23-30 April, 2017 www.cuirt.ie Funding Partners CULTUREFOX.IE NEVER MISS Media Partner OUT The Arts Council’s new, upgraded CULTUREFOX events guide is now live. Free, faster, easy to use – and personalised for you. Never miss out again. Welcome to Cúirt Contents International Festival Official Opening 6 Début Panel 29 of Literature Cúirt Table Quiz 6 Conor O’Callaghan & A. L. Kennedy 30 Anne Kennedy Writers’ Salon and Residency 7 Digital Literature & Art: In Person: World Poets 8 Interface as Creative Device 30 The 2017 Cúirt Festival aims to Launch: Song of Songs 2.0 8 Damon Galgut & Eimear McBride 31 www.cuirt.ie Cúirt International Festival of Literature excite and engage its audience and Seisiúin na Cúirte 9 Elaine Feeney & Josh Idehen 32 provide a platform for some of the Fruition 9 Claire-Louise Bennett & Mia Gallagher 33 most innovative and loved writers Found in Translation? Songs from a room: My Fellow Sponges 34 across venues in Galway City and France, Ireland and the legacy of Michel Déon 11 An Focal: Grá 35 County. Launch of Horseman, Pass by! 11 Dermot Healy: Writing the Sky 36 Each year the festival continues to grow: this year Film: Un taxi mauve / The Purple Taxi 11 Claire Hennessy, Shirley Anne McMillian we are proud to introduce LABS as Gaeilge, a day of Frédéric Vitoux 11 & Dave Rudden 37 workshops for children through Irish. There are two new masterclasses in sports writing and writing for a young Launch: Rise 12 Jay Griffiths, Richard Hamblyn, adult audience. The Anne Kennedy Memorial Lecture has evolved to become a mentored residency, platforming Calasanctius College Book Launch 12 Gaia Vince & Paul Kingsnorth 38 and nurturing emerging poets. While growing bigger we The Sacrificial Wind 13 An interview with Rick O’Shea 39 still nurture our roots. Poetry readings open and close the Town Hall Theatre programme. Established and Consensual 13 Sophie Hannah & Denise Mina 40 début writers are presented side by side. Cúirt/Over the Edge New Writing Showcase 14 Stephen Burt, Theresa Muñoz & Jacob Polley 41 On behalf of the Galway Arts Centre Board of Directors ROPES Launch 15 City Lit Talks Back 41 and the Cúirt team, we would like to thank all of the Persona 15 Simon Armitage & Terrance Hayes 42 participating writers, the funding bodies, sponsors and the Cúirt audience in city and county, in schools and David Butler, Yrsa Daley-Ward & Kerrie O’Brien 16 Bardic Brunch 43 theatres, in kitchens and libraries. It is the dedication of Martina Evans, Vona Groarke & Mary O’Malley 17 Sara Baume, Jenni Fagan & Paul Kingsnorth 44 the audience that continues to support this festival into its 32nd year. Booking Information Songs from a room: Sive 18 Fermata 45 Book online at: Merlin Coverley & Michael Winter 19 Far From Literature We Were Reared 46 Maeve Mulrennan, Programmer www.cuirt.ie or www.tht.ie Tara O’Connor, Manager Oisín Fagan & Ross Raisin 20 An Evening with William McCarthy 47 Paraic Breathnach, Producer Box Office Jami Attenberg, Sinéad Gleeson & Cheryl Tan 21 Cúirt Labs 48 April 2017 Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square Spoken Word Platform 22 Workshops 52 Galway, Ireland Ó Íochtar Mara – Saothar Chaitlín Maude 23 Pop-up Literature 54 00353 (0) 91 569777 No Childhood Back in Our Day 23 Exhibitions 55 Early Bird Tickets John Boyne & Kit de Waal 24 Library Events 56 Early bird tickets available until Tuesday 20 Launch: Poems for Patience 26 Plaque Unveilings 58 March. (Early bird price does not apply to Simon Armitage & Terrance Hayes). Songs from a room: Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola 27 Poetry Ireland and Cúirt Bursary 58 Pete Mullineaux, Mark Wagenaar & William Wall 28 Day by day 62 Daytime Readings Ticket Map 64 Bundle Attend 4 daytime readings (before 8.00pm) for the price of 3. Cover design by Marielle MacLeman 4 5 Official Opening Anne Kennedy Venue Hotel Meyrick Writers’ Salon Date Sunday 23 April Time 7.00pm Price Free and Residency Come along to the official opening of Cúirt 2017. Be entertained Cúirt International Festival of Literature www.cuirt.ie with music from Galway Youth Jazz Orchestra and the musings of The Writers’ Salon is an afternoon of poetry readings and audience Venue: Nun’s Island Theatre some special guest speakers. participation. Each guest will read from their work, followed by a panel discussion about writing. The audience is invited to join the discussion with Date: Monday 24 April an opportunity for questions. The Salon is a relaxed environment where Refreshments are provided and a great night is guaranteed! Time: 2.00pm writers from all walks of life can discuss aspects of writing with a panel of published writers who will share their pearls of wisdom. Price: €5 The Anne Kennedy Residency was developed to support writers by creating Refreshments