Dublin Writers Festival Blog

Until next year...

2009-06-19T08:28:00.003+01:00

Dublin Writers Festival was a huge success. I´d like to thank Jack Gilligan and Liam Browne for putting to gether such a wonderful prgramme of events.

Special thanks to Dublin City Council and the Arts Council for sponsorship of the event.

See you next year.

Brendan Kennelly is hope personified

2009-06-09T08:43:00.002+01:00

Brendan Kennelly’s performance was the first in Dublin for over three years. He read from his latest collection Reservoir Voices, a masterful command over the voices of everyday emotions and behaviours. Introduced as “no follower of academic vogue”, Brendan certainly has an original sound – although he reminded the crowd “It’s not me speaking. “I thought that was it, thought that I was dried up. I was bored, sleepless and I was getting rid of myself. I used to go to the Boston reservoir at night and watch the black swans, thinking how beautiful they were. Then voices started talking to me and in four sleepless weeks, I wrote 80 poems.”

Brendan’s poems spoke from the viewpoint of, amongst other things, a yawn, hope, a lie, peace, listening, a ring, a hug and worry. His voice overflowed with generosity against the bare wooden backdrop of the stunning Abbey Theatre. This was the first time I’d ever heard Brendan read, and was as amazed by the gentle pace and delivery as I was from by the overwhelming feeling of hope and amicability from the poems. It was inspiring to hear poetry that had a positive, witty approach while tackling themes with melancholic or difficult undertones. When Brendan spoke of being depressed after reaching his 70th birthday, I was both shocked and amazed. It’s almost impossible to imagine a man with such a sunny disposition and warmth feeling such things.

The poetry was beautiful, and will speak for itself. But I want to dedicate this post to the man. His love of poetry, his respect for other poets (in particular Patrick Kavanagh and Frank O´Connor) and his deep respect and gratitude to the audience was compelling. When the question and answer session began, the crowd actually spoke of previous times they´d met him and how he’d touched their lives, which is a perfect compliment for any poet. Brendan deserved the standing ovation that he received and I’m certain that everyone leaving the audience that day felt a little lighter on their feet and in their hearts.

Special thanks to Laughlin McKee for all photographs used in this post.

Joe Queenan and Shane Connaughton bring characters to life

2009-06-08T08:58:00.006+01:00

Joe Queenan´s latest book Closing Time addresses his upbringing in a Philadelphia housing project with a depressed mother and alcoholic abusive father. His sculpted prose covers issues people often try to ignore, such as poverty, class and abuse, in an uplifting honest and non bitter portrayal. Shane Connaughtan takes real characters and puts them into a fictional setting which makes Big Parts altogether comical yet touching. The wit and wisdom of these two extraordinary writers came together to talk about abuse, lives worth recording and making the everyday important through literature. Here’s my pick of the Q&A session:

With all the recent discoveries regarding abuse and the Catholic Church, do you think Catholicism offers a shield to hide abuse?

Joe: to be honest, I had the opposite experience. All the abuse was in my house. If it wasn’t for the church, there’d have been no parochial schools. The nuns were much better than the priests – they’d tell us we needed to know stuff that the rich kids didn’t know because daddy would get them a job. Of course, there were priests you’d stay away from but generally speaking I-m very grateful for the school, high school and especially college that I went to. I’ve not got any dark stories – only from within my house.

Was writing Closing Time a catharsis for you? Did you feel you had to write it?

Joe: Yes. I was given a book to blurb which was about four men meeting up again for the first time since prep school and how their lives hadn’t worked out. It was awful and I’d heard it so many times. I wanted to write about interesting people than middle class neurotics. Poor people have problems, middle class people have neuroses which can be cured through xanax. But poor people have interesting childhoods, meeting interesting people and taking interesting jobs.

I wanted to write something unsentimental – nothing like Bruce Springsteen lyrics. I also wanted to talk about class because people hate talking about it, and in an unsparing way. When you’re poor, the only thing you really have is words. Words are weapons and books are siege weapons. The Irish have made these shiny, polished and perfect
.At the end of the book you don’t harbour bitterness yet you don’t pretend that your father was ok. You’d reached a certain accommodation.

Joe: Having a bad father doesn’t make it ok to be a bad son. I loved his stories; he’d start quoting from Mark Antony’s funeral oration and I’d think wow! But people always ask – did you forgive? No! Someone takes your childhood, then you don’t ever forgive. It’s like being imprisoned for 17 years. But your heart doesn’t turn to stone if you don’t forgive. Forgiveness would be stupid, insulting. I’d feel emasculated if I forgave him. Let Jesus forgive him, that’s his job. I’m not in the forgiving business. But your heart can be closed to one person but still open for your children.

Where did your main character come from?

Shane: Well, this man lived above me in a flat in London and was a very powerful man. He was extreme politically – he used to always write to the telegraph complaining Margaret Thatcher was a liberal, so that gives you an idea. He had many projects like water shows and also a hint of pedophilia about him. He was pretty awful character but he was also looking after this woman who was 30 years his junior and suffered from terrible schizophrenia. He was very articulate and would be heard at Speaker’s Corner, but fiction is a reflection of the truth.

