PROGRAMME

JOHN O’CONNOR WRITING SCHOOL

No Borders, No Boundaries – Celebrate and Inspire BOOKING INFORMATION A MESSAGE FROM THE LORD MAYOR OF ARMAGH CITY, BANBRIDGE AND CRAIGAVON, COUNCILLOR JULIE FLAHERTY

BOOKING INFORMATION:

Online: https://visitarmagh.com/johnoconnor www.thejohnoconnorwritingschool.com On behalf of Armagh City, Banbridge and In person: Craigavon Borough Council, it’s my pleasure Armagh Visitor Information Centre, 40 Upper English Street, Armagh, BT61 7BA. to welcome you to the John O’Connor Writing School and Literary Arts Festival programme Phone: 0044 (0) 28 3752 1800 of events which are taking place across our Email: [email protected] Borough for a third successive year.

ACCOMMODATION: We are honoured that the City of Armagh can pay tribute to the talent of John O’Connor by Armagh Visitor Information Centre 40 Upper English Street; 00 44 (0) 28 3752 1800 for o"ering a diverse and unique mix of courses, recommendations on all types of accommodation in the area. talks and projects which will not only The John O’Connor Festival team will manage bookings for single room budget showcase an array of talent but also accommodation in The Royal School, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DH. inspire and encourage the next Contact [email protected] generation of emerging writers. The Charlemont Arms Hotel (57-65 Upper English St) o"ers a 10% discount on room rates I wish to recognise the hard work and for attendees at the festival. Please quote JOCWS. Phone: 00 44 (0) 3752 2028 e"ort by all the members of the committee who are working extremely hard to pull together a full and varied WRITING SCHOOL CORE COURSES AND TASTER CLASS FEES: programme for people of all ages to enjoy Early Bird o!er: 15% reduction on all places booked by 4 October and appreciate.

Intensive Core courses, including Industry Talk and Publishers’ Panel (12+ hours). Councillor Julie Flaherty Students pick ONE course of study to follow over the three days: Lord Mayor Adult: £135 (Choose from Fiction, Screenwriting, Playwriting, Poetry, Songwriting) Concession: £99 (over 65s, unwaged, students). Taster Classes: £25 (choose from Prose, Playwriting, Poetry). Concession: £18.

LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL TICKETS: Prices as listed per event. Early Bird o!er: 10% on all Literary Arts Festival events up to 4 October (excludes Muldoon’s Picnic on Saturday 3rd November). Ticket Exchange/Refund: Once purchased, tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded. Refunds only if a class or event or is cancelled. Concessions require proof of eligibility.

2 3 JOHN O’CONNOR WRITING SCHOOL AND LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL 2018 JOHN O’CONNOR WRITING SCHOOL AND LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL 2018

A word from Cathy McCullough and Kathryn Baird, Festival Organisors

We are pleased to present this, our third, John A word from our Patron, Paul Muldoon O’Connor Writing School and Literary Arts Festival It’s such a pleasure not only to serve as patron of the festival but, this year, programme. to take part as a presenter and performer. This is a festival based on the Our motto, ‘No borders, No Boundaries – Celebrate local, as are almost all interesting artistic projects, and it resonates for me in and Inspire’, endures. These ideals are close to the several very local ways. heart of John O’Connor and to the festival we put on My Collegelands neighbour, Jimmy Campbell, was the #rst person from in his honour. whom I heard of W.R. Rodgers, who will be featured on the #rst day. We believe that both our writing school and literary arts festival programmes contain something for

Photo: Adrian Cook Adrian Photo: Jimmy was an apple grower, and he was very proud of the fact that the everyone, and hold dear the belief that the festival must be open and welcoming to all. It should be a Presbyterian minister from Cloveneden, just a few miles down the road, place where all feel at ease, are exposed to new ideas and experiences, and where hearts are gladdened would make a point of buying apples from him. I’m particularly looking with the magic and beauty of language in all its forms. forward to hearing my old friend, Michael Longley, talk about Rodgers in Armagh County Museum. 2018 is a very special year for me, since it was 50 We invite you to celebrate with us again this year and to #nd the inspiration to start or continue your years ago, in 1968, that I met both Longley and Seamus Heaney at an event writing life. in that same museum. In addition to our core courses, this year, for the #rst time, we are o"ering additional taster classes for I thought of W.R. Rodgers almost every day as I climbed the hill to my beginners and the curious: join in! school, St. Patrick’s College, mostly because of his beautiful poem which The John O’Connor Writing School and Literary Arts Festival is delighted to welcome back our patron, begins ‘There is a through-otherness about Armagh.’ It was in that school Paul Muldoon, the writer and journalist, Robert McCrum, the musicians, Gareth Dunlop and Lisa Lambe, that I #rst became interested in the Irish language, as well as both Hiberno- and to introduce the writers Rick Stroud and Namita Gokhale. We also extend a warm welcome to the English and the Lowland Scots dialects, and it was there I #rst read ‘The poets Roger McGough and Peter Fallon, theatre writers and directors Martin Lynch and Emma Jordan, Lament for Art O’Leary.’ Again, there’s a lovely resonance to the fact that actresses Susan Lynch and Lisa Dwan – and a host of others to inspire and enthrall. we’re able to present a new version of that great poem during a festival that will, I trust, continue to be a staple of the Armagh cultural landscape. As we celebrate this jewel of a city and its literary and cultural heritage, we invite you to come and enjoy with us the many delights that our programme has to o"er. Another long-established feature of the local landscape was the ceilidh- house, the site of evenings of recitations of W.F. Marshall and Robert Cathy and Kathryn. Service, #ddle and $ute music, and the telling of tales. It was out of such a tradition that the music-hall and vaudeville variety shows developed, and it was indeed as a variety-show that the original Muldoon’s Picnic was #rst presented in New York in the 1870s. That featured a comedy sketch called A word from Damian Smyth, Arts Council of ‘Who Owns the Clothes Line?’ about a dispute in a New York tenement that could easily have been presented in Collegelands Parish Hall in the 1950s, Northern Ireland almost certainly followed by the apple-grower, Jimmy Campbell, singing The Arts Council is proud to be associated once again, as a ‘Dobbin’s Flowery Vale’: principal funder, with this signi#cant annual literary event, One morning fair as Phoebus bright her radiant charms displayed, which made such an emphatic statement of intent when it And Flora in her mantle green those verdant plains arrayed. opened two years ago and has maintained an international standard ever since. The As I did rove throughout each grove, no care did me assail, calibre of the participating writers and artists be#ts the legacy of John O’Connor and of Till a pair I spied by the water side in Dobbins !owery vale. his city, as an historic seat of learning. The programme o"ers important support to new and emerging writers and invites everyone to enjoy high-quality creative experiences, Paul. all in the company of some of the leading names in writing. I do hope you will take the opportunity to be part of it. Damian.

