Irvine Welsh, John Gray, Anne Enright, Jon Ronson, Peter Carey, Oliver Jeffers, Alexander McCall Smith, Paul Muldoon will be appearing at the International Literature Festival Dublin, from Saturday May 16 to Sunday May 24.
Now in its 17th year, the International Literature Festival features 90 events in 19 venues over nine days. Other writers who will participate include John Gray, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Dermot Bolger, Deirdre Madden, Selina Guinness, Eoin McNamee, Sara Baume, Gavin Corbett and Lisa McInerney, amongst many others.
The Festival will feature number of events celebrating the life and work of Yeats inspired by his words Bodies That Can Never Tire. Fiona Shaw will be among the luminaries marking 150 years since Alice fell down the rabbit hole in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Also sure to attract many fans is the celebratory tribute to the celebrated fiction writer and memoirist Dermot Healy (The Bend for Home, A Goat’s Song.) Friends and admirers including Martin Hayes, Neil Jordan, Pat McCabe, Anne Haverty and Roddy Doyle will pay tribute.
Historians Diarmaid Ferriter and Maurice Walsh will discuss how they approached writing about the momentous events of 1916 in advance of the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.
Iranian author Azar Nafisi and Turkish author Elif Shafak will discuss freedom of expression in the context of their work. The relationship between Russia and its neighbours will be explored by Sofi Oksanen, whose 2012 novel, When the Doves Disappeared is set in Soviet-occupied Estonia. “An explosive text with a dark heart . . ., “ wrote the critic from Le Monde (France), reviewing the book. “At once a historical novel, a crime story, a psychological novel, a romance, a war novel, When the Doves Disappeared plays with blurring boundaries.” The novel is published in English by Atlantic Books and Random House.
The crisis in the Ukraine will be debated by journalists Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev. The Festival will also discuss Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s recent Guantánamo Diary, based on his own incarceration at the notorious prison. The prisoner-author's editor and attorney will be present for what should be a fascinating session.
The children’s and young people’s programmes, curated by Sinead Connolly, will feature acclaimed authors Chris Haughton, Anne Fine, Petr Horáček, Sarah Ardizzone, Nicola Davies, Bali Rai, Judi Curtin and Sarah Webb.
Watch clip featuring Sofi Oksanen talking about her 2010 novel, Purge, which concerns human trafficking