Was your character meant to be a character of farce or of deeper signification?

Shane: I didn’t want his character to go unsung. He was very real – I just put him in a fictional setting. Changed things round a bit. In 1987 I started keeping a journal of al the characters I met. I was driven by the people who cry in the wilderness of the city. Life is art without the fun and I wanted to turn these people’s lives into fun but without ridicule. It’s meant to be fun but therapeutic also. He’s just real. That’s it.

Joe: I did the same thing. Their stories were worth telling. It’s a kind of homage.

Special thanks to Laughlin McKee for all photographs used in this post.

The Frost is All Over brings together words, music and photography

2009-06-07T20:45:00.005+01:00

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this event but I was certainly intrigued. I’m familiar with the powerful poetry of Dermot Bolger, but I had no idea it could be so evocatively performed.

David Power was extraordinarily talented, playing pipes, fiddle and whistle. Likewise, Tony Mahon was enchanting on the accordion, and Eamonn Hunt´s rendition transported you along with the music. I’d never thought of these instruments as beautiful but the sounds that The Frost is All Over created were other-worldly.

The tunes were haunting against a backdrop of images depicting the real lives of people that Bolger’s poetry encapsulated. Poems read included Sonny Brogan´s Jigs, Bold Doherty, Recording, ONeill´s Cavalacade, The Frost is All Over and The Nomad.

On the dark, bare stage, the shadows played against the wall as though they were the ghosts of the dispossessed finding their way back home through this powerful performance. It was truly stunning.

Special thanks to Laughlin McKee for all photographs used in this post.

Paula Meehan and Leanne O Sullivan bring the everyday and Ireland’s landscape to life

2009-06-07T20:08:00.003+01:00

I was certain this would be a wonderful pairing, and I’ve spent the week in anticipation. Paula Meehan and Leanne O´Sullivan are two of my favourite female Irish poets because they bring such colour, depth and vividness to their poems. Paula transfigures the every day with beautifully woven language that transcend distance and time, while Leanne brings the landscape to life in a deeply romantic, thought provoking way.

Paula was rhythmic, humorous and warm. Reading poetry is a true skill and difficult to master, but Paula’s lilting voice and humble approach delivered her poetry to perfection. Paula read poems from her new book Painting Rain, including an elegy, and dedications to various people including Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney.

I particularly loved the raw energy and sense of loss in Death of a Field, where private memory and ecology collided to portray the loss of a field for housing - something we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives. She interweaved the secret exploits of friends and lovers with the disappearing beauty of nature and the reality of washing powders and domestic life. Another favourite was Them Ducks Died for Ireland, set in St Stephens Green and based on an official notice detailing the destruction to the park during the Easter Rising of 1916.

Leanne brought an exquisite rendering of the Irish landscape to the stage with poems from her latest collection: Cailleach – The Hag of Beara. I find Leanne’s poetry particularly original and inspiring and it was obvious from the gasps in the audience that I’m not alone. Each of her poems had a tenderness and thoughtfulness which definitely betray the strong insight that Brendan Kennelly would describe as “eyes behind eyes.”

Based upon the mythical woman so central to Western Irish lore, Leanne’s poems explore love, loss, deities, history and tradition, against a backdrop of rocks, the ocean and strong mystical characters which mirror everyday life and romance. From Scent where she changes the hag from being not only miserable, but old into a young beauty, to The Watcher where a woman admires her lover emerging from the ocean, Leanne betrays a depth which encapsulates the classical idea of eros in a familiar setting.

I was also pleased to hear Leanne read one of my favourites - The Cord - which was dedicated to her mother in the audience. It described beautifully the journey of a mother/daughter relationship and bond. No description I give could convey the delicacy and poignancy of the poem. The most poignant poem of the evening was written from the viewpoint of children buried before their baptism. It was a touching response to the churches discussion about whether these children should still be considered to be in limbo which caused a second round of grieving for their parents.

Both used strong mythological imagery and their performances were as different as they were complementary. I think this was a powerful bind for the audience. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, and judging from the queues of people to buy books and get them signed, neither was anyone else.
Special thanks to Laughlin McKee for all photographs used in this post.

William Fiennes hypnotizes the audience with The Music Room.

2009-06-07T11:49:00.002+01:00

William Fiennes wooed the audience with his honest, witty and passionate approach to his memoir The Music Room. Talking about his early days as a writer, he said: “I had a naïve idea that you wrote a book and if people were reading it and talking about it then that’s it – you’re made! You become a writer. But after The Snow Geese a desert vista opened up and I began to think – it’s said that everyone has one book inside them. What if that was mine?”

