SAMANTHA POWER, who resigned last week as senior foreign policy adviser to US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, will be among the Irish and international writers contributing to this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway.
"Eyewitnesses to history" is the theme of the 23rd annual festival, which begins on April 22nd with readings from two acclaimed Irish writers, Jennifer Johnston and Sebastian Barry.
Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad, author of the best-selling work, The Bookseller of Kabul, will participate in a public interview with former Irish Times Moscow correspondent Séamus Martin on life in postwar Chechnya, as chronicled in her latest book, The Angel of Grozny.
Chechnya will also be the subject of a contribution by Arkady Babchenko, author of One Soldier's War, which won Russia's Best Debut of the Year prize last year.
Tony Lagouranis, a former US soldier and author of Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey Through Iraq, will give his account of the US torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Ronan Bennett, whose latest novel Zugzwang has been shortlisted for the 2008 Irish Novel of the Year, and Rachel Cusk, whose novel Arlington Park was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for fiction, are also taking part.
The programme was published in Galway last night at a function addressed by Clifden Arts Festival founder Brendan Flynn.
One of the best-known campaigners against apartheid in South Africa, Breyten Breytenbach, will read his poetry and writings, and festival organisers have been assured that Power, who won the Pulitzer prize in 2003 for her book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, will still be attending.
US poet laureate Donald Hall and Polish poet Piotr Sommer will give readings, as will fellow poets Brian Turner, John McAuliffe, Vivienne Plumb, Moya Cannon, Lucy English and David Harsent.
Irish Times journalist Keith Duggan will also read from his book, House of Pain: Through the Rooms of Mayo Football.