Writer Roddy Doyle is due to open the 25th annual Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway this evening.
Writers travelling from north America and Canada are on standby for flights to Ireland, while British participants like former Granta editor Ian Jack are travelling overland and by sea.
Man Booker prize winner Anne Enright is reading tonight with Roddy Doyle in place of Mary Gaitskill who cannot travel.
The festival has invited Granta and the New Yorker, along with a group of leading Canadian writers, publishers and broadcasters to Galway for the week-long event, but this may now be affected by the aviation restrictions. However, Irish and British participants are still on cue to read at festival venues, with Claire Keegan, Marina Carr, Olivia O'Leary and Josh Ritter among the many contributors.
Irish poets participating include Nuala Ní Dhómhnaill, Paula Meehan and Gerard Smyth of The Irish Times and Aosdána. Smyth's latest collection for Dedalus Press, entitled The Fullness of Time, will be published in Galway later this week.
Five Galway-based poets including Fred Johnston and Mary O'Malley - who have been closely associated with the festival over the years - will read at a one of a number of special events; this section of the programme also includes a reading at Druid Lane Theatre by RTÉ radio diarists Joseph O'Connor, Olivia O'Leary and Fergus Finlay, while RTÉ's Sunday Miscellany will record a programme from the festival.
Former Granta editor Ian Jack will be interviewed by Fintan O'Toole of The Irish Times for the Anne Kennedy Memorial Lecture on Saturday.
Singer and songwriter Josh Ritter, will speak to broadcaster and musician Philip King about the power of the lyric. A schools section will include readings by Roddy Doyle, Claire Keegan and Cathy Cassidy, and the All-Ireland secondary school poetry slam.
Programme director Maureen Kennelly said that new voices this year would include young Pakistani writer Daniyal Mueenuddin, who reads tomorrow night with Claire Keegan.
The Cúirt International Festival of Literature will run from 20th-25th April 2010, and bookings can be made on 091-569777 or book online 24 hours at www.tht.ie. The programme is available on website http://www.cuirt.ie.