Thankfully, William persevered and decided to write the story of his older brother who suffered from severe epilepsy. “I believed in books and wanted to write more. The idea and form had to be the perfect match. The Snow Geese was original and nothing else I wrote was the same. I tried to distance myself from memoir, but I found I didn’t care about the characters and I realized these really mattered to me. I had to think about what I felt strongly about and I decided to write about my elder brother Richard who died in 2001.”

The story is indeed touching, written with warmth and humour. The descriptions of the house in which he grew up are extremely vivid and exciting, but for William, growing up there was as equally difficult as it was magical. “I grew up in a wonderland, a paradise with a strong sense of history. It was a place of wonder and mystery, with Richard’s wildness and unpredictable behaviour, it was a Garden of Eden with a seed of mortality. It was a self contained world, surrounded by water; a microcosm of love, wonder, beauty, excitement, confusion, loss and difficulty.”
In The Music Room, William discusses the development of medical psychology and traces the changes in thought from ancient times to the 1950´s. Experiencing first-hand the affects of frontal lobe damage, William seeks to inform the reader, but without becoming overly forceful on the subject, addressing it with subtlety and respect so a very real perspective is gained. William describes The Music Room as “a string quartet, with four musical instruments playing their own musical scores, moving in diverse directions but coming together to create a perfect melody.”

Asked whether it he ever felt guilty or disloyal for writing about the violent side of his brother’s character, William replied “I had to show both sides. It would have been disloyalty not to. It would have diminished his character. He was bigger than his condition. It would have been a bigger dishonesty to whitewash it out.”

William’s books are strong on motifs, and in The Music Room he returns to birds; this time erons and rooks. He discussed their place. “Rooks are gregarious birds and always in groups whereas herons are solitary birds. I associate my brother with herons because he loved them, along with Leeds Utd and smoking a pipe. He’d take binoculars and go out searching for them. I think of things as needing a heron/rook balance – especially if you´re a writer. It’s hard to write amongst a whirligig. The motif is so strong so I did consider using it in the title but then realized I couldn’t. I can’t be the bird man!”

It was plainly evident that the audience was mesmerized not only by the depth and beauty of his book, but by the way William talked about his work and his memories in such a generous and convivial way. William is currently working on his third book which he describes as “another one of these first person types, though again, it’s not just about me. I use the first person like a periscope for readers into another world.” Personally, I can’t wait to take a peek.

Special thanks to Laughlin McKee for all photographs used in this post.

Anne Michaels on dialogue and finding her voice

2009-06-07T11:04:00.002+01:00

Described as having a “distinctive metaphoric style”, it was pleasure to listen to Anne Michaels read from her new book The Winter Vault. She read the preface with her tranquil, gentle and evocative voice, stirring the audience and pulling them in with the beautiful language. What strikes me about Anne’s work is the lack of dialogue – a rare technique and talent in a writer. This came across ever more powerful in person, and the one bit of dialogue read aloud “calculate me” still resonates. Here’s my pick from the Q&A session.

Where did The Winter Vault come from?

This book came out of the need to answer a number of questions. How do we commemorate historic events in a public way? When people are dispossessed of love and landscape, what remains? What remains is memories, our bodies and language – often language as the only thing left. So few of us live where we were born – so its also about belonging. Do we belong where we were born or where we were buried?

Let’s begin with the anguish, the anguish of the communities and what they suffer – are the novels born of responsibility? What’s the nature of your historical interest?

This book is an absolute argument for hope; a potent message of hope. I’m interested in how we remember – intimate, personal memories and public, historical memory and the relationship between the two. Both books are trying to understand this relationship and the title itself is a metaphor for history.
The characters voice their memories through interior dialogue. They’re very persuasive – you don’t do dialogue like other writers.

This is purposeful and makes the exchange between the characters very intense. It’s extremely deliberate – a way of focusing and being precise about thing that are imprecise. It’s the inexpressible things we should be most precise about. The intensity of ornate language allows us to focus on the things we want to express.

Do you research before you write?

I do a tremendous amount of research. It’s respect for the subject matter. Collecting facts and putting a meaning onto them are two very different things. Discerning meaning takes a long time. I’m very careful with what facts I use. A single image has so much power. It can take a lifetime to figure these things out. I’m aware of the potency so try to use facts carefully.

Through your books Canada looks different.

People bring their histories, their stories with them. Canada is tremendously vibrant. For example, I went to my local store and the man serving behind the counter was reading Faust in Korean, which sums up the place. Literature is one place where these things are kept. A book is a safe place to talk about things that aren’t safe to talk about.

I’m currently writing about the adaptation of form. In the film of Fugitive Pieces, what did you think about the girl being completely illuminated?

There’s an inevitable compromise. I didn’t want to write the screenplay – you don’t really have any control – and that would be very hard for me. There were also some very beautiful, authentic moments in the film, including a haunting score by a Greek composer. The young boy has great depth to him. I think they get a lot of things right.

I’d love you to talk a little about your process.

