The annual and renowned West Cork Literary Festival begins this week, with the reception opening of this the 26th festival scheduled for 5pm in Bantry library on Friday, July 11th. Throughout the week, there will be the chance to hear from many writers, novelists, translators, and writers of all flavours and variety, including the poet Salena Godden, and novelists Alan Hollinghurst and Claire Kilroy. Richard E Grant and Graham Norton will also put in an appearance, as will Carol Drinkwater and Miriam Margolyes.
There will be historical walking tours of Bantry, and a one-woman show, Fruitcake, from playwright and actress Alice Berry. On Monday of the festival, novelist Michael Magee will be queried about which books he’d save from burning, in a conversation with Books Ireland editor Ruth McKee. Later in the week, editor Dr Donal Ó Drisceoil will discuss the Atlas of the Irish Civil War: New Perspectives, while debut novelists Sinéad Gleeson and Cathy Sweeney will talk at an event at the Maritime Hotel. ‘Bantry’s brutalist bibliotheque’, its library, will be discussed by Bantry architect and native Dermot Harrington, while Nothing Compares to You: What Sinead O’Connor Means to Us will be under discussion next Thurday, July 17th. The work is a collection of essays edited by Sonya Huber and Martha Bayne, and on the evening three of its contributing authors, Martha Bayne, Mieke Eerkens and Allyson McCabe, will be in discussion at the Marino Church.
For the full schedule of events and tickets, visit the West Cork Literary Festival website.
