Now all literary roads lead to Cork
The festival cavalcade is heading to Co Cork this month, with literary events lined up from Mitchelstown to Bantry. First stop, though, is Kinsale Arts Festival, which starts today and includes a strong “words and ideas” strand. Highlights for this include next Saturday’s visit by the English writer Matthew Hollis (who is interviewed on page 10 of this section); he will talk about his prizewinning biography of the war poet Edward Thomas, Now All Roads Lead to France. On the same evening, Paul Howard, the man behind Triggs, “the most searingly honest canine autobiography ever”, will treat his audience to some of Roy Keane’s mutt’s inimitable insights.
There will also be maritime poetry readings aboard the boat Spirit of Kinsale, involving the English writer and bookseller Matthew Geden (cruise departs today at 4pm) and Galway's Mary O'Malley (Tuesday, 4pm). Other writers appearing at the festival, which runs until July 15th, include the novelist David Park and the philosopher Mark Patrick Hederman. For further details, or to book tickets, go to kinsaleartsfestival.comor call 021-4700877.
Just a day behind Kinsale, West Cork Literary Festival opens in Bantry tomorrow and runs until next Saturday, July 14th, with participants including Anita Desai, Theo Dorgan, Paul Muldoon, Michael Parkinson and Anita Shreve. For crime fans, there are a couple of late-night thriller readings in the old Bantry courthouse, including one by Michael Clifford and Liam Ó Muirthile (Wednesday, 10.45pm). See westcorkliteraryfestival.ie.
Moving inland to Mitchelstown, the weekend of July 20th to 22nd will see the sixth annual William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen Literary Festival taking place, with talks, readings, film screenings and writing workshops. Among the readers will be Cork native Danielle McLaughlin, recently announced as the winner of the 2012 Trevor/Bowen Short Story Competition, with a €3,000 prize sponsored by Trevor himself. The second prize, of €500, went to Wayne Price of Aberdeen. See mitchelstownlit.comor call 025-84969.
Making science and poetry rhyme
The third meeting in the Science Meets Poetry series, part of the biennial Euroscience Open Forum, will take place at the Schrödinger theatre, in the school of physics at Trinity College Dublin, next Saturday, July 14th. This meeting, from 9.15am to 6pm, will include the lectures The Two Williams (Wordsworth and Hamilton) by Iggy McGovern, and Is Love Really Molecular? by Christophe Goarant. There will also be readings by the Irish poet-scientists Kate Dempsey, Noel Duffy and Mary Montague.
Those attending the event, which is supported by Poetry Ireland and the French embassy, are encouraged to bring along one sonnet (14 lines) they have written on any science-related theme.
Admission is free, but to secure a place register online at sciencemeetspoetry. eventbrite.com.
American libraries choose Enright
The American Library Association has announced that the first recipient of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York, is the Irish writer Anne Enright (above), for her novel The Forgotten Waltz. Robert K Massie won the nonfiction Carnegie medal for his biography Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Enright and Massie each receive a medal and $5,000 (€4,000).