I’ve a horrible story to tell you and I wouldn’t recommend it! I have young children and I couldn’t bear to compromise life with them or how I work. The solution was I worked daily from 1am to 5am. Every parent is always part focusing on whether their children are safe. But it’s a very arduous way to spend your life. It worked though. You also want to protect your children from what you’re thinking - it’s nice to know they weren’t privy to what was going on in my mind.

How do you find your voice?

It’s a mysterious process and writers who tell you otherwise aren’t telling the truth. When characters come its like love at first sight and you think you know everything about them but it takes a few years. Voice comes from an acute listening to the characters. It’s also a privilege to have 400 pages with a reader. That voice comes from keeping a reader close. It’s different for a poet. You want to bring the reader with you to somewhere else – reconciliation, something earned. Readers need to have a place in the book – to think and feel.

Special thanks to Ian for all photographs used in this post.

Dublin Writers Festival Free Tickets update

2009-06-05T18:49:00.001+01:00

The following people have tickets on the door for their chosen events:

Kristi Thompson: 2 tickets to The Frost is All Over, 2 tickets to Shane Connaughton and Joe Queenan
MK Andrews: 2 tickets to The Frost is All Over
Suzanne: 2 tickets to The Frost is All Over

Give your name at the desk when you arrive, and enjoy.

More free tickets available:

The festival team are kindly offering:

The Frost is all Over: 1 pair of tickets
Shane Connaughton and Joe Queenan: 2 pairs of tickets.
Val McDermid and Kate Summerscale: 2 pairs of tickets.

To win, simply comment here on why you’re loving the festival so far and I’ll allocate the tickets to the answers I like best. I will announce tomorrow.

The events have been extremely popular and of outstanding quality, so I hope you can join us.

Ed O´Loughlin, Aifric Campbell and Peter Murphy answer questions on getting published

2009-06-04T08:37:00.004+01:00

This was one of those rare occasions to get up close and personal with debut writers and to ask about and gain valuable insight into what to expect from the world of publishing.

After a brief introduction by Declan Burke, Ed O´Loughlin, Aifric Campbell and Peter Murphy each gave a short reading from their debut novels. Declan then opened the Q&A session with some well thought out questions, before opening it to the floor. Here’s my pick:

Declan: The classic advice for novelists is write what you know – which is rubbish, because it limits imagination. Did you find that having lived in Africa was a help or hindrance when writing your novel?

Ed: It helped because it got me writing. I got material, colour and incident first hand. It gave me the courage to write. The intent was to for it to be purely fictional. The first draft was a long process and most of it was gone by the final draft. The most satisfying parts were those that were completely made up. You have to be able to invent stuff – that’s the fun part.

Declan: Did being a journalist help you as a writer?

Peter: I’d always wanted to write and in my 20´s, I was bursting with ideas but had nothing to write about. It was like being hungry but not wanting food at the same time. I thought it was cool to be a writer – second only to being a musician. So I ran away from writing. When I started writing about film, music or books, it gave me discipline.

Ed: With journalism you compress and tell but with fiction you show. I had to unlearn being a journalist to write fiction. Journalists usually write non fiction if they write a book because it helps with their career. It took me seven years to write this book; partly because I was lazy and partly because I was on the road a lot. The only way to complete a novel is to block off four hours every day and then you get results.

Declan: What pulls you in when you’re writing?

Peter: It’s a mood – a mystery I want to solve. For instance, I was listening to the Canadian band God Speed You Black Emporer and wanted to put words on it. I have lots of abortive stuff in the drawer. For this novel I took a swab of DNA from the second book. A definition of madness is repeating the same behaviour but expecting different results. I read reviews to find out what my book is about.

Aifric: I didn’t have a clue until I as finished. I thought I was going to write about the murdered lecturer but I was reading more about his brother. Something just grips you and it leads somewhere. Could be a character…or a parrot.

Peter: I read reviews to find out what my book is about.

Declan: For me writing 80,000 words was a big deal and an important learning curve. What did you learn when writing your novel?

Aifric: This is the first novel I have published. It’s not the first novel I’ve written.

Ed: Just sit down and do it. Don’t worry if your first draft is crap; you can go back and edit it. My first draft was a bigger feeling than getting a publisher.

Aifric: You become a better editor, better at the craft; better at your job. There’s always a pull between what publishers and the public want and what you want to write. You have to write the book you want to read.

Peter: Other people are smarter than I am. I was writing a lot, trying to find the story and by pure luck I found some brilliant readers. We’d meet every few weeks and workshop each other’s work. Getting published utterly changed my life; it was like a licence to practice.

Declan: Seeing a book of mine in the shops was the same. I have the life before that happened and the life after that.

Audience: What do you think of the festival theme The Power of the Word?

Aifric: Language makes us human; it’s our interface with other people. It’s our way of communicating with the world in a solid way. I’m fascinated by language and when you read, you interpret. It’s reading that brought me to writing.

Peter: Beyond literature, think of how language is used in the media. An Aramaic definition of “sin” is “impression”. A perfect example is the debasement of language during wartime.

