Promising programme as Cuirt offers a mix of new and familiar

Two giants of Irish poetry, Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley will be the featured guests at the opening night of this year’s Cúirt Festival of Literature, which takes place at venues in Galway City and County in April.  

Cúirt will be formally opened by President Michael D Higgins on Wednesday, April 24 in the Meyrick Hotel, and the official opening will be followed by the reading from Heaney and Longley in the Town Hall at 8.30pm.

It’s a promising programme this year, with other highlights including a public interview with Clare-born Edna O’Brien centred on her memoir Country Girl. That will be conducted by broadcaster and author, Vincent Woods on in the Town Hall Theatre on Thursday, April 25.

On Saturday, April 27, the Festival will host an interview with A.M Holmes, the American author of This Book Will Save Your Life and more recently May We Be Forgiven. That’s at 1pm in the Town Hall Theatre.

That evening, award-winning American poet, short-story writer and novelist Ron Rash, and Irish author Claire Keegan will take to the stage of the Town Hall for a joint reading.

Galway author Mary Costello, who previously took part in the Cúirt Over the Edge readings returns this year to take part in a reading on Sunday afternoon with novelist and short-story writer, Mike McCormack. Mary’s debut collection of short stories, The China Factory was published last year to much acclaim and received a nomination for the Guardian First Book Award. RTÉ featured it on the station’s Book on One slot last October while the BBC broadcast five of its stories in February. Mary Costello and Mike McCormack will be in an Taibhdhearc on Sunday, April 28 at 2pm.

Other novelists taking part in Cúirt include Keith Ridgeway, Lucy Caldwell and Ben Marcus, while there will also be readings from poets Paula Meehan and Sharon Olds; Leanne O’ Sullivan and Matthew Sweeney; and Priscila Uppal, Tishani Doshi and Tiffany Atkinson.

The festival will include a wide range of themed talks and discussions as well as book launches, literary outings and theatre, including Galway Community Theatre’s production of Neil La Bute’s Medea Redux, directed by Andrew Flynn.

The themed events include a crime panel discussion consisting of crime writers from Ireland, Finland and Sweden who are published by Harvill Secker. That’s on Saturday, April 27 at 6.30pm in the Town Hall.

This year’s festival will also host a new EU cultural initiative: The Crossroads of European Literature. The project sees Cúirt teaming up with literary festivals in Slovenia and Italy and will include writer residencies, a literary outing and a seminar.

And on the final day of the Festival, the action will move to the pre-Famine village of Cnoc Suain, on the Spiddal-Moycullen Road for an event to mark The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine. This ground-breaking book was published last year by Cork University Press.

Starting at 4pm on April 28, two contributors to the publication will give presentations on their work. They include co-editor William J Smyth and contributor Cathal Póirtéir, and they will be joined by Spiddal singer Áine Ní Dhroigneáin.

Cúirt 2013 will wrap up with concert in An Taibhdhearc featuring the renowned a capella traditional group The Voice Squad. That’s at 8pm on April 28.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.