ANNE ENRIGHT was last night named the 2008 winner of the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award at the opening of the annual Listowel Writers’ Week for her novel The Gathering.
Enright, who has already won the Man Booker prize for her novel, will read from the work today.
Judges Niall MacMonagle and Hugo Hamilton had shortlisted five novels for the €15,000 prize. The books included Joseph O’Connor’s Redemption Falls, James Ryan’s South of the Border, David Park’s The Truth Commissioner and Julia Kelly’s With My Lazy Eye.
A packed programme has been put together for the 38th festival, including workshops, readings, film showings, theatre, art exhibitions, children’s events and “a literary pub trail”.
This year’s literary and historical bus tour will visit west Limerick, taking in the villages of Athea and Ballyhahill and finishing in Shaughnessy’s Bar in Glin, described as “one of the few remaining Irish authentic pubs”.
Among the highlights will be a reading by Seamus Heaney, who last night officially opened the festival.
That reading takes place tonight at the Listowel Arms Hotel.
Tomorrow an Amnesty International event will feature writers who have contributed to the Amnesty International in conjunction with The Irish Times series of 30 pieces marking the sections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Among those reading and debating the role of the writer in human rights will be Carlo Gebler, Lia Mills and John Boyne .
Also taking part in this year’s festival are John Banville, Brett Paesel and Mary Lawson.
The festival runs until Sunday.