Ed: We think consciously in words. They’re the only things we have to try and rationalise with and communicate with.

Audience: Do you listen to music when you write?

Peter: Not so much. If I do it doesn’t have a voice, can’t have words. If I’m drifting from the atmosphere of what I want to write, I will listen to some music equivalent of what I want to write.

Ed: Music is an emotional medium I’ve hidden some obscure musical references in my book, but no-one will find them. I like music for emotion.

Aifric: I wear noise cancelling headphones. But I write well on trains – it helps with dialogue.

Special thanks to Laughlin McKee for all photographs used in this post.

The Romanian ambassador thanks Ireland for its literature

2009-06-04T08:21:00.002+01:00

The Romanian Ambassador stopped by the Project Arts Centre in support of the Dublin Writers Festival. He discussed the importance of bridging the gap between Ireland and Romania and between words and image. He introduced some dramatic Romanian photographs, previously shown in Vienna, Strasbourg and Paris, which captured scenes from a Romanian production Oscar Wilde´s The Picture of Dorian Gray. He said this was “a testimony to how much Irish works are appreciated in Romania.”

Special thanks to Laughlin McKee for all photographs used in this post.

Seamus Heaney receives a standing ovation at the National Concert Hall

2009-06-02T23:45:00.004+01:00

Going to an event such as a reading by Seamus Heaney, you know you’re in for something wonderful. Yet I wasn’t quite prepared for the array of emotions that would be stirred, or the scope of poetry that would be shared.

The first lady of political broadcasting in Ireland Olivia O’Leary led with a heartfelt introduction to “Seamus Heaney, who has written the music of my time.” Her memories from the 1970´s brought to life the colourful past of a poet intrigued by and respectful of journalism, news and politics; a poet whose life has been dedicated to measuring and addressing the life, love, loss, wit and ambiguity of Ireland and Irish identity.

Seamus opened with a reading from his Beowulf translation which he described as befitting the surroundings and “should be able to bounce to the back of the hall and then to the other back of the hall, where we have an audience also, I realise.” We were plummeted into Hrothgar´s hall, enjoying the song of the minstrel while implicit danger surrounds the castle walls. We were jolted back with “Now go read it. It’s still available”.

After the crowd stopped laughing, Seamus explained “Imagination has the strength to push back against the reality. There’s no real need to address the gloom. We just need to be aware of what’s out there; it’s awareness that shapes our poetry.” Evocative words in any era.

Seamus continued with Mossborn: Sunlight and then Oysters, which conveyed “that halfway house between freedom and obligation.” The next poem showed the “pleasure, resistance and fortification” of music even in troubled times, while one of my favourites, Harvest Bow, cajoled tears from the audience. Seamus described the format of a sestina for Two Lorries, before adding “you’ll not notice it, all being well, but I assure you it’s there”.

Before reading the mystical Seeing Things, Part Three, Seamus declared a love for how something solid and credible can have a hallucinatory quality about it. Staring into the pipes of the organ in the National Concert Hall while listening to his poetry, I understood exactly what he meant. Other poems included The Lift, Midnight Anvil, The Skunk, St Kevin and the Blackbird, Miracle and Tate’s Avenue.

Throughout his performance, Seamus´s voice was tranquil and firm and his stage presence mesmerizing. He remained lively, witty and engaging. But most inspiring was Seamus´s honesty, affection and humility. He admitted after at one point “Sorry, I’m very nervous here” and another time he turned his back on the audience at the front to read to the crowds behind him, eventually finishing the night in a sideways stance “to fit you all in.” He even thanked the crowd “for listening so intently.” Unsurprisingly, Seamus Heaney received a standing ovation from the crowd. Not one person in the packed out auditorium remained seated.

A touching dedication ended the evening with the Lord Mayor´s address, thanking Seamus for being “a weaver of words and a dreamer of dreams”. He accepted a limited edition WB Yeats book with gratitude and a parting shot; “It’s called Last Poems and Two Plays. I hope it’s not ominous.”

I hope, however, that the attendance and audience reaction is a sign of things to come for the rest of Dublin Writers Festival.

Special thanks to Laughlin McKee for all photographs used in this post.

Win tickets to Joe Queenan and Shane Connaughton

2009-06-01T21:33:00.003+01:00

I have four pairs of tickets for Joe Queenan and Shane Connaughton at the Abbey Theatre on June 7th at 1pm.

Joe Queenan is a novelist and film critic for The Guardian and considered to be one of the most popular humourists of our time. His latest book Closing Time addresses his own Irish-Catholic upbringing in a Philadelphia housing project.

Shane Connaughton´s many writing credits include co-writer of Oscar-winning film My Left Foot and author of A Border Station which addresses a father/son relationship in Ulster. His latest book Big Parts is described as a comic novel about a grotesque and hilarious world.

Both writers are known for their keen-eyed observations of human foible. To win a pair of tickets to this afternoon of wit and wisdom traversing page, screen and stage, leave a comment to this post stating why you´d like to go.

