Looking forward to the Dromineer Literary Festival
The 12th annual Dromineer Literary Festival takes place October 6-9 this year.
We are delighted to have some of the best Irish fiction writers participating at the festival this year, including our Laureate for Irish Fiction, Anne Enright. RTÉ’s Rick O’Shea will facilitate an evening of readings and discussions at the Meet the Authors event with Anne Enright, Anthony Glavin and Aideen Henry at St Mary’s Church of Ireland, from 8pm, Saturday October 8th.
On Sunday October 9th, at 12 midday, internationally acclaimed short story writers Danielle McLaughlin and Órfhlaith Foyle will discuss a short story by the other and then each will read their story. This event will take place on board the Ku-Ee-Tu (weather permitting) afloat on Lough Derg.
Later that afternoon, Sunday October 9th, at 4pm in Nenagh Castle, Marita Conlon McKenna will discuss her novel Rebel Sisters. McKenna’s powerful new novel is set in Ireland during the 1916 Rising, and is based on the real life Gifford sisters – Muriel, Grace, and Nellie – three young women at the very heart of the Rising. Muriel married writer Thomas MacDonagh, Grace married Joseph Plunkett, hours before his execution, and Nellie fought alongside Countess Constance Markievicz in the College of Surgeons. Dromineer Literary Festival committee member Margaret Kennedy will chair this event.
We do hope to see you at some or all of our events, this festival is for you. For full details of the festivial please visit our website www.dromineerliteraryfestival.ie For booking please email info@dromineerliteraryfestival.ie.
Here is a little about the fiction authors participating in the 2016 festival:
Anne Enright was named Ireland’s first fiction laureate in 2015. She won the Man Booker Prize in 2007 for The Gathering (Jonathan Cape) and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction in 2012 for her novel The Forgotten Waltz (Jonathan Cape). Her most recent novel The Green Road (Jonathan Cape) won Kerry Group and Eason Book Club Novel of the Year awards in 2015, and was shortlisted for the 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in several magazines including The New Yorker and The Paris Review.
Anthony Glavin was born in Boston. He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, Nighthawk Alley (New Island Books) and Colours Other Than Blue (Ward River Press) and two short story collections, One For Sorrow and The Draughtsman and The Unicorn. Editor of ‘New Irish Writing’ in the Irish Press from 1986-88, he served as commissioning editor for New Island Books from 1995 to 2004.
Aideen Henry lives in Galway and is a writer and a physician. Her short story collection, Hugging Thistles, was published by Arlen House in 2013. Her short stories were shortlisted for the Francis McManus Award in Ireland in 2011, 2012 & 2015. Her two collections of poetry, Hands Moving at the Speed of Falling Snow (2010) and Slow Bruise (2015) were published with Salmon Poetry.
Danielle McLaughlin’s stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines such as The New Yorker, The Irish Times and The Stinging Fly, and have been broadcast on radio. Her debut collection of short stories, Dinosaurs On Other Planets, was published in 2015 by The Stinging Fly Press and in the UK and US in 2016 by John Murray and Random House.
Órfhlaith Foyle is a novelist and poet. Her second short story collection, Clemency Browne Dreams of Gin (Arlen House, 2014), was chosen as a book of the year by The Irish Times. Her first full poetry collection Red Riding Hood’s Dilemma (Arlen House, 2011) was short-listed for the Rupert and Eithne Strong Award for Best First Irish Collection. Foyle was born in Africa and now lives in Galway.
Rick O’Shea is the presenter of RTÉ Radio 1’s Poetry Programme. He’s hosted public interviews with, amongst others, Chris Cleave, Jessie Burton, journalist Johann Hari and Graham Norton. He conducted this year's Bloomsday Interview with Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon. In 2015 he co-presented the Irish Book Awards on RTÉ One.