4 5 n the outskirts of Armagh on the Loughall road there was a small hamlet of fifty tiny houses built for the workers of the Duncairne Spin- ning Mill. It was here that John O’Connor was born on 4th April 1920 and here that he lived with his family. His father, Johnny, was a First World War Somme veteran who returned in 1916 with shrapnel injuries JOHN Oto his leg and head. He was a cobbler by trade and he eked out a modest living with his wife Kitty by running a little shop from their tiny kitchen in the Mill Row. It was a simple life, dictated by the working mill, the river floods and the modesty of the lives lived there. O’CONNOR The family moved from the Mill Row in 1932, to a ‘grand’ house by comparison, at St. Columba’s Terrace, Banbrook Hill. A blue plaque in honour of O’Connor has been erected at the house. John O’Connor left school in the mid-1930s and worked, briefly, as a telegram boy. His career with the post office was short-lived as he much preferred lying on the banks of the WRITING Callan River dreaming and crafting his stories. He became a prolific writer, producing pieces for local newspapers, a large number of short stories and several documentary programmes for the BBC under the encouraging eye of his close friend and mentor, Sam Hanna Bell. His only novel, Come Day – Go Day, was described by Benedict Kiely as a ‘masterpiece’ SCHOOL beautifully capturing the ‘wonder, danger and magic of ordinary days’. In the early 1950s John O’Connor travelled to Papua New Guinea and then Australia, where he died suddenly from peritonitis in Ayr, near Townsville, in December 1959. PROGRAMME His emergence as a storyteller of genius did not happen in a vacuum: his immersion in the cultural and literary traditions of his native city in particular, and County Armagh in general, is evident in his work. The people and environment were his material; local 1ST–4TH NOVEMBER 2018 schools and institutions fed his creativity. Come Day – Go Day was first published by Golden Eagle Books Limited in Dublin in 1948, then republished by Blackstaff Press in 1984. In 1984 Sam Hanna Bell said, ‘We’ve had to wait 36 years for the reappearance of this gallery of beautifully drawn characters.’ Pioneered by Sam Hanna Bell and John Boyd, and more recently by Paul Muldoon, he is described as ‘Armagh’s lost literary great’ (Cul- ‘There are no borders, and no boundaries ture Northern Ireland, 2016). The next edition of Come Day – Go Day was published by The John O’Connor Writing where good writing is concerned’. School in November 2016, with the assistance of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. John O’Connor. This recent publication will help bring the work of this important author to the wider audience that it – and he – deserves. Now, a new generation of writers, poets, playwrights, songwriters, film-makers and their audiences will gather again in Armagh to celebrate and enjoy the beauty of language in all its forms, to revisit the work of John O’Connor, and to take inspiration from his beautiful city, and from each other.

6 7 JOHN O’CONNOR WRITING SCHOOL 1ST-4TH NOVEMBER 2018 WRITING SCHOOL PROGRAMME 1ST-4TH NOVEMBER 2018

AT A GLANCE WRITING SCHOOL PROGRAMME November 2018 The Writing School courses will provide intensive tuition for Friday 2nd Saturday 3rd Sunday 4th everyone, including new and emerging writers. The choice of Registration 9.00am: Registration and Lord tutor is designed to ensure that the focus rests #rmly on inspiring, Mayor’s welcome. Venue: Armagh Robinson celebrating and encouraging each and every student, irrespective of Library. their level of skill and expertise. Poetry Class: 11.00am-3.00pm (bring Class: 9.00am-12.00pm Class: 9.30am-12.30pm a packed lunch) Including Industry Talk: Venue: Marketplace Theatre The Student Programme consists of #ve core courses: Poetry, Course tutor: Peter Fallon. 11.00am-12.00pm with Roger and Arts Centre. Fiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting and Songwriting. Students will Venue: Marketplace Theatre McGough. and Arts Centre. Venue: Marketplace Theatre select one course of study and will receive up to eleven hours of and Arts Centre. tuition, including an Industry Talk speci#c to their subject and an Fiction Class: 11.00am-3.00pm (bring Class: 9.00am-12.00pm Class: 9.30am-12.30pm a packed lunch) Including Industry Talk: Venue: AmmA Centre. opportunity to attend a Publishers’ Panel discussion. Course tutor: Tom Bromley. 11.00am-12.00pm with Industry Talks are provided by some of the best writers in Ireland Venue: AmmA Centre. Robert McCrum and Joanna Mackle. and the United Kingdom, allowing students an opportunity to Venue: AmmA Centre. engage with them in an informal setting. Playwriting Class: 11.00am-3.00pm (bring Class: 9.00am-12.00pm Class: 9.30am-12.30pm a packed lunch) Including Industry Talk: Venue: Marketplace Theatre All classes begin and end at the same time, and are scheduled so Course tutor: Brenda Winter 11.00am-12.00pm with Emma and Arts Centre. that students can attend all of the events in the Literary Arts Festival. Palmer. Jordan. Venue: Marketplace Theatre Venue: Marketplace Theatre In addition to the core courses, we are pleased to add an and Arts Centre. and Arts Centre. additional three courses aimed at beginners. These courses are available in Poetry, Prose/Fiction and Playwriting. Screenwriting Class: 11.00am-3.00pm (bring Class: 9.00am-12.00pm Class: 9.30am-12.30pm a packed lunch) Including Industry Talk: Venue: AmmA Centre. O’Connor had a highly-developed social conscience, believing in Course tutor: Christine Morrow. 11.00am-12.00pm with Venue: AmmA Centre. Daragh Carville. equal opportunity for all, irrespective of social, cultural, religious or Venue: AmmA Centre. educational background. Songwriting Class: 11.00am-3.00pm (bring Class: 9.00am-1.30pm Class: 9.30am-12.30pm He was a colourful character, a writer, a sportsman and an athlete, a packed lunch) Venue: AmmA Centre. Venue: AmmA Centre. Course tutor: Garath Dunlop. with a predilection for pink socks and orange ties, which doubtless Venue: AmmA Centre. didn’t go unnoticed in his hometown. He left Armagh in 1952 to Industry Talks 11.00am–12.00pm Note: A number of places embark on new adventures, travelling to Australia, where he died in are available to the public. 1959 in a boarding house near Townsville, on the north-east coast of Admission is free, but places will be allocated at the venue Queensland. on a first-come, first-served, He was an idealist, an intrepid adventurer – some would say a basis. dreamer – but through hard work and determination he became an Step Into Writing 10.00am-1.00pm Taster Classes Step Into Playwriting: admired and respected writer. @ Abbey Lane Theatre. Step Into Fiction Writing: We hope you will be inspired by him to begin and continue on @ Milford House Collection. Step Into Poetry: your writing journey. @ Charlemont Arms Hotel. We are proud to celebrate John O’Connor and all of the tutors, Step Into Writing for Business and PR: writers and contributors to our 2018 programme. @ Armagh Robinson Library. Publishers’ Panel 12.30-1.30pm

8 Key: AmmA: Armagh multi media Access, Market Place, Armagh. 9 WRITING SCHOOL PROGRAMME COURSE DETAILS WRITING SCHOOL PROGRAMME POETRY CLASS DETAILS

Core Course timetable and Step Into Course timetable Core Course Venues Poetry Students choose one course of study for an Poetry and Playwriting: with Peter Fallon. intensive three-day programme, or one course Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre, 9 Market St. Venue: Marketplace Theatre, 9 Market Street. designed for beginners. Fiction, Screenwriting and Songwriting: Friday 2nd November 11.00am–3.00pm. Friday 2nd November Amma Centre, Market St. Please bring a packed lunch. 9.00am–10.45am: Registration and Lord Mayor’s Saturday 3rd November 9.00am–12.00pm Welcome. Step Into (Taster) Courses Sunday 4th November 9.30am–12.30pm It is requested that all Writing School students ‘The man who brought jazz and pizazz to attending the Core Courses register at this event. Step Into courses (taster half-day sessions) are available in Poetry, Fiction/Prose, and Playwriting. Irish poetry’ – The Irish Times. Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. Step Into (Taster) Course Times The Assembly of Poetry. Core Courses Saturday 3 November This workshop focuses on ways in which a poem Core courses are available in: Poetry, Fiction, 10.00am–1.00pm grows and on strategies by which ideas and feelings Poetry Industry Talk Playwriting, Screenwriting and Songwriting. are translated into language. It pays detailed attention with Roger McGough. Students are expected to attend the Publishers’ to the participants’ own work and considers writing’s Panel and discussion– details on page 27 of the Step Into (Taster) Course Venues relationship with the author’s community and with the Venue: Marketplace Theatre, tradition it extends. programme. Fiction: 9 Market Street. Milford House Collection, 3 Victoria St. Peter Fallon is a prize-winning Irish poet whose books Saturday 3rd November include The Georgics of Virgil (Oxford World’s Classics), Poetry: 11.00am–12.00 pm (This talk is part The Company of Horses and Strong, My Love. As founder Industry Talks and Publishers’ Panel Oak Room, Charlemont Arms Hotel, 57-65 Upper of the Core Poetry Course). (in 1970) and publisher of The Gallery Press, he has Each core course will bene#t from an Industry English St. ‘The patron saint of poetry’ Talk with a respected writer in their #eld, and the edited and published #ve hundred books of poems and Publishers’ Panel. Both the Industry Talk and the Playwriting: plays by the country’s #nest established and emerging – Carol Ann Du!y. Publishers’ Panel form part of the course content. Abbey Lane Theatre, Abbey Lane. authors and possesses a unique track record as an Writing for Business and PR: editor and assembler of books. A member of Aosdána, Hilarious and surreal, Roger McGough Note: a small number of free places will be Peter Fallon lives in Loughcrew in County Meath where is a poet of many voices. President of the available to the public at these talks. Places will Keeper’s Rooms, Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. he has farmed for many years. Poetry Society, he has been honoured be allocated at the venue, on a #rst come, #rst with a CBE for services to literature and served, basis and will be dependent on seat the Freedom of the City of Liverpool. availability. Widely known for Lily The Pink, the Aintree Iron, Sca"old, GRIMMS and The Mersey Sound with Adrian Henri Core Course Times and Brian Patten, he now presents the (same for all courses) long-running Poetry Please on BBCR4. His Molière adaptations travel far and wide Friday 2 November with English Touring Theatre. The beat goes on. @McgoughRoger. 11.00am–3.00pm. Short lunch break – please bring a packed lunch. ‘A poemy torch in dark corners’ – Ian McMillan, Poetry Review Saturday 3 November ‘Profound surprises and lasting images on almost every line’ 9.00am-12.00pm. (including Industry Talk) – Siân Hughes, T.E.S. Publishers’ Panel 12.30pm–1.30pm Sunday 4 November 9.30am-12.30pm

