Tickets go on sale today for one of the most eagerly anticipated events on the literary calendar.The Ennis Book Club Festival 2009, in association with Clare County Library, will take place in the County Clare capital from 6-8 March next. The festival programme will feature visits, readings, lectures and workshops by internationally acclaimed authors, along with drama, musical entertainment and chocolate tasting.
Contributors include John Boyne, author of “The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas”; Mark O’Halloran, award winning writer and actor; Salley Vickers, best selling British novelist and author of “Miss Garnet’s Angel”; John Connolly, Irish novelist; John Breen, author of “Alone It Stands”; Jennifer Johnston, Booker Prize nominated writer; and Allan Guthrie, Scottish crime novelist. Other festival participants include Gerard Donovan; author of the Booker Prize nominated “Schopenhauer's Telescope”; Aifric Campbell, author of “The Semantics of Murder”; Órfhlaith Foyle, critically acclaimed poet and author of the debut novel “Belios”; Gerard Stembridge; novelist, film director, playwright and co-author of the satirical radio show ‘Scrap Saturday’; and travel writer Manchán Magan.
The three-day programme of events is expected to attract hundreds of book club members and book lovers from all over Europe and North America. One of the highlights of the weekend will be the Sunday Symposium during which the theme of ‘Reading Politics’ will be explored by journalist and political analyst Conor O’Clery, Public Relations consultant Terry Prone and Labour politician Michael D. Higgins.
Elsewhere, journalist and broadcaster Kevin Myers and Maria Dickenson, head of book buying in Eason will host “10 books you should read”; Georgina Byrne, of South Dublin Libraries, will discuss e-books; author/TV producer Anna Heussaff will present a workshop on enriching your Book Club; broadcaster and author Denis Sampson will discuss his book on John McGahern, entitled “Outstaring Nature’s Eye”, Broadcaster and journalist Rachael English will chair an interview and reading session with John Boyne and Salley Vickers.
Poetry will also feature prominently at the festival. Winner of the Rooney prize for Irish Literature, Medbh McGuckian; founder member of Aosdána and winner of the Marten Toonder prize for Literature, Micheal O'Siadhail, awarded an Irish American Cultural Institute prize for poetry in 1982 and in 1998 the Marten Toonder prize for Literature.; Dublin-based Russian poet, Anatoly Kudryavitsky; winner of the 2003 Cúirt Festival Poetry Grand Slam, Kevin Higgins; and poet and dramatist Rita Ann Higgins, whose many accolades include the Peadar O’Donnell Award, will all delight and challenge their audiences during the Festival. Meanwhile, students from Trinity College Dublin will stage an exclusive performance of “The Trial of Oscar Wilde” at Ennis Courthouse. The only other enactment of the trial, which led to Wilde’s public disgrace and two year imprisonment for acts of "gross indecency”, was held at Trinity College in April.
The festival launch will include a "giant book club gathering" featuring a mass reading and discussion of “The book of Lost Things" by novelist John Connolly. According to Ciana Cambell, of the Ennis Book Club Festival organising committee, “The event will not only serve and reflect the reading passions of many in the country, but once again provide a significant and timely boost to the local tourism sector.”
She added, “The festival presents a unique opportunity for book club members from Ireland and beyond to get together to share their joy of reading, to meet authors, to discuss books, and to have a weekend break with friends. The involvement of so many high profile authors, academics and literary figures will no doubt contribute greatly to what will be a diverse programme of events.”
The inaugural Ennis Book Club Festival was held in 2007. Past participants include Patrick McCabe, Edna O’Brien, Ann Enright, Joanne Harris, Brian Keenan, Roddy Doyle, Diarmuid Gavin, Hugo Hamilton, Dermot Bolger, Fintan O'Toole, Theo Dorgan, Lorna Landvik and the late Nuala O Faolain. Both previous festivals have attracted literary enthusiasts from all over North America and Europe, including members from many of Ireland’s 150 Library Book Clubs and 300 Private Book Clubs.
Tickets for all events are on sale at Glór Box Office 00353656843103 / boxoffice@glor.ie. For further details on the Ennis Book Club Festival 2009 see www.ennisbookclubfestival.com, email info@ennisbookclubfestival.com or contact 00353879723647 / 00353857758523.
