WRITERS TO FLOCK TO KILMORE
AN IMPRESSIVE LINE-UP WAS ANNOUNCED AT LAUNCH OF THE WRITE BY THE SEA FESTIVAL
EXCITEMENT is already building about the second annual Kilmore Quay literary festival Write By The Sea taking place in the fishing village from Friday, September 29, to Sunday, October 1, with an impressive line-up of authors including Donal Ryan, Billy Roche and Peter Murphy.
The event was launched at a reception in the Stella Maris Centre by the County Wexford arts officer Liz Burns, who described the name as ‘inspired’ and said Wexford seems to have a knack for organising excellent niche festivals.
She said Write By the Sea may only be in its infancy but it is already making a mark and showing great ambition and vision while supporting creativity, the art of reading and writing and the idea of people coming together in a brilliant location.
The Mayor of Wexford Cllr Frank Staples complimented the organisers and the participants and thanked Wexford County Council for its support. He predicted that the festival will be a major event on the national calendar in a few years’ time.
The theme of this year’s festival is ‘Our island Heritage’ and among the contributors will be Donal Ryan, bestselling author of The Spinning Heart which was long listed for the Booker Prize in 2013 and won the Guardian First Book Award in the same year; Wexford playwright Billy Roche; poets Thomas McCarthy and Joe Neal; travel writer Geoff Hill; Marcus Connaughton of RTE; children’s fiction author Sarah Webb; John Curran, editor of the award-winning Agatha Christie’s Complete Secret Notebooks; the Enniscorthy-born author of John the Revelator and Shall We Gather at the River and Jackie Hayden, former general manager of Hot Press magazine who will talk about music journalism. Other contribuors are yet to be confirmed. At least two of the participating writers will have new works published before the Festival, including Cat Hogan, author of They All Fall Down who has finished her second novel There Was A Crooked Man, and Joe Neal whose fifth collection of poems is called The Next Blue Note. Festival chairperson Lucy Moore said the organisers are delighted to host a Festival Club this year, offering music, song and drama to complement other fringe events including yoga and meditation. She said the committee of Write By The Sea 2017 wished to thank the sponsors and Wexford County Council and Wexford Arts Centre for their support. Details of the programme and booking facilities are on the Write By The Sea 2017 website www.writebythesea.ie and tickets will be on sale at Eventbrite for €28 for a day or €45 for a weekend ticket. Early bird weekend tickets are available until Friday, June 30 for €40.