10 11 WRITING SCHOOL PROGRAMME FICTION CLASS DETAILS WRITING SCHOOL PROGRAMME PLAYWRITING CLASS DETAILS

Fiction Playwriting with Tom Bromley. with Brenda Winter Palmer. Venue: AmmA Centre, Market Street. Venue: The Marketplace Theatre and Arts Centre, Photo: Antonio Olmos Antonio Photo: Friday 2 November 11.00am–3.00pm. 9 Market Street. Please bring a packed lunch. Friday 2nd November 11.00am–3.00pm. Saturday 3rd November 9.00am–12.00pm Please bring a packed lunch. Sunday 4th November 9.30am–12.30pm Fiction Industry Talk Saturday 3rd November 9.00am–12.00pm ‘I am forever grateful to the Faber Academy for with Robert McCrum Sunday 4th November 9.30am–12.30pm helping me transform my late-night ramblings into a ‘The script and performance were of the highest workable "rst draft. A massive thank you to my tutor and Joanna Mackle. calibre’ – Myles Dungan, Hay Literary Festival at Tom Bromley, whose teaching and mentoring were Kells, of Brenda’s play, Medal in the Drawer. Venue: Amma Centre, Market Street. invaluable’ – Asia Mackay, author of Killing It. Saturday 3rd November This course is aimed at those people who are keen This course will focus on ways to improve and polish 11.00am–12.00pm (This talk is part to progress their playwriting skills. It takes as its your prose writing skills. It will look at a number of of the Core Fiction Course). starting point that participants already understand elements of better #ction writing, with a focus on the principles of con$ict, characterisation and reading like a writer (and writing like a reader), creating ‘McCrum’s biography is a startling plotting. Instead, it focuses on some of the practical Playwriting Industry Talk brilliant characters and developing your settings and chronology of literary achievement’ techniques of theatre-making which will enable sense of place. – citation for Robert McCrum’s prospective and emerging playwrights to use the with Emma Jordan. honorary doctorate from the Nothing beats the pull of a book that keeps you up magic of the stage to tell their story in an imaginative Venue: Marketplace Theatre, into the small hours turning the pages to #nd out University of Exeter. and inventive way. 9 Market Street. what happens next. But how do you craft tales that ‘Joanna Mackle, highly-respected Brenda Winter Palmer has been a professional Saturday 3rd November make your readers miss their train stop? This course former publishing executive at Faber actress, director, and writer for thirty nine years. In 11.00am–12.00pm (This talk is part introduces you to some of the secrets of storytelling: and Faber, now Deputy Director of the the 1980s she was a founder member of Charabanc how to draw readers in, keep them hooked and of the Core Playwriting Course). British Museum, is one of London’s Theatre Company. In 1989 she founded Belfast’s leave them feeling satis#ed. It explores key plotting ‘Emma Jordan understands more than most in#uential “imagineers”’ longest established Educational Theatre Company, techniques and shows you how to lay the foundations most what makes a good script’ – London Evening Standard. Replay. She has written numerous scripts for BBC for your own compelling narratives. – The Irish Times. Radio and Television. She lectured at Queen’s

Tom Bromley is an author, ghostwriter and creative Robert McCrum was Editor–in–Chief of University Belfast in Drama Studies until 2016, and Emma Jordan, the Artistic Director writing tutor. He teaches novel writing for the Faber & Faber from 1980–1986, when he has since continued with her career as a writer. Her of Prime Cut Productions, is one of Faber Academy and is the Director of Fiction for the published such writers as Kazuo Ishiguru, First World War play, Medal in the Drawer (2014), has Northern Ireland’s most respected and Professional Writing Academy. Tom has spent over Milan Kundera, Marilynne Robinson, and earned critical acclaim and enjoyed popular success. proli#c theatre practitioners. Her many a decade working in publishing as a copywriter, Hanif Kureishi. He was Literary Editor of awards include Best Production, Best commissioning editor and publisher, and continues The Observer (UK) from 1996-2012 and Actor, and Best Director for The Irish Times’ to work for both publishers and literary agencies in a Associate Editor until 2017. His most Irish Theatre Awards 2017. consulting capacity. recent book, Every Third Thought, was published in 2017. Originally from Northern Ireland, Joanna Mackle worked as Publishing Director at Faber & Faber for many years, where she collaborated with major writers including Kazuo Ishiguro, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, John McGahern, Harold Pinter, Paul Auster and our own patron, Paul Muldoon. She is currently Deputy Director of The British Museum.

12 13 WRITING SCHOOL PROGRAMME SCREENWRITING CLASS DETAILS WRITING SCHOOL PROGRAMME SONGWRITING CLASS DETAILS

Screenwriting Songwriting with Christine Morrow. with Gareth Dunlop. Venue: AmmA Centre, Market Street. Venue: AmmA Centre, Market Street. Friday 2nd November 11.00am–3.00pm. Friday 2nd November 11.00am–3.00pm. Please bring a packed lunch. Please bring a packed lunch. Saturday 3rd November 9.00am–12.00pm Saturday 3rd November 9.00am–1.30pm Sunday 4th November 9.30am–12.30pm Sunday 4th November 9.30am–12.30pm

