Chance to meet Geek Girl author in Bantry

BUDDING young writers and bookworms are invited to put pen to paper in an exciting new Southern Star competition.

As part of this year’s West Cork Literary Festival, we have teamed up with award winning author Holly Smale who is on the line-up for  July’s festival which promises to be bigger and better than ever.

Holly is the writer of the incredibly successful Geek Girl series, the last instalment of which, Forever Geek, won rave reviews.

And now we are calling on 11-16 year olds to review this book themselves and send us their thoughts in no more than 200 words.

Entries must include:  name of reviewer, address, age, contact number, name and contact number or parent or guardian or teacher.

Entries can be emailed to [email protected] (subject line ‘Review Competition’) or posted to: Southern Star Book Review Competition, c/o The Southern Star, Ilen Street, Skibbereen, to arrive no later than June 30th and the result will be  announced in the edition of July 6th.

The lucky winner will meet and introduce Holly before her reading on July 20th.

But that’s not all – they will also get a €50 voucher for lunch in The Brick Oven in Bantry, a fantastic €50 book voucher and coverage in The Southern Star newspaper.

This year’s festival runs from July 14th to 21st across a variety of venues in Bantry and features an impressive line-up of readings, workshops and exhibitions for adults and children.

An Evening with Graham Norton is already sold out but other draws are likely to be yoga on the lawns of Bantry House, a festival swim at Abbey Strand and an Evening with Colm Tóibín.

Sara O’Donovan, festival manager, said there is something to appeal to everyone on this year’s programme, which is now available on:

www.westcorkmusic.ie/literaryfestival/programme.