Culture
The Limerick Literary Festival 2020 is celebrating its 36th edition in Honour of Limerick Author Kate O’Brien
Limerick Literary Festival 2020 is one of Ireland’s most vibrant and successful festivals, showcasing the best in Irish and international contemporary literature.
The Limerick Literary Festival 2020 is celebrating its 36th edition in Honour of Limerick Author Kate O’Brien
The Limerick Literary Festival, formerly known as Kate O’Brien Weekend, is this year celebrating its 36th edition from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd February 2020. The event continues to honour the life and works of the Limerick author while attracting prominent participants from all over the world.
This year’s theme is Imagination, derived from a quote from Kate O’Brien’s novel Without my Cloak: “Wherever you go the most of life will have to happen in your mind.”
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Building on this significant history, the Limerick Literary Festival seeks to promote Limerick nationally as a place of literary excellence and to provide a platform where readers can meet their favourite authors and other readers. The Festival was founded in 1984 and is one of Ireland’s most vibrant and successful festivals, showcasing the best in Irish and international contemporary literature in a diverse and eclectic programme.
Also to take place during the festival is the annual Kate O’Brien award for a debut novel from an Irish female author. The winner will be chosen from the following shortlist:
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Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff
- Show Them A Good Time by Nicole Flattery
- Paris Syndrome by Lucy Sweeney Byrne
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When All Is Said by Anne Griffin
On Friday poet and novelist Catherine Phil MacCarthy will give a talk, followed by a lunchtime talk in The Hunt Museum with actor and storyteller Cathy Rose O’Brien, Kate O’Brien’s grandniece.
On Saturday 22, in the Dance Limerick Space, the festival will welcome author of the Forgotten Revolution Liam Cahill, novelist Christine Dwyer Hickey, literary agent Jo Unwind, authors Sarah Davis Goff, Dan Mooney, editor and professor at Sorbonne Paris 3 Cliona Ni Riordain, Limerick-born writer Paul Lynch, English novelist Andrew Miller, poet and broadcaster John Kelly and arts administrator and author David Barrie for individual talks.
On Sunday 23, in the Belltable Theatre, Professor Emerita Patricia Coughlan and Ireland’s Laureate Na nOg and novelist Sarah Crossan will both give talks.
The Desert Island Books is a very popular event on the programme and will be presented on Sunday 23 where director and actor Gerry Stembridge and bibliotherapist and author Ella Berthoud will reveal their choice of five books to carry to a desert island.
Finally, distinguished Irish dramatist and screenwriter Roddy Doyle will close this packed 2020 Limerick Literary Festival in honour of Kate O’Brien.
The Festival which will run from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd February 2020 is one of Ireland’s most vibrant and successful festivals, showcasing in a diverse and eclectic programme the best in Irish and international contemporary literature.
For more information on the Limerick Literary Festival 2020, click here
For more stories on the Limerick Literary Festival, click here