This screenwriting course will focus on the ‘Dunlop has the kind of voice that can still a room development and production of a short #lm. During with its vulnerability, the meaning behind the words the course we will look at how to write documents heartfelt, the emotion real’. – Jason Holmes. which facilitate the writing of a #rst draft of a short #lm project. You will also learn how to collate a During his workshops Gareth will consider several di"erent aspects of songwriting, ‘project bible’ to sell your work to a potential including ‘writing to brief’, co-writing, self-expression and the ‘business’ of writing songs. producer, sales agent, broadcaster or screen agency. Screenwriting When songs are written to match the moving images in adverts, trailers, television shows The course is suitable for both new and emerging and #lms this is called ‘writing to brief’. Gareth will discuss some of his own over seventy screenwriters and auteur directors who want to learn Industry Talk such briefs, taking an in-depth look at how lyric, melody and harmony assist branding, more about writing and selling their short #lm. with Daragh Carville. scenes and character. You will learn how to write a logline and short He will also draw on his extensive experience of co-writing. Working with partners in the synopsis as well as how to break down a key scene Venue: AmmA Centre, Market Street. class, and critiquing each other’s work, you will learn how to navigate a co-writing session and bend and meld your own ideas with those of other writers. in a short #lm. For your project bible you will learn Saturday 3rd November about visual references, mood boards, visual style 11.00am–12.00pm (This talk is part Creativity and self-expression in songwriting will also be explored through case studies, notes, directors’ notes, creative team, cast and crew of the Core Playwriting Course). with students discussing their musical in$uences and examining depth, narrative, tense, details and how to write a one-page treatment for structure, melody and harmony in other writers’ songs. your short #lm project. ‘The writing is inspired’ – The Guardian, Publishing, copyright protection, performance and mechanical royalty splits and collection, of Daragh’s play, Language Roulette. Christine Morrow joined Northern Ireland Screen music licensing and catalogue administration will also be covered in the course. as New and Emerging Talent Executive in January 2004, having previously worked in the development Daragh Carville is an award-winning The format will be open and interactive to accommodate all levels of ability and the varying department of BBC Northern Ireland Drama. She playwright and screenwriter from backgrounds of the students. has worked on a number of award-winning short Armagh. He is currently writing The Gareth Dunlop has won many awards for songwriting and seen his songs placed in #lms, most notably the BAFTA winning and Oscar Bay (ITV/Tall Story), a six-part crime American hit TV shows including One Tree Hill, House, Nashville, and Cougar Town, and in the nominated short, Boogaloo and Graham (2014). She drama which is due to be screened in motion pictures, Safe Haven and Best of Me. In Nashville, he has worked with songwriters was on the 2017 Best In Jury of the BAFTA accredited Spring 2019. His wide-ranging television and artists including John Oates of Hall and Oates fame. He has played with artists like Aesthetica Film Festival based in York. experience includes episodes of The The Stereophonics, Ryan Sheridan and Kim Richey and in shows alongside Van Morrison, Smoke (Kudos/Sky One), Being Human Snow Patrol and Jools Holland. Dunlop has worked as a sta" writer for several publishing (BBC) and 6 Degrees (BBC NI). He also companies including Universal Music Group. wrote the feature #lms, Middletown, and Cherrybomb, starring Rupert Grint His debut album, No 79, was released in September 2017 to critical acclaim and featured as and James Nesbitt. In the theatre, RTE Radio 1’s album of the week. Daragh’s plays include This Other City and Language Roulette. His most recent play, History, was produced by Tinderbox Theatre Company in Belfast.

14 15 STEP INTO WRITING – TASTER CLASSES £25 STEP INTO WRITING – TASTER CLASSES £25

Step Into Playwriting Step Into Poetry with Martin Lynch. with Erin Halliday. Venue: Abbey Lane Theatre. Venue: Oak Room, Charlemont Arms Hotel. Saturday 3rd November 10.00am–1.00pm Saturday 3rd November 10.00am–1.00pm. ‘Playwright Martin Lynch’s work ‘Her poetry is erudite, passionate, powerful demonstrates a strong social conscience, and achieved…The range of her skills, is occasionally controversial, and can be interests, themes and topics is both blackly humorous’. extensive and surprising; I have every – Culture Northern Ireland. con"dence that she will develop into one of

the "nest poets of the rising generation’ – A rare opportunity to engage in a lively class Paula Meehan. with one of Ireland’s stage ‘greats’, this session

will explore where stories come from and In this workshop we will investigate inspiration, Step Into Writing for Business how to #nd them. Martin will focus on the key exploring where poems come from. We will elements required when you start to write a look at our preoccupations, using writing and PR with Joris Minne. play and advise on creating distinctive, three- activities to shape our inspiration in an original dimensional characters. Students will be asked Venue: Keepers’ Rooms, Armagh Robinson Library, Step Into Fiction Writing way, then explore drafting techniques to polish to write a short one or two-page scene with 43 Abbey Street. the #nished piece. special attention paid to good dialogue. with Paul McVeigh. Saturday 3rd November 10.00am–1.00pm Throughout, we will illustrate each step with Martin Lynch has written plays for many Venue: Milford House Collection, modern and contemporary poets’ work. This ‘We relied heavily on Joris Minne’s ability to companies, including The Lyric Theatre, The 3 Victoria Street. will be an absorbing and engaging #rst step communicate with various audiences and to Abbey Theatre, Charabanc and Paines Plough. towards getting that poem just right! win hearts and minds to get a very sensitive He has produced and toured widely throughout Saturday 3rd November project over the line. Can’t recommend him the UK, Ireland , New York, and Australia. He has 10.00am–1.00pm. Erin Halliday, Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary written several radio plays for BBC Radio 3 and awardee and featured poet in New Poets highly enough.’ ‘Paul McVeigh lets us see the human 4 and RTE. He also co-wrote the screenplay for from the North of Ireland (Blacksta" Press, – John Rees, Project Director, National Museum condition through penetratingly fresh the Hollywood movie, A Prayer for the Dying, 2016), published her #rst collection of poetry, of the Royal Navy. starring Mickey Rourke, Liam Neeson and Bob eyes. A splendid writer.’ – Pulitzer Prize- Pharmakon, in 2015 (Templar). An Arts Council Hoskins. winner, Robert Olen Butler. of Northern Ireland ACES award enabled her to Learn a key skill in business and media complete the manuscript for her forthcoming communications to help your small business, This class will focus on that crucial story second collection. Erin has worked as a lecturer charity or art group start gaining visibility. Simple opening, work on developing plot and and course convenor at the Queen’s University techniques on how to write a strong press release, character, with tips on how to keep the reader Belfast Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, and who to send it to and how photography works best engaged. is currently a creative writing course facilitator are included in this fast blast through commercial You will discover what competition judges in Belfast. writing for beginners. and journal editors look for and will have Also, social media platforms all work di"erently an opportunity to get advice and guidance and these are the tools you need to know how on how best to promote and sell your work. to use. Award-winning PR man and Chairman of Paul’s classes have sold out all over the UK, Jcomms Ltd, Joris Minne will show you how to get Melbourne, and Ireland. started. Paul McVeigh’s debut novel, The Good Joris Minne has won Irish and international Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize and The awards for his work in PR. He advises on some of McCrea Literary Award. His short stories have the most exciting projects in Ireland, including been read on BBC Radio and ‘Hollow’ was the restoration of HMS Caroline for the National shortlisted for Irish Short Story of the Year at Museum of the Royal Navy, lobbying for a Rank the Irish Book Awards 2017. Paul’s writing has Group multi-entertainment resort for Belfast, and been translated into seven languages. other top Northern Ireland organisations. This year marks his #rst decade as the Belfast Telegraph’s weekend restaurant and food writer. 16 17 In memory of the Armagh writer John O’Connor, recited at the presentation of the blue plaque in his honour on November 3rd 2016. THAT YOU BE NAMED AMONG THE NAMES JOHN That you be named among the Names, That you be named to stand with those Who shaped the calling of their time I call upon that legacy, O’CONNOR And you be there, and you be there Where dream and day roll their drums, And you be stood the heart’s applause. LITERARY And you be named among the Names. And think of all the quiet hours Your pen moved from page to page On returning from your wanderings, ARTS Your gathering of the people’s ways, And think again of the toil on toil To shape beyond what age can touch That long after you are gone FESTIVAL Your words and lines, your art remain. Then let us say, and say again That you be named among the Names, PROGRAMME And on this chosen hour, this call Ascend your rightful pedestal. 1ST–4TH NOVEMBER 2018 And you forever light our road, And you forever shape our dreams. And you be named where hearts are raised. And you be named among the Names. Peter Makem

18 19 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME THURSDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 2018 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME THURSDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 2018

Events happening throughout 1.00-2.00pm. BOOK LAUNCH. 5.30pm. DISCUSSION with exhibition the festival weekend. and clips from BBC radio recordings. The Flight of the Wren by Orla McAlinden. Exhibitions: Words Melted Into Motion. The Life and Times of John O’Connor. Venue: Armagh City Library, Market Street. Free. This event is supported by Libraries NI. Venue: Armagh County Museum £10. Armagh County Museum. Free. This event is supported by BBC Northern Ireland. Words Melted Into Motion. “W.R. Rodgers is a latterday metaphysical who A BBC exhibition about the poet apprehends the divine through the senses, The W.R. Rodgers he John O’Connor Word through words … In his best poetry we "nd Armagh County Museum. Free. Writing School and ‘the Word made #esh, melted into motion’ ” Literary Arts Festival – Michael Longley. Tgets o" to a #ne start with the Bookstore. launch of exciting historical novel, No Alibis Flight of the Wren, by the award- he poet William Robert Rodgers (known William Crawley is an award-winning journalist Charlemont Arms Hotel and at event venues. winning Portadown author, Orla to all as ‘Bertie’), was born in Belfast, but and broadcaster with the BBC. Since 2014, he has A word from David Torrans, founder of No McAlinden. The novel, which minister at Cloveneden Presbyterian hosted BBC Radio Ulster’s daily current a"airs TChurch near Loughgall from 1935 to 1946, when programme Talkback, while for the previous twelve Alibis Bookstore: explores penal transportation during the Great Famine and is published by Mentor Press, Dublin, he left County Armagh to take a job in the BBC years he hosted its weekly religion and ethics No Alibis Bookstore has been operating on was a winner at the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair in as a producer and scriptwriter. In this discussion, programme, Sunday Sequence. Botanic Avenue, Belfast, for over twenty hosted by William Crawley, the poets Paul 2016. In the same year Orla was awarded the Cecil Fran Brearton is Professor of Modern Poetry at years. We are an independent, community Muldoon and Michael Longley, Professor Fran Day Lewis Emerging Writer Bursary and also the Bord Queen’s University Belfast. She recently edited and bookshop specialising in all types of Brearton of Queen’s University, Belfast and the Gais Energy Short Story of the Year Award. Libraries annotated Robert Graves’s First World War memoir, #ction, literature, non-#ction and poetry. Rev. Dr. Robert Tosh, formerly Senior Producer, NI chose her #rst book, The Accidental Wife, as the Good-bye to All That, for Penguin Classics (2014). As you can tell from our name, we also Armagh Big Read 2017. Religious Programmes, BBC Northern Ireland, will know a bit about crime #ction and mystery consider Rodgers in his roles as poet, preacher and Paul Muldoon has won numerous awards for This is a free, family-friendly public event and light novels! Over these twenty years we have BBC producer. There will be extracts from some poetry, most recently the 2017 Queen’s Gold Medal refreshments will be available. also taken our bookstore ‘on the road’, of the many distinguished radio productions in for Poetry, and the Seamus Heaney award for Arts popping up in various towns and venues which he was involved, including his #rst radio and Letters. Born in Portadown, Co. Armagh, and throughout Ireland, north and south. This script, City Set on A Hill, a portrait of Armagh, brought up near The Moy, Co.Tyrone, he now lives in year we are honoured and excited to be produced by Louis MacNeice in the BBC’s Belfast New York City and is Chair of Poetry at Princeton. He heading to Armagh to set up stall for the studios in 1945. The event will also pay tribute to has been described by The Times Literary Supplement John O’Connor Writing School and Literary John O’Connor, referring to stories produced by as ‘the most signi#cant English-language poet born Arts Festival. See you there!’ Paul Muldoon during his own time at the BBC. since the Second World War.’ Michael Longley has published eleven collections Book Signings. of poetry. His most recent collection, Angel Hill, Friday and Saturday, 2nd and 3rd came out in 2017, as did Sidelines: Selected Prose November. 1962-2015. His previous collection, The Stairwell Charlemont Arms Hotel and at event venues. (2014), won the Gri%n International Prize. In 2001 he received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, Roving Arts. and he has won the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, William Crawley Mick Conway, a cross-platform artist, will the Hawthornden Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the PEN Pinter prize. From 2007 to 2010 he was Ireland be picking up images and sounds from Prof Fran Brearton the city and the festival events, creating Professor of Poetry. Paul Muldoon inspiring prints which can be ordered via Rev. Dr. Bert Tosh is an Irish Presbyterian minister [email protected] who served in congregations in Belfast, Donegal and Londonderry before joining the BBC in Northern Ireland as a Religious Broadcasting Producer in 1984. He retired #ve years ago but continues to dabble in broadcasting. Michael Longley

Rev Dr Robert Tosh 20 21 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME THURSDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 2018 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME THURSDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 2018

7.00pm. PANEL DISCUSSION. 8.00pm. POETRY AND MUSIC.

No Alibis in Armagh. The Lament for Art O’Leary Paul Muldoon has won numerous awards for poetry, most recently the 2017 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and the Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters. Panel discussion with writers Anthony Quinn Venue: Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre. £18/£16. Born in Portadown, Co. Armagh, and brought up near The Moy, Co.Tyrone, he now lives in New York City and and Gerard Brennan facilitated by David Torrans new translation by Paul Muldoon of is Chair of Poetry at Princeton. He has been described by The Times Literary Supplement as ‘the most signi#cant of No Alibis Bookstore. Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (The Lament English-language poet born since the Second World War.’ for Art O’Leary), the greatest love poem in Venue: Oak Room, Charlemont Arms Hotel. £7. Athe Irish language. Composed in 1773 by O’Leary’s Lisa Dwan is an Irish stage, #lm and television actor, best known for her Beckett work on stage, as Zoe Burke widow, Eileen, it tells the story of a young hussar’s in the Irish soap opera, Fair City, and as Deirdre in Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. he Crime Fiction genre is a wide persecution and murder by a tyrannical British Jim Lockhart is a musician, composer, radio and TV producer and a member of the Celtic Rock band, Horslips. and varied literary construct. Two landowner, Abraham Morris. This production distinctive strands involve place and features original music composed by Jim Lockhart Barry Devlin is an Irish musician, screen writer and director, and a member of the Celtic Rock band, Horslips. Tenvironment: the urban and the rural. Join and performed by members of Horslips - Barry Ruth Smith is a musician, actor, teacher and producer living in Co. Clare. She is a singer, songwriter, multi- us for an evening with two masters of the Devlin, Johnny Fean, Ray Fean, and Jim Lockhart. instrumentalist and one third of the female vocal and instrumental trio, The Evertides. genre, treading the dark and gritty streets The Lament for Art O’Leary stars Lisa Dwan as and ploughing through the murky dark of the Eileen O’Leary, Ruth Smith as Art’s sister, and countryside. Paul Muldoon as Art’s father. David Torrans established No Alibis Bookstore in 1997. Initially specialising in the selling of a wide variety of Crime Fiction, he has recently expanded into publishing with the creation of No Alibis Press in 2017. Anthony Quinn Is the author of eight Paul Muldoon Lisa Dwan Jim Lockhart Barry Devlin Ruth Smith novels, the latest of which is The Listeners, published in December, 2018. His debut novel, Disappeared, was picked by the Daily Mail as its Crime Novel of the Year, and by LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME FRIDAY 2ND NOVEMBER 2018 The Times as one of the Best Books of the Year. He lives in County Tyrone with his wife and four children. 3.30-4.30pm. CONVERSATION. Gerard Brennan recently earned his PhD in Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast. His publishing credits include Glenn Patterson in conversation with Kate Newmann. Undercover (2014), Wee Rockets (2012) and Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. £7. The Point (2011). In 2012 he was winner of the Spinetingler Award for Best Novella in 2012. he inimitable and humorous Glenn Patterson His most recent novel is Disorder, published shares insights into his life and work as a writer by No Alibis Press in 2018. Twith the poet, Kate Newmann. Glenn Patterson was born, and lives, in Belfast. The author of ten novels, most recently Gull, he has also published two collections of non-#ction and a memoir, Once Upon a Hill: Love in Troubled Times. He is the co-writer (with Colin Carberry) of Good Vibrations (BBC Films) and wrote the libretto for Long Story Short: the Belfast Opera. In 2017 he was appointed Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Anthony Quinn Gerard Brennan Kate Newmann Is one of Ireland’s #nest poets, who, with her mother, the Armagh-born poet, Joan Newmann, is Background photos and above photo of Lisa Dwan © Beowulf Sheehan Glenn Patterson co-founder of Summer Palace Press. Kate Newmann 22 23 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME FRIDAY 2ND NOVEMBER 2018 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME FRIDAY 2ND NOVEMBER 2018

