WATERFORD CITY this weekend hosts the 14th annual Seán Dunne Writers’ Festival, which celebrates the life and works of one of the city’s most successful scribes.
A Waterford-born writer and poet, Seán Dunne worked as a freelance journalist and later, as literary editor and a columnist with the Cork Examiner. He died in 1995 aged 39.
Dunne edited numerous anthologies in his lifetime, from The Poets of Munsterto The Ireland Anthology, which was posthumously completed by George O'Brien and his partner Trish Edelstein.
The writer's poetry collections included Against the Storm, The Sheltered Nestand Time and the Island.
A memoir, In My Father's House– his account of a childhood in Waterford in the 1960s – was published four years after his death in 2000.
The festival, which is organised by Waterford City Council and has been in existence since 1996, was launched last night and runs in the city until tomorrow.
Guests at the festival include Tom Paulin, Eamonn Carr, Paul Carson, AL Kennedy and Ellen McCarthy.
The Seán Dunne Young Writers’ Awards are the centrepiece of the festival and have been in existence for more than 10 years.
The awards are “aimed at encouraging new writing talent”, according to organisers.
Ciara Gorman (14), from Castleknock in Co Dublin, was named as overall winner of the award at the launch of the festival in City Hall last night.
Gorman's entry, Escape, was a junior category winner and, as such, her work automatically went forward for selection in the overall competition.
Escapeis a short prose piece capturing a moment in time while visiting a village in France.
Gorman is the youngest entrant to have won the award since the festival’s inception.
The senior category award winner – and overall runner-up – went to Luke Sheehan (26), from Ranelagh, Dublin, for his poem, All the Queen's Men.
The local category winner of the Seán Dunne Young Writers' Awards went to Aisling Máire Finnegan of Clonea Power for her piece, The Boy Soldier.
Writers such as Siobhán Parkinson, Celine Kiernan, Terri Flynn, Michael Kelly and Declan Lynch will read at locations such as the Central Library, the Greyfriars Gallery and at the Tower Hotel over the weekend.
At the Tower Hotel tomorrow morning, a “Literary Breakfast”, with Peter Cunningham and Ellen McCarthy, will allow enthusiasts of the written word to enjoy a full Irish breakfast while hearing the latest works from “two of Waterford’s best-selling authors”.
Later tomorrow, in the Central Library at 6pm, journalist Anthony Healy will discuss the changes facing the world of print journalism in a talk entitled The Future of Print Journalism: Are We Seeing the Death of the Newspaper as We Know It?
Arts officer with Waterford City Council Conor Nolan yesterday said that a “recession affords what used to be referred to as downtime, but should now be looked at as research time, in which to develop raw talent”.
Mary Conway, organiser of the festival, added: “The aim of the festival is to promote Irish and international writing. . . this year has one of the broadest ranges of writers yet.
“Our aim is also to create a festival that people will come back to again, year after year.”
Details regarding the festival can be found at www.seandunne.ie.