Kelly to set the polemical tone at Kilkenny
One exciting aspect of the literature programme at Kilkenny Arts Festival is the amount of polemic it always includes. At this year's event, running from August 5th to 14th and curated by Colm Tóibín, the annual Hubert Butler Lecture, commemorating the inspired essayist from Maiden Hall, is to be given by the economist Prof Morgan Kelly; it has the title What Happened to Ireland?Dubbed Dr Doom by some and Ireland's official soothsayer by others, Kelly, as the programme points out, does not just issue reminders of how we got into the banking crisis but also suggests ways out of it. The lecture, at St Canice's Cathedral at 6pm on August 6th, is introduced by the journalist Olivia O'Leary.
Thirty-seven years after he appeared at the inaugural festival, the poet Paul Muldoon will be back – a Pulitzer under his belt – to team up with his fellow northern poet Michael Longley on August 13th. They’ll also be introduced by O’Leary, again at St Canice’s.
The American writers Tobias Wolff and David Vann will read at the Watergate Theatre on August 11th, introduced by Tóibín. Other writers participating include Dermot Healy, Patrick McCabe, Leanne O’Sullivan, Claire Keegan, Kevin Barry and Belinda McKeon, whose debut novel, Solace, is about to be published by Picador. Benjamin Black will also be there, talking to the critic Michael Wood about writing not as his alter ego, John Banville, but as the author of crime novels.
To mark the launch of a dedicated Kilkenny section of the 1911 census website, Catriona Crowe, manager of the Irish census online project, will chair, on August 8th, a historians’ forum on the Kilkenny of 100 years ago. On August 9th, Fintan O’Toole, who writes the Irish Times series A History of Ireland in 100 Objects, will look at the enduring appeal of tangible things; kilkennyarts.ie.
Canvassing to begin for new children’s laureate
Who should be the second Laureate na nÓg? Siobhán Parkinson, the first laureate, has been so imaginative and driven that it was easy to feel she could do the job forever, but next May, after two years, she’ll hand over to a successor.
During the Children’s Book Festival, throughout October, Children’s Books Ireland will be canvassing children, parents, teachers, booksellers and librarians to nominate an Irish author or illustrator they think should be children’s laureate.
International authors coming to the festival will include Tony DiTerlizzi and Frank Cottrell Boyce; among the home-grown participants will be Derek Landy, Sarah Webb and Roddy Doyle, whose book for children A Greyhound of a Girlcomes out in September; childrensbooksireland.ie.