5.00–6.00pm. READING. 7.30am–8.30 pm. READING. Rick Stroud reads from Lonely Courage. Roger McGough, in As Far as I Know, followed by a book signing. Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. £7. Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel, 57-65 Upper English Street. (Doors open 7pm). £15. ‘A fascinating, superbly researched and revelatory This event is supported by the Seamus Heaney HomePlace. book – told with tremendous pace and excitement.’ ‘He is a true original and more than one generation – William Boyd. would be much the poorer without him’ – The Times. he true story of the Special Operations Executive heroines who fought to free Nazi-occupied France. oger McGough’s new show features a #ne selection of vintage, This fascinating story shows just how much each agent depended classic and surprising poems. It’s a gala gig that’s making waves! Ton the judgments, courage and actions of their colleagues, French RHilarious and surreal, McGough is a poet of many voices. counterparts and London HQ, and how their individual contributions Menace and melancholy there may be, but with plenty of McGough’s combined to great e"ect. characteristic wit and wordplay too. His latest book, It Never Rains, is There were thirty nine women among the four hundred-plus agents in a collection of new verses with drawings by the author. President of SOE’s French section. A third of them would not survive the war. Stroud the Poetry Society, he has been honoured with a CBE for services to focuses on six, whose diverse stories, achievements and fates provide a literature and the Freedom of the City of Liverpool. Widely known for very personal and poignant way into this history. Lily The Pink, the Aintree Iron, Sca"old, GRIMMS, The Mersey Sound with Adrian Henri and Brian Patten, he now presents the long-running Poetry Rick Stroud is a producer, director and writer. As well as Lonely Courage, he Please on BBCR4 His Molière adaptations travel far and wide with English has written The Book of the Moon, The Phantom Army of Alamein and Kidnap Touring Theatre. The beat goes on. @McgoughRoger in Crete. With Victor Gregg, he has co-authored Ri!eman, A Front Line Life, King’s Cross Kid and Soldier Spy. He is a trustee of the London Library. 2017 encompassed more McGough milestones than the average year. The #ftieth anniversary of the iconic & top-selling Penguin Modern Poets No.10 – The Mersey Sound by Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten. Then the summer of ’67 epic poem of love and lust, Summer With 6.30–7.30pm. THEATRE. Monika, republished and newly illustrated by Chris Riddell. McGough has had a host of country-wide dates with The Bootleg Beatles and the RLPO in It Was Fifty Years Ago Today, which sold out the Royal Albert Laugh After Death with Nuala McKeever. Hall in hours. November, Roger’s signi#cant birthday month, saw the publication of 80 – a selection of poems for children (Pu%n). The beat Venue: Abbey Lane Theatre. £8. goes on. @McgoughRoger. ‘Rueful, unpredictable observation he books say there are "ve stages of grief – Denial, Anger, to please the sharpest wits’ Bargaining, Depression and Anger. Didn’t go that way for me. – The Independent. Mine were Crying, Drinking a lot, Feeling guilty about drinking, TDrinking more and Passing Out... and that was just in one evening. This event is followed by a book signing in the Oak Room of the Five years after the sudden death of her partner, Nuala McKeever is Charlemont Arms Hotel, back on stage with a new work that explores the process of coming 57-65 Upper English Street, back to life after the person you love dies. With dark humour and at 9.00pm. savage honesty she lays bare her struggles in an often hilarious journey from over-thinking to understanding. Part drama, part stand- up, Laugh After Death is a deeply personal, ultimately uplifting, story of one woman’s attempt to #nd peace in free-fall. Just before the debut of her new show, Laugh After Death, which opens at the Lyric Theatre on November 7th, we have the opportunity to hear Nuala present extracts from the piece and talk about the #ve- year process of writing it, with time for questions from the audience. Photo: Leila Romaya Leila Photo: Nuala McKeever, Northern Ireland’s Queen of Comedy, #rst came to public attention in the BBC NI sitcom, Give My Head Peace, followed by her own comedy character show, McKeever, on UTV. 24 25 26 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME F artists andbandsincluding artists John Mcullough Horantour from withNiall Jake Curran from Guest support andJohnOates.Reid Hehasplayed with Van Morrison, regular visitor to Nashville includingMike where hehasworked alongsidehitsongwriters andartists songs have beenplaced inhit shows including TV Gareth Dunlop O’Connor Festival, 2017. sheopenedhermouthto sing, you‘When could have heard apindrop’ –audience member, John ‘Norah JonesmeetsAlison Krauss’ –audience member, JohnO’Connor Festival, 2017. could bebuilt’ (Fintan O’Toole). is hailedas ‘the Lisa Lambe 57-65 Upper EnglishStreet.57-65 Upper £10. Venue: Hotel, CharlemontArms Gareth Dunlop and Lisa Lambe at the Festival Club. 9.30pm. CONCERT. openat Doors 9pm. songsters and performers willhavesongsters you andperformers begging for more. notmissthisone-o Do Gareth Dunlop ollowing theirunforgettable appearance at lastyear’s JohnO’Connor Celebration Evening, is an Irish singer and actress andaformer singerandactress memberoftheensemble, isanIrish isaprofessional andsessionmusicianfrom guitarist He hasjustcompleted Dublin. a # isoneofthe nest singer and actress ofhergenerationnest singerandactress onwhom a wholefoundation oftheatre isapianistandkeyboard player from Ireland. Jake Curran and One Direction One Lisa Lambe The Waterboys # nest musicians, andsongwriters of his generation. performers, His

and John McCullough are back to perform at ourFestival are backto perform Club. These astonishing . and Van Morrisson. One TreeOne Hill Snow Patrol . – ‘A voice that could tamedinosaurs’ Culture Northern Ireland. Culture Northern FRIDAY 2NDNOVEMBER 2018 ,

House He hasworked withmany di , andJoolsHolland. and Cougar Town Celtic Women . Heisa " pairing! pairing! " erent . She

Main photo © Liam McArdle Photography LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME H Adrian Moyes and thewriters Patsy Horton The panelincludes questions abouthow to bepublished. or work isfact For Primary School children aged 6+. aged children School Primary For Conway. Mick with Art and Pebbles Poetry 12.00-1.00pm. CHILDREN’S ANDART. POETRY Venue: Library, City Armagh 2Market Street. FREE. Free students.Limited to places JOCWS available to thepublic. Venue: The Market Centre, Place Theatre 9Market andArts Street. £5. How To Published Get - Write Now! 12.30-1.30pm. PUBLISHERS’PANEL. experience andadvice inanopen forum. Centre, apanelofpublishersandauthorsshare their osted by Patsy Horton ofBlacksta # Rosemary Jenkinson Rosemary ction, verse ordrama,ction, thisisyour chance to putyour Adrian Moynes Alexandra Pringle Orla McAlinden Orla " Press, David Torrans , Chairperson, , Chairperson, The Tyrone Guthrie and

of Bloomsbury Publishing, ofBloomsbury

Orla McAlindenOrla of NoAlibis Press

Rosemary Jenkinson Rosemary Whether your SATURDAY 3RDNOVEMBER 2018 . U This by event Libraries NI. issupported your child. All materials provided. andplayan unforgettable session for poetry planet –andtheycanprove it! This willbe children are themostcreative peopleonthe everand practice since. Hebelieves that play worker andwriter onplay work theory of children’s play in1978andhasbeena accidentally fell world into thewonderful Patrick’s College inthe1960s. Armagh He ConwayMick Fun for all! image anddevelop anassociated poem.

a group ofchildren to sketch an and sketching, willwork with Mick pebbles sing themediaofpoetry was aboarder at St Alexandra Pringle. Background imageshows

27 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME SATURDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2018 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME SATURDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2018

4.30–5.30pm. CONVERSATION. Things to Leave Behind. Namita Gokhale in Conversation with Darran McCann. Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. £8.

