Listowel Writers’ Week officially opened its doors last night.

We welcomed a host of Irish and international poets, playwrights, novelists, short story writers, artists, musicians, friends and sponsors to the Listowel Arms Hotel to celebrate the wonderful literary culture that that is synonymous with the town of Listowel.

We were delighted and honoured that award winning author of renown Richard Ford travelled to Listowel to officially opened the 46^th edition of the festival, which has been a mainstay on the Irish literary calendar since 1971. Music on the evening was provided by John Spillane, Rathkeale Secondary School Choir and Laura Enright.  There were recitations from poets Jane Clarke, Stephen Murphy and a special video by Stephen James Smith which was produced after his time on retreat courtesy of the festival at Cill Rilaig Artist Retreat.

Listowel Writers’ Week President Colm Toibín was present at the opening ceremony and will be having a reading of his own on Thursday with his new novel  House of Names.

The John B. Keane Lifetime Achievement Award, in association with Mercier Press, was presented to poet Brendan Kennelly and it was wonderful to see him present on the night. 

Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2017

As always, the high point of the evening was the announcement of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, which was won by Kit DeWaal with her debut novel, My Name is Leon  A cheque for €15,000 was presented to Kit by Frank Hayes of The Kerry Group, who spoke of the special connection between the Group and Listowel Writers’ Week going back 22 years. He then extended his congratulations to all the shortlisted novelists, Emma Donoghue, Neil Hegarty, Conor O’Callaghan and Mike McCormack and he thanked this year’s adjudicators AL Kennedy and Neel Mukherjee for their hard work and dedication to the adjudication.

The Pigott Poetry Prize

The Pigott Poetry Prize, for a published collection of poetry by an Irish poet is generously sponsored by Mark Pigott, KBE, Chairman and Chief Executive of PACCAR Inc. Mark’s family originated from Listowel and emigrated to the United States in the late 1890s. The adjudicators for the 2017 Award were Deryn Rees Jones and Lavinia Greenlaw. This year’s winner was Vona Groake with her collection entitled Selected Poems.

The two other shortlisted collections were: Parvit of Agelast by Maighread Medbh and The Seasons of Cullen Church by Bernard O’Donoghue

The winners and shortlists of our full range of Literary Competitions were also announced and presented with their prizes and are as follows: