Listowel Writers’ Week will be celebrating poetry in a special way this year, with Paul Durcan, one of Ireland’s most celebrated poets, opening the festival on Wednesday 28th May at The Arms Hotel. Along with the announcement of the winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2014, we will also be announcing the winner of the inaugural Pigott Poetry Prize for the best book of poetry by an Irish poet.
In association with Poetry Ireland, we will be presenting two events. On Friday 30th May at 4.30pm in The Arms Hotel, Belfast’s inaugural Poet Laureate and recent winner of the 2013 TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, Sinéad Morrissey, will be interviewed by acclaimed author Anne Enright.
This event will be followed by a tribute to Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney, in a special Poetry Aloud event. Gifted, young award-winning students will read from the poet’s best-loved work at 4.30pm in St. John’s Theatre. The readers and poems are:
Niamh Ní Chubháin – The Given Note & St. Kevin and the Blackbird
Treasa Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh – Digging & The Conway Stewart
Gabriel Galway – Postscript & Ballinahinch Lake
Eoin Griffin – Clearances (When all the others are away at Mass) & The Forge
Ciara Murphy – Blackberry Picking & Follower
Grace Kelly Murphy – Midnight Anvil & A Kite for Michael and Christopher
Niall O hAnnagáin – Midterm Break and A Call
As part of its ongoing reading series, Listowel Writers’ Week also welcomes The Gallery Press, Ireland’s pre-eminent literary publisher, and three of its long-standing poets – each a vital contributor to Ireland’s cultural life: Gerald Dawe, Peter Fallon and Vona Groarke. This event will take place on Friday 30th May at 6.30pm in The Arms Hotel.
We are also hosting two Poetry & Music events. First up is Joan McBreen in the company of RTÉ ConTempo Quartet/Galway Ensemble-in-Residence, Glen Austin and Noel O’Grady. They will present The Mountain Ash in Connemara – a Celebration Concert of Poetry, Music and Song, featuring selected poems read to new arrangements of traditional Irish airs and original classical music. It will take place on Thursday 29th May at 6.00pm in The Arms Hotel.
Well-known journalist and broadcaster Eamon Keane and key member of The Dubliners for almost 50 years, John Sheahan, will combine their considerable talents to produce a kaleidoscope of music, song and poetry, on Friday 3oth May at 9.30pm in The Arms Hotel.
For the younger generation poets, Stephen James Smith, Séamus Barra Ó Suilleabháin and Enda Reilly will be rapping away in Christy’s Bar on Thursday 29th May from 9.00pm. Stephen is a Dublin poet and playwright and Séamus is a talented young poet born in London and raised in North Kerry.
And not forgetting the long-standing and much-loved Poets Corner, hosted by John McGrath. This Open Mic event, for locals and visitors alike, is a very popular part of Listowel Writers’ Week and takes place over two nights: Thursday 29th May at 9.00pm at The Kingdom Bar and Sunday 1st June at 6.00pm at The Mermaids Bar.
For more information, or to book any of the above events please click here