KEANE ON BOOKS

Lighter days are on the way, not least in the form of literary festivals. The season starts next month with Mountains to Sea. Usually held in Dún Laoghaire, this time it’s going online but will be no less vibrant as the smashing line-up — Noam Chomsky, Maggie O’Farrell, Rebecca Solnit, Raven Leilani et al — demonstrates. I’m very excited at the prospect of interviewing Max Porter, author of the celebrated Grief is the Thing with Feathers and more recently The Death of Francis Bacon. Running over the weekend of March 27/28, find details of the programme and tickets at mountainstosea.ie.

We’ve to wait until June for Listowel Writers’ Week. However, it’s accepting submissions for its awards for short story, local heritage, writing in prisons and creative writing for adults with special needs — entries accepted to the end of February. Go to writersweek.ie for further information.

MoLI has just announced the second Edna O’Brien Young Writers Bursary which offers 15 students around Ireland a place on an immersive blended learning programme in July. Aspiring authors aged between 15 and 17 can apply via email at moli.ie.

Libraries have greatly contributed to the nation’s sanity: I love their latest initiative — Ireland Reads.

This Thursday (February 25) has been designated as a new national day of reading. I’m planning on tucking up with Sophie White’s Corpsing from those dynamos at Tramp Press. Visit irelandreads.ie and pledge to devote part of Thursday to books. Planned to coincide with our country’s day between the covers is Between the Red Lines: a spin-off from the Red Line Book Festival which will run from tomorrow until February 28.

Among the names promised on the programme are writers Marita Conlon-McKenna, Annemarie Ní Churreáin and Lisa Harding, whose novel Bright Burning Things is due out next month. I was lucky enough to read an early copy: devastating and brilliant, it will win prizes this year.

All events are free — see redlinebookfestival.ie.