FRANCO-IRISH LITERARY FESTIVAL, Coach House, Dublin Castle and Alliance Française, Kildare St, Dublin Fri-Sun www.francoirishliterary festival.com
This year – its 10th anniversary – the Franco-Irish Literary Festival dedicates its explorations to the biggest subjects: love and death – L'amour, La mort.
On hand to help us navigate our way through these vast – and, let’s admit it, tricky – interconnected terrains will be a selection of heavy hitters from home and abroad. Fréderic Ferney is a French cultural commentator, editor, screenwriter and drama critic and Alain Fleisher is a writer, film-maker, artist, photographer and director of the National Studio of Contemporary Arts. There is a rare opportunity to hear celebrated Algerian author Assia Djerba and the influencial French-Canadian poet and novelist Nicole Brossard.
Other visitors will include respected Spanish “queer theorist” and philosopher Beatriz Preciado and Mexican novelist and short-story writer Álvaro Uribe. And among the Irish explorers are Joseph O’Connor, Hugo Hamilton, Dennis O’Driscoll, Claire Keegan and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin.
With all due respect to our own crew, the real attraction here is the chance to catch so many respected writers from other countries over one weekend – with simultaneous translation. It all takes place between the Coach House at Dublin Castle and the Alliance Française on Kildare Street – two of the nicest venues in town. And, amazingly, it’s all free.