I´ll pick my favourite four replies on Thursday June 4th.

Dublin Writers Festival in the news

2009-06-01T21:26:00.003+01:00

This week:

Sarah Waters talked to The Independent about the inspiration behind The Little Stranger and GCN is running an article about her in its June issue
Christine Dwyer Hickey spoke to The Irish Independent on death, growing up in Ireland, becoming a writer and her affinity with Italy.
Simon Schama raved about John Donne on BBC2

Coming up:

Newstalk’s Culture Shock will broadcast a special Writers Festival programme on June 4 featuring many of the writers including Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama and Programme Director Liam Browne.

One day to go: my personal highlights for the Dublin Writers Festival

2009-06-01T13:05:00.004+01:00

The long-awaited Dublin Writers Festival starts tomorrow with a sell-out Seamus Heaney reading at The National Concert Hall. I’ll be sitting side stage, scribbling furiously as this poetic genius addresses an eager crowd.

Of course, I’m excited about the whole festival but there are certain events I’m really looking forward to. These are my personal top picks:

Peter Murphy, Ed O´Loughlin and Aifric Campbell on Wednesday 3rd June at 6pm in the project Arts Centre at 6pm, described as “one unmissable event for budding novelists”. Sold!
The one-off Irish reading and book launch with Canadian poet Anne Michaels at 6pm on Thursday June 4th looks set to be as engaging as her Orange Prize winning novel Fugitive Pieces.
Zoe Heller and Geoff Dyer’s combination of erotic love and spirituality has a strong pull on Friday June 5th at 6pm in the Project Arts Centre.
I recently met Paula Meehan at the launch of No Soy Tu Musa, an anthology of Irish women’s poetry translated into Spanish. Having lived in Spain I felt a certain resonance with this project and her reading was inspired. I’m also looking forward to hearing Leanne O´Sullivan for the first time. They´re appearing together on Saturday June 6th at 6pm in the Project Arts Centre.
My other must see is Brendan Kenelly on Sunday June 7th at 3pm in the Abbey Theatre. Anyone who spends their life wording, thinking and daring gets my full attention.

Competition winners: The Frost is All Over

2009-05-31T21:53:00.005+01:00

Congratulations to Kristi Thompson, Suzanne and MK Andrews. Each of you has won a pair of tickets to The Frost is All Over at the Project Arts Centre on June 6th at 9pm. Please email dwfblog@gmail.com with your full name and I´ll arrange for you and a guest to be put on the guest list. It looks set to be a fabulous evening.

My favourite response was Kristi´s, as it reflects the very soul of literary events such as Dublin Writers Festival:

Kristi Thompson said...

"I would like to win tickets because Dublin's amazing literary culture is the reason that this ex-pat is thrilled to be living here! Ireland's literary history and ongoing writing community is a treasure."

Tickets for other events will be up for grabs tomorrow.

Sunshine in Dublin: A Literary walk around St Stephen’s Green

2009-05-30T21:16:00.002+01:00

It’s impossible to pass up a sunny day and forecasts predict it will be beautiful all weekend. But if you want to whet your appetite for Monday’s events while enjoying the sunshine – take a wander around St Stephen’s Green and soak up Dublin’s literary heritage while catching some rays.

On the south side of the park, just inside the gate, greet James Joyce and enjoy a quote from A Portrait of the Artist. Pass Clanwilliam house, where the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins once taught. Wander round the Yeats memorial garden and look out for Henry Moore’s brooding statue of Yeats entitled Knife Edge. For lovers of the ballad Dark Rosaleen, the Bronze bust of James Clarence Mangan can be found in the central circle of the park. Poet Thomas Kettle can be found on the east side of the central circle.

Enjoy the stroll and let me know if I´ve missed anything.

Win tickets to The Frost is All Over

2009-05-27T18:45:00.001+01:00

Festival Director Jack Gillgan mentioned how excited he was about The Frost is All Over event at the Project Arts Centre on June 6th at 9pm. Tickets are selling fast for the Dublin Writers Festival, but I have 4 pairs of tickets to give away.

All you need to do to be in with a chance is comment on this post, stating why you should win. I’ll award a pair of tickets to the best four replies on Sunday 31st May.

Check back on Sunday to see whether you’ve won. I’ll also give details on how to claim your tickets.

An interview with festival director jack gilligan

2009-05-23T11:53:00.007+01:00

Behind every event is a busy team working hard to make it happen. Dublin Writers Festival Director Jack Gilligan kindly took time out to answer my questions on why he enjoys the festival, the significance it has in 2009 and what will make it a success…

Tell us a little about yourself and your role as Director.

I suppose I should say that my full-time job is that of Dublin City Arts Officer with Dublin City Council. The Dublin Writers Festival is an initiative of the City Council with generous support from The Arts Council. The festival has a wonderful Programme Director in Liam Browne and we have a very small, but marvellous, support team from the Arts Office. Nobody is working full-time on the festival but rather is it part of our overall work. For my part, as Festival Director, I have ultimate responsibility for the event and am answerable to my employers, to The Arts Council and especially to the audience.

