various UK and                                       odds with history and themselves,       TLS, New Statesman and New York          and events
                                             Early evening, the hottest August         European publications and regularly                                     often trapped in moral quandaries to    Times Book Review.                       curator,
                                             in living memory. A frightened girl       reads her work on BBC radio. She                                        which there is no clear solution. ”                                              presently
                                             bangs on a door. A man answers.           occasionally writes and performs one                                                                            “My writing is about finding ways to     based in Budapest. He writes on
                                             From the moment he invites her            person shows and has worked as a                                                                                 make language best express the          literature, culture, international
                                             in, his world will never be the same      stand up comedian.                                                                                               life of the body and the life of the    politics, history, economics, and
                                             again. Where is her family now? Is                                                                                                                         mind simultaneously. I’m particularly   society. His work has appeared in a
                                             she telling the truth? Can the man be     “I was born in Dundee in the NE                                                                                  interested in sex, sexuality, women’s   wide range of publications, including:
                                             trusted? Beautiful and disturbing, her    of Scotland. My work is both dark                                                                                struggle for self-determination and     The Irish Times, The Sunday
                                             story – retold in his words – reaches     and funny - something that I think                                                                               modernism’s potential for pushing       Independent, The Washington Post,
                                             towards those frayed edges of             both Scots and Irish people can                                                                                  the conversation about these            The Observer, The Irish Examiner,
                                             reality where each of us, if only once,   understand. Life is both dark and                                                                                subjects forward.”                      The Toronto Star, New African, and
                                             glimpses something nobody will ever       funny. I think art and literature can                                                                                                                    The Times of Israel.
                                             explain.                                  create places where humanity is able
                                                                                       to remember itself and the qualities
                                                                                       which keep it humane.”

                                             Digital Literature & Art:
                                             Interface as Creative Device
                                             This panel discussion brings together different perspectives on digital
                                                                                                                                Venue    Galway Arts Centre
                                             creative practice, including literary authorship, art, publishing and criticism.
                                             It focuses on how new media platforms and interfaces offer new possibilities       Date     Friday 28 April
                                             in the production and reception of literature and art in the 21st century. The
                                             session features digital poet Jason Nelson and digital artist Alinta Krauth as     Time     5.00pm
                                             well as practitioners and scholars from Ireland.                                   Price    Free

                                             The event is supported by the Fulbright Commission of Ireland, the Irish
                                             Research Council, the European Commission via Marie Curie Actions, and the
                                             Moore Institute, NUI Galway.

                                                                        Digital
                                                                 dci    Cultures
                                                                        Initiative

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