PAUL MURRAY, author of acclaimed novel Skippy Dies, Booker-winning Anne Enright and poet Simon Armitage are among participants at this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature, which opened in Galway yesterday and continues for the week.
Playwright and writer Tom Kilroy opened the 26th annual festival last night at Galway City Museum. Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan is due to visit the event later this week, when he will be guest speaker at a visual arts dimension at the Kenny Gallery.
A literary-inspired theatrical troupe, kitchen readings in suburban houses and events in communities to the east and west of the city are among new dimensions to the programme, drawn up by director Dani Gill and hosted by Galway Arts Centre.
Sports enthusiasts have been catered for with a joint reading by John Doyle, author of The World is a Ball, and Steve Bloomfield, author of Africa United.
The festival will host the publication of Kevin Barry's new novel, City of Bohane,and a reading by Dermot Healy from his novel Long Time No See.
Poets Sujata Bhatt and Simon Armitage will read tonight; other highlights include a joint appearance by prize-winning Nigerian writer EC Osondu and Impac award-winning Dutch author Gertrand Bakker.
Nigerian novelist, essayist and poet Helon Hebila, author of the novel Oil on Water,will read on Friday night with Irish Timesjournalist Lorna Siggins, author of Once Upon a Time in the West, on the Corrib gas dispute. This will be preceded by a screening at 6.30pm of The Pipe, an Ifta-award winning documentary directed by Risteard Ó Dómhnaill.
On Saturday, Mr Deenihan will be guest of honour at an event at the Kenny Gallery in Liosbán, of work by artists Margaret Irwin, Leonie King, Dolores Lyne, Jay Murphy and Sioban Piercy.
The exhibition draws on the words of poets Eva Bourke, Bernard O’Donoghue, Mary O’Malley, Micheál Ó Siadhail, Gerard Smyth, JM Synge, Walt Whitman and Joseph Woods.
Sage Francis, forefather of “indie-hop”, performs in the Róisín Dubh on Saturday night.
Cúirt runs until April 17th. More programme details are on website cuirt.ie