Why did you want to be part of Dublin Writers Festival?

When I took on the role as Dublin City Arts Officer sixteen years ago, and reviewed arts and cultural activity in the city, it struck me as a serious gap in provision that Dublin did not have a literary festival, although there had been one some years before. After all, we have a wonderful literary heritage and are famous for giving the world some of the greatest writers ever. My belief was that we should not live off past glories but should ensure that Dublin would hold its special place in the literary world and provide a platform for the best Irish and international writers to engage with each other and with the public.

What was the inspiration behind this year's theme The Power of the Word? What significance does it have for Dublin in 2009?

I suppose, in essence, every festival is about the power of the word. This year we wanted to highlight the significance of the written and spoken word and bring a sharper focus to something we can often take for granted. Your question about its significance in 2009 is interesting. I think that literature and the arts in general, while hugely important always, do take on an additional significance in difficult times like we are experiencing right now. That food for the soul is especially needed at this time and can play a huge role in sustaining us through bleak times.

This year's festival has a wonderful variety of events. Are there any that you're particularly excited about?

That's a difficult one for me to answer - there are so many! I'm delighted we are celebrating this special year for Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, with a sell-out event in the National Concert Hall. I am really pleased that we have another of Ireland's favourite poets, Brendan Kennelly, with his brand new collection, Reservoir Voices, at The Abbey Theatre. Brendan can hold an audience spellbound! Writers such as Sarah Waters, Simon Schama, Melvyn Bragg, Zoe Heller and Colm Toibin are just some of an amazing line-up put together by Liam Browne.

One event, which I believe will be a big hit and one I'm really looking forward to is The Frost is all Over, bringing to the stage the poetry of Dermot Bolger, spoken by actor Eamonn Hunt ( ex Fair City) with Traditional Musicians Tony Mac Mahon and David Power, against a backdrop of archive imagery. This is a different type of event and I think it will be magic!

You would consider the 2009 Dublin Writers Festival a success if...

We have such a fantastic line-up of writers on the Festival programme this year, I’ll consider the event a success if we increase our audiences and get the positive feed-back we’re hoping for. I also hope that the Dublin Writers Festival will take another step towards reaching its potential to become a major international literary event, of which Dublin can be proud.

Win tickets to see Seamus Heaney

2009-05-20T13:15:00.001+01:00

Crime pays: Val McDermid and Kate Summerscale

2009-05-20T08:21:00.004+01:00

Detective fiction remains one of the hottest and most distinctive literary genres. Dublin Writers Festival is delighted to have Val McDermid and Kate Summerscale team up for an afternoon of crime, suspense and thrills at 5pm on Sunday June 7^that the Abbey Theatre.

Val McDermid is a prolific author, whose career started out in journalism. She achieved success as a crime novelist in 1987 with Report for Murder: The First Lindsay Gordon Mystery. Several of her novels have been turned into hit TV shows, including A Place of Execution and Wire in the Blood which ran for six series on the BBC. Val has received multiple literary awards for crime fiction including the Portico Prize for Fiction (2006 The Grave Tattoo), Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2006 The Torment of Others) and the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel (2004 The Distant Echo).

Award-winning English writer and journalist Kate Summerscale won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Fiction in 2008 for her book based on the famous Constance Case entitled The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House. This novel was named The 2009 Galaxy Book of the Year and described as “absolutely riveting” by Sarah Waters. In line with this year’s festival theme “The Power of the Word”, Kate’s inspiration for her novel came from reading an anthology of Victorian crime. Kate’s biography of power boat racer Betty “Joe” Carstairs entitled The Queen of Whale Cay was shortlisted for the 1997 Whitbread Awards and won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1998. She has also written articles for The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent, including an article on the origin of detective writing.

I’m hoping to find out whether Kate and Val’s choice to write crime was impacted in any way by their careers as journalists. I’m also willing a Q&A session so I can ask Kate how she managed to step back from the intensive research and quiz Val on how she feels about her TV adaptations.

Tickets for Val McDermid and Kate Summerscale are on sale now.

16 days to Seamus Heaney

2009-05-17T22:09:00.007+01:00

The first Dublin Writers Festival event arrives in exactly 16 days when Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney will read a selection of his poems on Monday June 2nd at 8pm in the National Concert Hall.

Heaney´s poetry career began in 1965 with the publication of his first book, Eleven Poems. In 1966, his first major volume Death of a Naturalist was published by Faber and Faber (currently celebrating their 80th year in publishing). Since then, he has maintained a prolific international career which includes poetry, drama and translation. His dedication and skill has earned him several prestigious awards.

In 1995, Heaney received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His latest collection District and Circle won the T. S. Eliot Prize. Earlier this year he was awarded both an Honorary Life Membership Award from UCD Law Society and the coveted David Cohen Prize for Literature.

