Cúirt festival line-up set for April

NORTH AMERICAN writers Amy Bloom and Billy Collins and Spanish writers Manuel Rivas and Kirmen Uribe are among authors and artists booked for this year’s Cúirt International Festival of Literature which opens in Galway next month.

Chinese poet Yang Lian, Welsh essayist Simon Van Booy and Irish writers John Banville, Paul Durcan and Rita Ann Higgins will also contribute to the week-long event from April 23rd which has taken the theme of “communication and language”.

The writer-reader relationship, e-books versus printed books, and how readers “consume” literature will be explored during the festival, which has expanded its outreach and masterclass programmes.

Kitchen readings with Australian poet Robyn Rowland and harpist Lynn Saoirse will be hosted in conjunction with Galway City Library service in the suburbs of Westside and Ballybane.

Playwright Marina Carr, Bloom and poets Peter Fallon and Gerald Dawe will lead the masterclass programme.

Several perspectives on storytelling will be explored in a performance involving sign language interpreter Oliver Pouliot and writer Louise Stern reading from Stern’s book Chattering.

Rivas and Uribe will talk with Jonathan Dunne about their Galician and Basque roots and the importance of minority languages.

There will also be a discussion on communication and language with the Jade Ladder Trio, comprising Chinese poet Yang Lian and translators Bill Herbert and Brian Holton.

Multimedia events, theatre and visual art are also promised, with an exhibition by artist Brian Bourke inspired by the work of William Blake in the Norman Villa Gallery, Salthill.