Photo: Antonio Olmos Antonio Photo: amita Gokhale is one of India’s greatest writers, publishing sixteen books during a spectacular career. Her debut novel Paro: Dreams of Passion, 1.45–2.45pm. IN CONVERSATION. published in 1984, created a furore due to its frank sexual humour. Other Nworks include her acclaimed Himalayan trilogy which began with The Book of Shadows and includes A Himalayan Love Story and Things to Leave Behind, bringing McCrum Meets Mackle to life the mixed legacy of the British Indian past and chronicling Nainital’s reluctant – Cultural Icons in Conversation. entry into modern India. 3.00–4.00pm. IN CONVERSATION. Her upcoming publication The Himalayan Arc: Journeys east of South-east is set to be Venue: Armagh Robinson Library. £8. another best seller. oin author and critic Robert McCrum and Up Close and Personal with Actress Founder of the world’s largest literary festival in Jaipur, she is a household name The British Museum’s Deputy Director, Susan Lynch. in India. This is the #rst-ever appearance in Northern Ireland of one of the world’s Joanna Mackle, as they talk about their most powerful literary voices. Jjoint experience of working at the coal-face Venue: Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre. of international literary publishing when they £10/£8 (consession). This discussion is hosted by Darran McCann, an author and playwright from were working at Faber & Faber in the 1980s. Armagh. His debut novel, After the Lockout, was published in 2012, and his short During this time they collaborated with some orn in Co Armagh to an Irish father and #ction has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine and by O’Brien Press. of the world’s greatest contemporary writers, an Italian Mother, Susan Lynch is one of He works in the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast where he including the Irish greats John McGahern, Ireland’s leading actors. She has shared the convenes the MA in Creative Writing. Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel, and Paul Muldoon. Bscreen with Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt Joanna Mackle is from Northern Ireland and and Ewan McGregor, and played the lead role in Pat Murphy’s 2000 #lm Nora, about the life of is Deputy Director of The British Museum. She 6.00–7.00pm. LECTURE. oversees its exhibitions, public programme, Nora Joyce. communications, marketing, digital, national She is well known for her work in television – from rmagh Connections, a lecture and international engagement. Cracker to Happy Valley. delivered by Eric Villiers, celebrates The John O’Connor Lecture 2018: two generations of writers, poets, Prior to this Joanna worked for Faber and Faber, A three-time IFTA award winner, Lynch recently Armagh’s Hidden Literary and Apainters, scientists, soldiers, explorers and and was responsible for major writers such as starred in the award nominated Bad Day for the Cut. musicians whose national and international Kazuo Ishiguro, Seamus Heaney, Harold Pinter ‘A captivating performance that Cultural History - Armagh fame has been neglected and written out of and Paul Auster. anchors the #lm’ history: people who fell between two stools Robert McCrum was Editor-in-Chief of Faber – The Guardian. Connections. – not Irish enough to be remembered by the & Faber from 1980–1986, where he published Susan is joined by the Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, Irish-Ireland emerging between the 1880s such writers as Kazuo Ishiguro, Milan Kundera, playwright and screenwriter, 43 Abbey Street. £5. and the 1920s, and not British enough to be Marilynne Robinson, and Hanif Kureishi. He was Daragh Carville, in a celebrated by the London-centric narrative. Associate Editor with The Observer (UK) until conversation about her life Eric Villiers, a journalist and history recently. and career. researcher, has written two books on His account of his stroke, My Year O# (1998), is in Daragh Carville’s many plays include Language forgotten Irish celebrities John King, Ireland’s its third edition as a Picador Classic. Every Third Roulette (1996-7), What We’re Made Of (2016), Forgotten Explorer: Australia’s First Hero and Thought was published in August 2017. Observatory (1999), Family Plot (2005), This Other The Story of Mary Connolly, an ex-miner and City (2009) and The Life and Times of Mitchell and bare-footed street singer who rose to fame as Kenyon (2014). Television credits include Being a concert mezzo soprano. Human, 6 Degrees and The Smoke. He teaches scriptwriting at Birkbeck College and is currently working on a major new drama series for BBC Northern Ireland, due to screen in 2019. 28 29 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME SATURDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2018 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME SUNDAY 4TH NOVEMBER 2018

8.30–10.30pm. WORDS AND MUSIC. 1.00-2.45pm. WORDS AND MUSIC. Muldoon’s Picnic – An ‘Omnium Gatherum’ of Words and Music. The John O’Connor Lyrical Literary Lunchtime. Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel, 57-65 Upper English Street. £20/ £18 (concession). An afternoon of entertainment in song, music, poetry and prose. ‘A music-and-literature extravaganza’ – Time Out. Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel, 57-65 Upper English Street. £6. Doors open at 12.45pm with complimentary local cheese and cider. oin us for fun and frolics at Muldoon’s Picnic – making its way back to Armagh David Braziel where it debuted for the #rst time outside of New York, in 2016. s this year’s festival comes to a close, please join us for an informal and relaxed Sunday afternoon with JHow would you describe a poet with a house band and a selection of guest an impressive line-up of writers, singers, musicians artists from the worlds of literature and music? Aand poets. The line-up includes performance poet David Paul Muldoon calls it an ‘omnium-gatherum’ - a variety show. It’s about songs, Braziel, song master Tony Villiers, poet Therese Kieran, John poems, stories – and fun. Join Paul and his guests for an unforgettable evening’s O’Connor Creative writers, Flash Fiction Armagh, Byddi Lee, our entertainment. Guests include #ction writers Lisa McInerney and Paul McVeigh, 2018 Short Story Competition winner – and more! poets Mark Doty, Maureen Boyle and Peter Fallon; with music from Horslips. David Braziel lives in Portadown. He is an award winning Paul Muldoon has won numerous awards, most recently the 2017 Queen’s Gold performance poet who has performed at festivals and events Medal for Poetry, and The Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters. Born in Co. all across Ireland. He has been widely published including Armagh, he now lives in New York City. Muldoon is the author of twelve major having a number of poems broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster. His Therese Kieran collections of poetry. one-man show, Too Big for Words, debuted in Belfast in 2017. Horslips are the Irish Rock legends regarded as the founding fathers of ‘Celtic Rock’. Therese Kieran, born in Co. Armagh, is an Irish Writer’s They formed in 1970 and ‘retired’ in 1980! Never! ‘As for The Táin, it most de#nitely, Centre XBorders: Accord 2018 participant. In 2017 her poems saved my life. Epic stu". Literally.’ – John Kelly, RTE. were highly commended in Imagine Belfast Poetry & Politics Competition. Also in 2017, she was long-listed for the Seamus Peter Fallon is a prize-winning Irish poet, member of Aosdána, and publisher of The Heaney New Writing Award. Gallery Press. He possesses a unique and unparalleled track record as an editor and assembler of books. Byddi Lee grew up in Armagh and has since lived in South Africa, Canada, California and Paris before returning to live in Lisa McInerney’s The Glorious Heresies, won the 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for her home city. She has published $ash #ction, short stories Fiction. Her second novel, The Blood Miracles, won the 2018 RSL Encore Award. Byddi Lee and, in 2014, her novel, March to November. She organizes ‘A preposterously gifted writer’ – The New Statesman. Flash Fiction Armagh. Paul McVeigh’s The Good Son won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Tony Villiers from Armagh continues to make waves in the Award. His short story ‘Hollow’ was shortlisted for Irish Short Story of the Year at the music world. ‘Superb songwriting rooted in a great tradition’ Irish Book Awards 2017. – Ralph McLean, BBC Radio Ulster. Mark Doty is a renowned author of poetry and prose. He is currently at work on a memoir that centers on his poetic relationship with Walt Whitman, entitled What Is the Grass? Maureen Boyle’s debut poetry collection, The Work of a Winter, is published by Arlen House Press. She has won the Ireland Chair of Poetry Prize and the Fish Short Tony Villiers Memoir Prize.

Photos from top to bottom: Paul Muldoon, Barry Devlin and Jonny Fean of Horslips, Peter Fallon, Lisa McInerney, Paul McVeigh, Mark Doty, Maureen Boyle.

