Events at the World Book Day festival at the City Library are free, beginning with a reading by Colm Tóibín and Victor Aldea Lorente next Thursday, another by Anthony Cronin on Friday, a succession of readings in a marquee on the Grand Parade on Saturday, and on the same day the launch of Songs of Earth and Light by the Slovenian poet Barbara Korun, translated as part of the 2005 Translations series by Theo Dorgan.

All this jubilee is in honour of the Catalan "a book and a rose" courting tradition espoused by devotees of Sant Jordi; food stalls along the street will support readers, listeners and buyers from the book-barrows, the English Market will house a literary encampment, community art groups and installations, and street performers will entertain even those lingering at the central library which stays open overnight on Friday.

This hectic programme coincides with the Cork Children's Literature Festival run by the Munster Literature Centre and opening at the Triskel Arts Centre on Thursday morning.

Bisto Book Award winner Patrick Deeley joins Siobhán Parkinson, Bill Wall, Vincent McDonnell, Maire Ní Mhaoláin, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Aubrey Flegg, John Sexton and Frank Murphy in a programme of readings, workshops and competitions all at Triskel (except for the workshop on Saturday), and including an exhibition based on the publication of the anthology Something Beginning with P.