Journalist Justine McCarthy, former Mountjoy Governor John Lonergan and Des Kenny of the Kenny bookselling family have been added to the line-up for the 2011 Ennis Book Club Festival, tickets for which went on sale today.
The fifth annual festival, in association with Clare County Library, will take place in the County Clare capital from 4-6 March next.
The festival programme includes author readings, discussions, workshops and walking tours, advice on running book clubs, on reading lists, and an opportunity to meet with other Book Club members and readers. It also features the ‘Irish Book Club of the Year Award’ and a professional development workshop for library staff.
Among the Irish contributors to the festival will be Anne Enright, Booker Prize-winning author; Pauline McLynn, stage and screen actor and author of eight bestselling novels; Peter Sheridan, playwright, film and theatre director, and recipient of the Rooney Prize for Literature; Paul Murray, Irish author of “Skippy Dies” which has been selected as the third best fiction book of the year by Time magazine; Eamonn Sweeney, journalist and author of “Down Down Deeper and Down: Ireland in the 70's and 80's”, and the bestselling “Road to Croker”; David Norris, Senator and Joycean scholar; Dr Eibhear Walshe, author and senior lecturer in the Department of Modern English at University College Cork; and John Curran, author of “Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks”.
International contributors include Doug Stanton, US author of “Horse Soldiers” and New York Times bestseller “In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors”; Blake Morrison, former literary editor of The Observer and the Independent on Sunday, Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College, and author of "The Last Weekend” and “Things My Mother Never Told Me”; and David J. Lynch, senior writer with Bloomberg News, former war correspondant, and author of “When The Luck Of The Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again”.
There will also be poetry readings by Vona Groarke and Tom Conaty, while well known broadcaster Marie Louise O'Donnell will be choosing ‘10 Books You Should Read’.
The inaugural Ennis Book Club Festival was held in 2007. Past participants include Patrick McCabe, John Boyne, Lionel Shriver, Edna O’Brien, Joanne Harris, Brian Keenan, Roddy Doyle, Diarmuid Gavin, Hugo Hamilton, Allan Guthrie, Jennifer Johnston, John Connolly, Dermot Bolger, Salley Vickers, Fintan O’Toole, Tim Pat Coogan, Lorna Landvik, Gerry Adams and the late Nuala O Faolain.
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 more than 300 Private Book Clubs.
Tickets for all events are on sale at Glór Box Office 00353656843103 / boxoffice@glor.ie. Further festival information is available from (web) www.ennisbookclubfestival.com, (t) www.twitter.com/ebcf, (e) info@ennisbookclubfestival.com and (t) 087-9723647/085-7758523.
The fifth annual festival, in association with Clare County Library, will take place in the County Clare capital from 4-6 March next.
The festival programme includes author readings, discussions, workshops and walking tours, advice on running book clubs, on reading lists, and an opportunity to meet with other Book Club members and readers. It also features the ‘Irish Book Club of the Year Award’ and a professional development workshop for library staff.
Among the Irish contributors to the festival will be Anne Enright, Booker Prize-winning author; Pauline McLynn, stage and screen actor and author of eight bestselling novels; Peter Sheridan, playwright, film and theatre director, and recipient of the Rooney Prize for Literature; Paul Murray, Irish author of “Skippy Dies” which has been selected as the third best fiction book of the year by Time magazine; Eamonn Sweeney, journalist and author of “Down Down Deeper and Down: Ireland in the 70's and 80's”, and the bestselling “Road to Croker”; David Norris, Senator and Joycean scholar; Dr Eibhear Walshe, author and senior lecturer in the Department of Modern English at University College Cork; and John Curran, author of “Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks”.
International contributors include Doug Stanton, US author of “Horse Soldiers” and New York Times bestseller “In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors”; Blake Morrison, former literary editor of The Observer and the Independent on Sunday, Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College, and author of "The Last Weekend” and “Things My Mother Never Told Me”; and David J. Lynch, senior writer with Bloomberg News, former war correspondant, and author of “When The Luck Of The Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again”.
There will also be poetry readings by Vona Groarke and Tom Conaty, while well known broadcaster Marie Louise O'Donnell will be choosing ‘10 Books You Should Read’.
The inaugural Ennis Book Club Festival was held in 2007. Past participants include Patrick McCabe, John Boyne, Lionel Shriver, Edna O’Brien, Joanne Harris, Brian Keenan, Roddy Doyle, Diarmuid Gavin, Hugo Hamilton, Allan Guthrie, Jennifer Johnston, John Connolly, Dermot Bolger, Salley Vickers, Fintan O’Toole, Tim Pat Coogan, Lorna Landvik, Gerry Adams and the late Nuala O Faolain.
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 more than 300 Private Book Clubs.
Tickets for all events are on sale at Glór Box Office 00353656843103 / boxoffice@glor.ie. Further festival information is available from (web) www.ennisbookclubfestival.com, (t) www.twitter.com/ebcf, (e) info@ennisbookclubfestival.com and (t) 087-9723647/085-7758523.