Heaney celebrated his 70th birthday on April 13th 2009, at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, accompanied by more than 400 family members, friends and artists. In his birthday speech, he reflected on his “blessed life” and advised: “We should keep our feet on the ground to signify that nothing is beneath us, but we should also lift up our eyes to say nothing is beyond us”.

During the celebrations, Heaney launched a 15-CD box set of his work. In tribute, RTE broadcast several Heaney at 70 radio shows and the Irish Museum of Modern Art opened an exhibition based on his book collaborations.

Except for the occasional interview, and Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney, Heaney is known for keeping out of the spotlight. His presence at Dublin Writers Festival is truly an honour and promises to be a memorable evening.

For a taste of what’s to come, listen to his readings of The Tollund Man and one of my personal favourites, Digging.

Top tips for Dublin Writers Festival

2009-05-13T21:35:00.012+01:00

1. Book early.

It’s the only way to secure seats for the authors you really want to hear. A couple of years ago I almost missed Tony Harrison celebrating his 70th birthday – I only got a ticket because a lady on my writing workshop had a family crisis and I happened to be there, drooling. Missing it would have been a catastrophe, especially since I managed to glean some invaluable advice on writing poetry from him afterwards (I’m secretly hoping that Seamus Heaney will be as generous this year). Festival tickets are on sale now from various booking venues.

2. Take advantage of freebies and discounts

The Dublin Writers Festival kicks off on June 2nd with a free guided Walk and Talk on the north side of the city, led by historian Pat Liddle. You don’t need to book, but be ready to leave The Hugh Lane City Gallery in Parnell Square at 11.30am. All other events offer discounted tickets for students, senior citizens and the unwaged, with discounts ranging from €2 to €5.

3. Get in the mood with Dublin’s literary heritage

Get in the spirit and immerse yourself in Dublin, “a living city of literature” (Lord Mayor Eibhlin Byrne, Dublin Writers Festival Address). Take literary walks around St Stephens Green or visit the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square park. The Chester Beatty Library is an enchanting (and free) haven for book lovers. If you visit the The Book of Kells in Trinity College, the Old Library is currently housing an exhibition on detective novels entitled "The Body in the Library"which should whet your appetite for our own murder-mystery event. For evening culture, Literary Pub Crawls are a huge hit, and Poetry Ireland offer regular evening events.

4. Know your authors

Indulge yourself by rereading an old favourite novel/poem or stimulate your literary senses with some debut fiction, before listening to the words being brought to life by the writer. I’ll be blogging about each author and providing links to reviews and articles over the next three weeks to help you get a taster. I also recommend you have some questions to hand. Whether you want to know about specific characters, the life of a writer, or what inspired a particular piece or word, there’ll be book signings and Q&A sessions that give you the opportunity to ask that burning question. I met Sarah Waters in 2007 and only thought of a question afterwards. This year I know what I’m asking her.

A word in your ear...

2009-05-11T14:01:00.004+01:00

Welcome to the Dublin Writers Festival 2009 blog. There’s an impressive line-up of writers preparing to share their creative insight and wisdom, celebrating this year’s theme: “The Power of the Word.”

I thought that “The Power of the Word” was an interesting place to start this blog. It is, after all, the words that are bringing people together - a love of the written word makes events like this possible. The desire to understand the creative process and its impact entices writers to step away from their laptop and address their readers. What could be better than hearing how the words should sound from those who wrote them?

Words can support, harm, beguile, humour, protect, deceive, flirt and betray. Words form the basis of our relationships with loved ones, friends and strangers every day of our lives. We’re asked to accept honesty by taking people “at their word” and in turn, we swear upon our own. We maintain privacy by having “a word in someone’s ear” and create good reputations by “word of mouth”. We experience things which are too exciting/terrible/ghastly for words, and recount tales “word for word” to maintain a true account. In battle and friendship, we’re asked to “give the word” to get the result that we need.

But why is the theme important for the Dublin Writers Festival?
As Colm Tóibín points out, it’s not just about the power of the words on the page; it’s also about their relationship with the audience. Poets and playwrights have a long history of closeness with their audience, whereas authors have not. They’ve been aloof and introverted for centuries, letting their pen do the talking. However, this concept is changing and Irish authors in particular have become more accessible in recent years. It’s altering how people select books and how these books are understood and enjoyed.

This year’s festival offers a rare opportunity to hear novelists bring their work to life. It’s for those who care about books.

The Festival Blog Kicks Off on Monday, May 11th

2009-05-07T16:45:00.000+01:00

Elizabeth Rose Murray will be this year’s official Festival Blogger and is thrilled to be blogging for this event. Elizabeth will be introducing you to the authors, keeping you up to date with festival news and providing details on venues. Elizabeth will also be blogging each event the same day that they run. There will be reviews, quotes, interviews and hopefully some video footage. If you have any ideas or suggestions, post them in the comments sections. We all look forward to seeing you here.