30 31 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME 1ST-4TH NOVEMBER 2018 THANKS

Thanks and acknowledgements from the John O’Connor AT A GLANCE LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME November 2018 Writing School and Literary Arts Festival Board to those who have supported us by way of public grants, generous private donations and other contributions without which we could not be here. Literary Arts Festival Programme 2018 Friday 2nd November 12.30-1.30pm. PUBLISHERS’ PANEL. Our Patron, Paul Muldoon How To Get Published – Write Now! Events happening throughout the Our Principal Funders: Whether your work is fact or fiction, verse or drama, this is your chance to put festival weekend. 3.30-4.30pm. CONVERSATION. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland your questions about how to be published. Glenn Patterson in Conversation with Kate Newmann. Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council Exhibitions: Venue: The Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre, 9 Market Street. £5. The inimitable and humorous Glenn Patterson shares insights British Council The Life and Times of John O’Connor. into his life and work as a writer with the poet, Kate Newmann. Free to JOCWS students.Limited places available to the public. The Lord Mayor’s Office and the Lord Mayor of Armagh, Venue: Armagh County Museum. Free. Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. £7. Banbridge and Craigavon, Councillor Julie Flaherty 1.45–2.45pm. IN CONVERSATION. Words Melted Into Motion. The North South Ministerial Council 5.00–6.00pm. READING. McCrum Meets Mackle – Cultural Icons in Conversation. A BBC exhibition about the poet, W.R. Rodgers. The Charlemont Arms Hotel Rick Stroud reads from Lonely Courage. Join author and critic Robert McCrum and The British Museum’s Deputy Venue: Armagh County Museum. Free. VII Houses The true story of the Special Operations Executive heroines who Director, Joanna Mackle, as they talk about their joint experience of working at Bookstore. fought to free Nazi-occupied France. the coal-face of international literary publishing at Faber & Faber. No Alibis Bookstore and David Torrans Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel and various events. Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. £7. Venue: Armagh Robinson Library. £8. BBC Northern Ireland Book Signings (Friday and Saturday, 2nd and 3rd November). Armatile Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel. 6.30–7.30pm. COMEDY. 3.00 – 4.00pm. IN CONVERSATION. JComms PR Companies Northern Ireland Roving Arts. Laugh After Death with Nuala McKeever. Up Close and Personal with Actress Susan Lynch. Jeremy Trimble at Trimprint Mick Conway’s images and sounds from the city and the With dark humour and savage honesty, Nuala McKeever is back A chance to get close to one of Ireland’s leading actors. Hugh Adams at AB3 Design festival events. on stage with a new work that explores the process of coming Venue: Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre. £10/£8 (consession). Milford House Collection back to life after the person you love dies. Patricia Curran and Libraries NI 4.30–5.30pm. CONVERSATION. Venue: Abbey Lane Theatre. £8. Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast Thursday 1st November Things to Leave Behind. Seamus Heaney HomePlace 7.30am–8.30 pm. READING. Namita Gokhale, one of India’s greatest writers, in conversation with the 1.00-2.00pm. BOOK LAUNCH. Armagh author and playwright, Darran McCann. Diarmuid O’Connor, Dee Varsani, and all who helped to Roger McGough in As Far as I Know. fundraise The Flight of the Wren by Orla McAlinden. Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. £8. (Followed by a book signing). Armagh Theatre Group and Abbey Lane Theatre The launch of exciting historical novel, Flight of the Wren, which Featuring a fine selection of vintage, classic and surprising The AmmA Centre explores penal transportation during the Great Famine. poems. It’s a gala gig that’s making waves! 6.00–7.00pm. LECTURE. Venue: Armagh City Library, Market Street. Free. Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel, 57-65 Upper English Street. £15. The John O’Connor Lecture 2018: Armagh Pipers’ Club This event will be followed by a book signing in the Oak Room, Armagh’s Hidden Literary and Cultural History - Armagh Connections. Armagh County Museum 5.30pm. DISCUSSION with exhibition and clips from BBC radio Charlemont Arms Hotel. A lecture delivered by Eric Villiers, celebrating two generations of writers, poets, The team at the Armagh Robinson Library recordings. painters, scientists, soldiers, explorers and musicians. Armagh Natural History and Philosophical Society Words Melted Into Motion. 9.30pm. CONCERT. Doors open at 9.00pm. Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street. £5. The Marketplace Theatre and Arts Centre This discussion will consider the poet W.R. Rodgers in his roles as Gareth Dunlop and Lisa Lambe at the Festival Club. Stuart Neville poet, preacher and BBC producer. Back to perform at our Festival Club, these astonishing songsters 8.30–10.30pm. WORDS AND MUSIC. Rosemary Jenkinson Venue: Armagh County Museum. £10. and performers will have you begging for more. Muldoon’s Picnic – An ‘Omnium Gatherum’ of Words and Music. Darran McCann Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel, 57-65 Upper English Street. £10. How would you describe a poet with a house band and a selection of guest Horslips 7.00pm. PANEL DISCUSSION. artists from the worlds of literature and music? Louise Kennedy No Alibis in Armagh. Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel, 57-65 Upper English Street. £20/ £18. Panel discussion about the Crime Fiction Genre, with writers Saturday 3rd November Mary McVeigh Peter Makem Anthony Quinn and Gerard Brennan, facilitated by David Torrans. Sunday 4th Novemember of No Alibis Bookstore. 12.00-1.00pm. CHILDREN’S POETRY AND ART. Eric Villiers Venue: Oak Room, Charlemont Arms Hotel. £7. Poetry Pebbles and Art with Mick Conway. 1.00-2.45pm. WORDS AND MUSIC. John O’Connor Festival Volunteers (For Primary School children aged 6+). The John O’Connor Lyrical Literary Lunchtime. Northern Ireland Screen 8.00pm. POETRY AND MUSIC. Using the media of poetry pebbles and sketching, Mick will work An afternoon of entertainment in song, music, poetry and prose. River Mill Writers’ Retreat The Lament for Art O’Leary. with a group of children to sketch an image and develop Venue: Charlemont Arms Hotel, 57-65 Upper English Street. £6. Kit de Waal for sponsoring short story entrants A new translation by Paul Muldoon of Caoineadh Airt Ui an associated poem. Fun for all! Decision Time Laoghaire (The Lament for Art O’Leary), the greatest love poem in Venue: Armagh City Library, 2 Market Street. FREE. Our festival team: Cathy McCullough, Kathryn Baird, the Irish language. Featureing original music composed by Jim Principal Funders Fionnuala Gough, Olive Broderick, Diane Allen, Roberta Lockhart and performed by members of Horslips. McDonnell, Gillian McKeown, Clare Coulter. Venue: Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre. £18/£16. Our artists and venues and our audiences for supporting the festival. The JOCWS Board members: Patricia Weir, Dolores Stinson, Patrice Digby, Diarmuid O’Connor, Dee Varsani, Byddi Lee, Eric Villiers, Darran McCann, Joris Minne, David Braziel 32 33 CHOOSE YOUR INK WELL

or ? Sylvan House, 232-240 Belmont Road, Phone: 028 3752 2028 Get it at Belfast, BT4 2AW Fax: 028 3752 6979 Tel: +44 (0)28 9076 0066 [email protected] T O O L S F O R C R E AT I V E S [email protected] www.jcomms.co.uk PRINT • DISPLAY • OFFICE & ART SUPPLIES

SUPERIOR GUEST HOUSE ACCOMMODATION. Period charm situated in the historic centre of Armagh. Cover and integrated book design for London’s leading publishing houses. Call: +44 (0) 28 3751 1213 www.ab3design.co.uk [email protected] Tel: 07960 285138

An internationally acclaimed centre for traditional music ARMAGH PIPERS CLUB has been at the forefront of traditional music education since 1966.

We invite you to come to Helping Leaders to the 25th edition of the Make Better Decisions. WILLIAM KENNEDY PIPING FESTIVAL 15-18 November Software for meetings, • over 60 musicians taking part from risks and goals. all over Europe. • more than 40 events over four days in 18 venues Tel: +44 (0)28 9448 7753 Tel: +44 28 3752 8188 www.decisiontime.co.uk www.armaghpipers.com [email protected]

34 35 ‘The world of John O’Connor is a world of the freshly snedded turnip, the new-sawn plank, the sod shining under the plough. His extraordinary gift is to render the life of the Mill Row in Armagh as deftly and definitively as Steinbeck renders Cannery Row or Bob Dylan Desolation Row’. Paul Muldoon, Patron

For further information regarding the John O’Connor Writing School and Literary Arts Festival 2018, visit: https://visitarmagh.com/johnoconnor www.thejohnoconnorwritingschool.com Phone: 0044 (0) 28 3752 1800

Email: [email protected] www.ab3design.co.uk Hugh Adams, by design Brochure