11.00 Morning Reading / Bantry Bookshop - free
NOEL DUFFY will read from The Return Journey & Our Friends Electric: Two Novellas
Noel Duffy was born in Dublin in 1971 and studied Experimental Physics at Trinity College, Dublin. He co-edited (with Theo Dorgan) Watching the River Flow: A Century in Irish Poetry (Poetry Ireland, 1999) and his collection The Silence After, in 200, won the START Chapbook Prize for Poetry. More recently he won the Firewords Poetry Award and an Arts Council of Ireland Bursary for Literature. Noel has taught creative writing at UCG and the Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, and scriptwriting at the Dublin Business School. He lives in Dublin where he writes for film and television.
13.00 Lunchtime Reading / Bantry Library – free
PAUL MURRAY & JOHN BOYNE
Paul Murray will read from his novel Skippy Dies
Paul Murray is the author of An Evening of Long Goodbyes, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award in 2003 and is published by Penguin. Skippy Dies, his second novel, was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Irish Book Award for Fiction and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. It is due to be made into a film by Neil Jordan.
John Boyne will read from new novel The Absolutist.
John Boyne is the author of seven novels for adults and two for younger readers. His 2006 novel The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas sold over 5 million copies worldwide, topped the New York Times bestseller list, won two Irish Book Awards and was made into an award-winning Miramax film. His novels are translated into over 40 languages.
14.30 Afternoon Event / Maritime Hotel / €18
MYTH & FOLKLORE IN FICTION with SALLEY VICKERS
Salley Vickers will talk about the supernatural as it appears in her work, particularly in her new collection, Aphrodite’s Hat, which includes several ghost stories, one of which was described in the Guardian as “like an Irish folktale”.
Salley Vickers is the author of six novels, including the bestselling Miss Garnet's Angel, Instances of the Number 3, Mr Golightly's Holiday and Dancing Backwards. She has worked as a dancer, an artist's model, a university teacher of literature and a psychoanalyst. Her critically-acclaimed collection of short stories, Aphrodite’s Hat was published in 2010.
‘Nobody can dig down into the shrouded recesses of the human heart quite as forensically as [Vickers] does.’ Sunday Times
14.30 Afternoon Event / Maritime Hotel / €18
DID THE IRISH INVENT COPYRIGHT? with RONAN SHEEHAN
“There is fundamental right to copyright in Irish Law. This has existed as part of Irish legal tradition since the time of Saint Colmcille. He is often quoted in connection with the aphorism: le gach bó a buinín agus le gach leabhar a chóip (to each cow its calf and to every book its copy). I regard the right to be identified with and to reasonably exploit one’s own original creative endeavour as a human right.” – Justice Peter Charlton
This aphorism was the judgement onto Colmcille by the High King Diarmuid on the Hill of Tara against the free flow of information, in this case the spreading of Christian texts. Ronan Sheehan will speak about this – one of the earliest, if not the earliest – copyright case, and the copyright laws that ensued.
Ronan Sheehan was born in Dublin in 1953. He won a Hennessy Literary Award for short stories, and has published two novels, The Tennis Players and Foley's Asia, and a volume of short stories, Boy with an Injured Eye. A member of The Incorporated Law Society who specializes in Copyright Law, Ronan has been invited to contribute to conferences on the Colmcille Tradition in Copyright in Dublin, Milan and Washington. He is currently collaborating on the making of a documentary Colmcille’s Copybook.
17.00 Afternoon Reading / Bantry Library / free
IAN MACPHERSON
Ian Macpherson will perform The Everlasting Book Launch
Ian Macpherson has just spent 15 years editing legendary poet Fiachra MacFiach's memoir, The Autobiography of Ireland's Greatest Living Genius. Today he will give some readings from the book, and employ some holding tactics while he awaits the arrival of its famously reclusive author. But will he manage to hold the audience's attention for an hour of high culture? Can he persuade someone to read Macfiach's poem about his mother's plump plunger with the required gravitas? And will The Great Man arrive before time is up?
'One of the most creative and intelligent comedians I've ever seen' The Guardian
'The comedians' comedian' Irish Times
18.30 Early Evening Event / Maritime Hotel / €10
FROM PAGE TO SCREEN – THE MAKING OF WAR HORSE with MICHAEL MORPURGO
Award-winning author Michael Morpurgo talks with Padraig Cusack about his bestselling book War Horse and its journey from page to stage, and the forthcoming Spielberg film.
Michael Morpurgo is the former Children’s Laureate and best-selling author of over 120 books for children including Private Peaceful, Kensuke’s Kingdom and War Horse, which was first performed at the National Theatre in 2007 and will be made into a forthcoming film by Dreamworks. Michael was awarded an OBE for Services to Literature in 2007. His latest novel is Shadow.
Padraig Cusack is an international theatre producer, working for, amongst others, the Abbey Theatre, Dublin and the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. Recent work includes The History Boys and The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett, Happy Days by Samuel Beckett (with Fiona Shaw), The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (with Vanessa Redgrave) and Frank McGuinness' version of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman (with Alan Rickman). Pádraig lives in West Cork with his wife and two daughters.
18.30 BOOK LAUNCH / MA MURPHY’S PUB, NEW STREET / free
LAUNCH OF ANTHOLOGY: BICYCLES WITH UMBRELLAS
Twelve writers take you on a fascinating tour of the human mind in this second collection from NUI Galway’s esteemed M.A. in Writing programme. Come to the launch and hear excerpts by the new wave of Irish writers in this must-read collection of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Wine and cheese reception. All welcome.
20.30 Evening Reading / St. Brendan’s Church / €15
THE PASSION & POETRY OF PABLO NERUDA
With David Soul & Hugh Burns
Regarded by colleagues and critics alike as the greatest poet of the twentieth century in any language, few poets have enriched the lives of so many millions as Pablo Neruda, Chilean patriot, citizen of the world and an inquisitive and passionate lover of life. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature exactly forty years ago, his life story is an extraordinary adventure. Neruda wrote what he lived and lived as he wrote. The sheer sensuality and beauty of his love poetry; the touching honesty and simplicity of his description of all things ordinary; the power of his epic poetry and his passion for social justice testify to a complex and flawed man whose body of work remains as relevant and vital today as it ever was.
David Soul’s career in theatre, film, television and music spans forty years. Screen credits include Magnum Force, Salem’s Lot and starring roles in six television series including Starsky & Hutch. Throughout his singing career he has produced five albums including two international No.1 hit singles: Don’t Give Up On Us, Baby and Silver Lady and has performed in concert around the world. His West End theatre credits include: the title role in the multi award-winning show, Jerry Springer The Opera; Mack and Mabel; Blood Brothers; and Alan Ayckbourn’s Comic Potential. He has directed, produced and toured with several other productions. David lives in England.
Joining David in this unique presentation is guitarist Hugh Burns, who has written and recorded six solo albums and composed extensively for film and theatre. His performances on record and on stage with artists such as Gerry Rafferty, George Michael, Paul McCartney, Placido Domingo and Michael Jackson, as well as his collaboration with many leading producers, including George Martin, Tony Visconti and Hugh Murphy, have firmly established Hugh's international reputation as a world-class guitarist.
22.30 Bedtime Story / Maritime Hotel / free
Bedtime story followed by open mike