The Minister for Art, Sport and Tourism, Martin Cullen TD, today announced the programme for the third Dublin Book Festival, which will be taking place in Dublin City Hall from Saturday, 6 March to Monday, 8 March.

 

This year’s festival will feature contributions from 100 Irish authors, poets and journalists who will participate in 40 free readings, debates, interviews and workshops. Top authors, including Nell McCaferty, Gordon Snell, Thomas Kilroy, Mary Kenny and Eileen Battersby will be interviewed by fellow authors, while poets Theo Dorgan, Geraldine Mills, Paddy Bushe, Pól Ó Muirí and Rosita Boland will be reading from their work.

 

The festival will also play host to a series of lively public discussions, including a talk on surviving redundancy. Diarmaid Ferriter, Ruan O’Donnell and Niamh O’Sullivan will lead a discussion on Ireland’s rebel history; Caroline Walsh, Carlo Gébler, Greg Baxter and Siobhán Parkinson will explore the role of the literary critic and Gerry Thornley, Gavin Cummiskey and Liam Toland will examine the state of sports writing in Ireland.

 

As the festival ends on International Women’s Day (8 March), women writers will have a particularly strong presence on its final day. A posthumous book from Nuala Ó Faolain, A More Complex Truth: Selected Writings is to be launched, while the legacies of feminism will be debated by Susan McKay, Ivana Bacik, Caitríona Crowe and Margaret MacCurtain, chaired by Anthea McTeirnan.

 

Events for children include readings and workshops with Siobhán Parkinson, Conor Kostic, Gillian Perdue, Anne O’Hara and Sarah Webb. The Festival Bookshop will also have a dedicated space for younger readers.

 

Speaking at the launch of the festival’s programme at the National Library of Ireland, Minister Cullen said the Dublin Book Festival is proof of the vitality of Irish literature. “A vital literary sector is particularly important now as Dublin City awaits the designation of UNESCO International City of Literature,” he said.

The festival’s Artistic Director, Alan Hayes, said entry will again be free this year, despite deep cuts in funding for publishers, writers and arts organisations: “The aim of the Dublin Book Festival is to make literature accessible to everyone,” said Mr. Hayes.

He added that over 11,000 people visited the three-day festival in 2009, a record he hopes will be broken this year. “The Dublin Book Festival is the perfect tonic against all the gloom; it offers book-lovers an opportunity to lose themselves for a few hours, while they mingle with their favourite writers, browse through the Festival Bookshop or simply enjoy a cup of tea and a good read in the Festival Café,” said Mr. Hayes.

 

The festival programme is available at www.dublinbookfestival.com. You can also find the Dublin Book Festival on Facebook or on Twitter (www.twitter.com/DBF2010).  

Photos: Maxwell will release images to picture desks at 6pm.

Alan Hayes, The Dublin Book Festiva's Artistic Director and President of Publishing Ireland, and selected authors are available for interview. Please contact Gert Ackermann on 086 1769287 orgert.ackermann@gmail.com.

 

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