Unpublished readings from the Nobel and Booker Prize winner, JM Coetzee, are among the highlights of this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway.
The festival, which runs from April 19th to 24th, will also feature a new translation of Brian Merriman's epic Midnight Court, and work by the former lead singer of The Stranglers.
Writers from North and South of the Border, Russia, Nigeria, Moldova, Belarus, Britain, the United States and Romania feature on the festival programme.
Also participating will be the award-winning poet, novelist and journalist Helon Habila, currently the first African Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia; and Ken Wiwa, son of Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by the Nigerian government in 1995 for his work with the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People.
The festival has commissioned Ciarán Carson to write a new translation of Brian Merriman's Cúirt an Mheán-oíche to mark the bicentenary of the poet's death.
Full programme details are available at the Cúirt festival office: tel 091-565886, and at www.galwayartscentre.ie/cuirt
