West Cork Literary Festival 2010

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Press Release March 2010

Michael Palin, Margaret Drabble, John Boyne and Hugo Hamilton are just four of the writers appearing at this year’s West Cork Literary Festival which features some of the finest writers and poets from Ireland and abroad.

The Festival, once again supported by RTÉ lyric fm, will cover a broad range of writing disciplines. Speakers include leading Irish poet, Eavan Boland;  award-winning travel writer Tim Mackintosh-Smith;  Rooney Prize winner Philip O Ceallaigh and Booker Nominee, Simon Mawer.  We are also delighted to introduce Suad Amiry, Palestinian author of the international bestseller Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, Singaporean poet and novelist, Felix Cheong and American poet, Beth Ann Fennelly.

There will be a broad range of writing workshops including Fiction workshop with Peter Cunningham, Writing for Women with Catherine Dunne, Freelance Journalism with Sue Leonard,  Preparing to Submit with literary agent Jonathan Williams; Poetry with Leanne O’Sullivan, The Gothic & Fantasy Novel, with Celine Kearney,  Writing Thrillers by Alex Barclay and many others.

The Festival  will also feature a new generation of Irish writers, including immigrant poets.  There will be master classes in travel writing and fiction, seminars on the art of editing and reasearch methodology, and some entertaining talks: Brian Dillon will speak about hypochondriac writers; Tony Humphries will be launching his new book, Karen Coleman will speak about abuse in religious institutions, and Eileen Battersby on re-reading classics.  We will also be launching the Fish Anthology and a new fiction prize in memory of J. G. Farrell.

More details will be announced shortly. Click here for Workshop details.

NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR FOR 2010

The West Cork Literary Festival is delighted to announce the appointment of Denyse Woods as Artistic Director of the 2010 event which takes place from 4th – 10th July in Bantry, Co. Cork.

Denyse is a well-known novelist who also writes under the name Denyse Devlin. She has published five novels including the critically acclaimed Overnight to Innsbruck and the bestselling The Catalpa Tree. She has travelled extensively in the Middle East and lived in the USA, Belgium, Australia, Italy and the UK before settling in Cork. She is no stranger to the festival as she facilitated the highly popular Creating a Sense of Place workshop at last summer's event.

Denyse takes over the role from Sinead Collins, who was Artistic Director of the 2009 Festival.  The greatly increased attendance at the Festival last July was a fitting tribute to the magnificent job Sinead did in her year as Director of the Festival. Sinead has returned to working on developing new initiatives in arts for libraries as part of her role as Cork County Council’s Library Arts Officer.

Having worked closely with Denyse on library projects Sinead wishes her every success and is certain that the festival will continue to thrive under her Directorship.

Denyse says "I hope to bring in some interesting names and writers, who would enhance the festival, without losing sight of its important role as an outlet for local and national writers. A literary festival, should, I believe, have a sense of itself, a firm and consistent understanding of its market, a commitment to its local community, and a clear artistic objective. In the case of the West Cork Literary Festival that should be, in my opinion, quite simply, good writing."

‘Trying to fill Sinead’s shoes is the bravest, or stupidest, thing I have ever done’ says Denyse

The West Cork Literary Festival is organised by West Cork Music in partnership with the  Library and Arts Service of Cork County Council and funded by Arts Council and Fáilte Ireland

Programme to be announced in early March