The work and literary achievements of the late John McGahern are to be marked by an international summer school hosted by Leitrim County Council and NUI, Galway.
The initiative was announced yesterday as the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, which the author had contributed to and attended for many years, opened in Galway last night with a full house for British writer Ian McEwan and London-Irish author M J Hyland.
The McGahern seminar - to be inaugurated in July this year - will be the springboard for a summer school in 2008 commemorating the work and literary achievements of the writer who spent most of his life near Fenagh in Leitrim and had a close association with NUI, Galway. Contributors will include Irish and international writers and critics. It will be co-ordinated by Dr John Kenny of NUI, Galway.
Journalist Nell McCafferty marked the first night of the 22nd Cúirt festival in Galway City Museum, when the €1,000 new writing award was conferred on Co Down poet Moyra Donaldson. As part of the award, Ms Donaldson is given a reading slot for her work on Saturday morning next in the Town Hall Theatre.
The week-long programme of readings involves Irish writers Anne Enright, Tim Robinson, Paul Durcan, Colm Tóibíand international authors including Damon Galgut from South Africa, Rebecca Miller from the USA and Nicaraguan-born Claribel Alegria.
There will be masterclasses, debates, book launches and poetry events. Galway Youth Theatre will stage nightly performances of Tejas Verdes, a play about torture and detention in Chile by Fermin Cabal.
Pakistani novelist and broadcaster Tariq Ali will deliver the Anne Kennedy memorial lecture on the Latin American and Arab world tomorrow. The Cúirt forum on Friday, sponsored by The Irish Times, will involve a discussion with socialist and community activist Bernadette McAliskey, writer Gary Mitchell, former Irish Film Board chairwoman Lelia Doolan and Croatian writer Dubravka Ugresic.
The Cúirt festival runs until Sunday and more details are available on www.galwayartscentre.ie or telephone (091) 565886 or (091) 569777.