provided. a platform to mingle in a social arena, and promote the exchange of ideas, guidance and encouragement. Sarah Clancy has been acting as a mentor to emerging writer Daniel Mulcahy as part of the Anne Kennedy Residency. The event is open to everyone, and will particularly benefit those pursuing a career in writing. Jenna Clake is studying for a PhD in Antony Huen is a PhD student at Creative Writing at the University of the University of York, researching Birmingham; her research focuses contemporary poets’ appropriation on the feminine and feminist Absurd of artistic material. His recent in twenty-first century British and publications include a poem in Cha: American poetry. She is the Arts and An Asian Literary Journal, a book Poetry Editor of the Birmingham review in Eborakon, and a chapter Journal of Literature and Language. in the edited volume, Exploring Her debut collection is forthcoming Creative Writing (Cambridge from Eyewear in 2017. Scholars Publishing). He is one of Eyewear Publishing’s Best New Sarah Clancy is a page and British and Irish Poets 2017. performance poet from Galway. She has published three collections of Daniel Mulcahy is a third year poetry, the most recent The Truth student of Creative Writing at NUI and Other Stories from Salmon Galway. Recently he has had poems Poetry in 2014. Her work has been published in The Galway Review, published in the US, Canada, the UK with more work set to be published and in translation in Mexico, Poland, in the near future. Daniel earnestly Slovenia and Italy. She is slowly hopes to continue to develop as a working on a new collection. writer, performer and human being Join us for a night of quizzing and craic in the Galway Venue The Galway Arms for as long as he is able. Elaine Cosgrove’s work has been Date Thursday 06 April Arms with Quiz Masters Vinnie Browne and Gerry published in The Stinging Fly Paul Nash studied at Trinity College Time 8.00pm Magazine (Featured Poet, Winter Dublin, where he received a PhD Hanberry overseeing proceedings on the night. 2015), The Penny Dreadful, The in modern literature and film. Price €40 per table of four Bohemyth, and New Binary Press. After contract lecturing in TCD, Elaine was selected for the 2017 Maynooth University, and the (Includes a complimentary drink and finger food) It promises to be a night of fun and entertainment with Fifty Best New British & Irish Poets National College of Art and Design Anthology (Eyewear Publishing), he taught in London state schools. some friendly rivalry thrown in to keep us on our toes! and longlisted for the 2016 London He returned to Dublin during the Magazine Poetry Prize. Her debut Celtic Tiger to work in a software collection of poetry will be published company. He is also an active by Dedalus Press in 2017. songwriter and has written and self-published a novel Whispering Crates. 6 7 In Person: Seisiún na World Poets Cúirte Launched at Cúirt, In Person: World Poets is an international collaboration Venue: Nun’s Island Theatre between Bloodaxe Books and award-winning film-maker Pamela Robertson- In Seán Tyrrell Pearce, who worked with Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley on this sequel to Date: Monday 24 April Person: 30 Poets (2008), the world’s first poetry DVD-anthology. Her style Time: 5.30pm of filming combines directness and simplicity, sensitivity and warmth – the The Cúirt session this year will celebrate musician Seán Tyrrell. Seán has been Venue: The Crane Bar perfect combination for the intimate readings by poets from around the Price: €5 recording music for over forty years. During the 1960s, he performed with world included in this highlights film. It’s as if the poets were sitting in a room Cúirt International Festival of Literature Johnny Mulhearn, Davy Graham, Rambling Jack Elliot and Paul Simon. Date: Monday 24 April www.cuirt.ie with you, giving informal, one-to-one readings to you in person. In 1992 he produced a traditional operatic version of Cúirt An Mheán Oíche (The Midnight Court) by Brian Merriman, which was regarded by critics as the Time: 8.00pm This hour-long film features a selection from the nine hours of footage on In hit of Galway Arts Festival. In 1994 his first solo project Cry of a Dreamer was Price: €10/€8 Person: World Poets. All of the poems are included in the book which comes released worldwide and voted Best Folk Album of the Year by Folk Roots and with three DVDs. The project covers poets from many parts of the world, Hotpress. He has performed at major festivals and concert halls and on TV including America, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Guyana, and radio in Ireland, England, Europe, Australia and the USA. India, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Romania and Sweden, as well as from Britain and Ireland.