BELFAST BOOK FESTIVAL 8—14 June 2015
“Belfast has long been famous as a city of readers and writers and the Belfast Book Festival perfectly captures the moods of invention and reflection and fun which only a book can excite. The Arts Council is delighted to support this Festival – reading is still a private and intimate joy, but when it goes ‘live’, on song, outdoors or on stage, this is where public funding rightly comes into its own.” Roisin McDonough Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland “Welcome to the fifth Belfast Book Festival proudly organised by the Crescent Arts Centre. This year we have over 100 events with many completely free to attend. The Belfast Book Festival continues to grow in stature, reputation and scale. Some of our notable highlights this year include Ben Okri, Polly Toynbee and Tariq Ali. The success of the Belfast Book Festival is measured by the strong partnerships and the number of venues that participate in the events taking place from 8 - 14 June across the city of Belfast. At the Crescent Arts Centre our abiding ethos is "arts for all" and so we have something for everyone this year. If you have not been to the Belfast Book Festival before then why not try something new this year and if you are one of our regulars then welcome back. I leave you with this quote, "a room without books, is like a body without a soul," Marcus Tullius Cicero.” Deepa Mann-Kler, Chair, Crescent Arts Centre
Booking information Online Booking your tickets online is easy. Simply go to belfastbookfestival.com, choose your favourite events and pay online through our secure system to get an email with your tickets (PDF) sent to you instantly. In Person / By Telephone You can purchase your tickets by calling us on (028) 9024 2338, or in person by coming to the Crescent Arts Centre, located at 2 - 4 University Road, Belfast BT7 1NH. Contact The Crescent Arts Centre 2–4 University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NH (028) 9024 2338 bookfestival@crescentarts.org director@crescentarts.org belfastbookfestival.com
f belfastbookfestival t @belfastbookfest #belfastbook
Refunds Festival tickets cannot be refunded once purchased unless the event is cancelled or postponed. In this event, refunds must be claimed from point of purchase. All tickets for events are non transferable after purchase. Accessibility We endeavor to make the Festival as accessible as possible. We recommend that we are notified when booking of any specific requirements to that we can adequately provide for your needs and confirm accessibility. A 2 for the price of 1 offer is also available in the case of an attendee requiring assistance - please contact us when booking to arrange this. Free Events Availability for free events is ‘first come, first served’. Tickets for free events should be booked in advance if specified in individual event listings.
Contents
Monday 8 June 5 Tuesday 9 June 13 Wednesday 10 June 19 Thursday 11 June 27 Friday 12 June 39 Saturday 13 June 47 Sunday 14 June 55 At a Glance 36 Venue map 38 Weeklong events 61 Workshops 64
BELFAST BOOK FESTIVAL 8—14 June 2015
Staff Festival Director Keith Acheson
Finance Mave Dempster
Housekeeping Marlena Wysocka
Marketing Tracy O’Toole
Website Melissa Gordon
EVS Volunteer Cinzia Savonitti
Outreach & Education Ann Feely
Operations Megan Boyd
Arts Technician Oliver Quinn
Reception Siobhan Green
Desk Staff Daniela Balmaverde, Tonya McMullan, Peter McCloskey, Brígh Strawbridge, Rachael Kelly and Rebecca Corr.
Press Rachael Harriott
Weekend Reception Clement Lesbarrères
Festival Bookseller No Alibis Bookstore
Maintenance Officer Bill Smith
our Funders
Crew Chris Lavery, Nadine Casley and Conor Maguire. We would also like to thank our huge team of volunteers for helping to make the Festival a success.
our sponsors
Festival partners
The Belfast Book Festival is funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council. The views expressed during the festival are not necessarily shared or endorsed by our funders, the Belfast Book Festival or the Crescent Arts Centre and they do not accept any responsibility or liability for same.
Monday 8 June
LITERARY LUNCHTIMES
dermot bolger: tanglewood With Marie-Louise Muir ULSTER HALL MONDAY 8 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: £5
Born in Dublin in 1959, Dermot Bolger is one of Ireland’s best known writers. His eleven previous novels include The Journey Home, The Family on Paradise Pier, A Second Life and The Fall of Ireland. His first play, The Lament for Arthur Cleary, received the Samuel Beckett Award and his numerous other plays include a stage adaptation of Ulysses which played at the Belfast Festival and has recently completed a tour of China. His ninth collection of poems, The Venice Suite: A Voyage Through Loss, appeared in 2012. Bolger has edited many anthologies, been a Writer Fellow at Trinity College, Dublin, writes for several leading newspapers and in 2012 was named Commentator of the Year at the Irish Newspaper awards. Bolger will be reading from his new novel, Tanglewood: the story of two neighbours who unwisely decide to collaborate on building an investment property that straddles both their gardens. The novel is a bitter-sweet examination of the simmering tensions, intolerable strains and unbreakable bonds of memory and love that can simultaneously exist within marriage. 6 monday 8 June
SELF-PUBLISHING SALON With Debbie McGrory
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE MONDAY 8 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: FREE
Why not pop along to this free event and meet some possible stars of the future? In recent years self-publishing has grown in popularity. It’s relatively cheap and offers new writers a vehicle to bring their work to a wider audience. Famous writers such as E.L James (50 Shades of Grey) and Hugh Howey (Wool Trilogy) launched their careers through self-publishing. This lunchtime event features Peter J.S Waugh Half Irish, and Thomas Jobling Chasing Shadows.
Book Detectives with Sam Porciello crescent arts centre MONday 8 June, 4pm free admission, ages 7-10
Put on your detective’s hat and grab your magnifying glass, we are going on a character investigation hunt and not one book will be left unturned! Activities will include, interviewing suspects and witnesses while finding and investigating clues. We need your detective skills to help us find the characters who have escaped their story books!
children's event
Oggy Boytchev: Simpson & I crescent arts centre MONDAY 8 JUNE, 6:15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Oggy Boytchev, the author of Simpson & I has spent his career working as a journalist in the most dangerous places on earth. As John Simpson’s producer at the BBC, the pair undertook numerous undercover assignments in countries with hostile regimes. With astonishing revelations about how stories are discovered and reported, he will talk about the often nail-biting moments behind the camera, as well as the skill and courage it takes to break the news we all watch while safely tucked at home. Oggy will be illustrating his talk with two short films. This event has been kindly sponsored by Standard Utilities. monday 8 June
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WRITING ON DEPRESSION crescent arts centre MONDAY 8 JUNE, 6:15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Can writing help depression? If so, what are the best ways to get started, and how exactly does it help? Join Belfast-born writer Carolyn Jess-Cooke and writer and broadcaster Liz Fraser as they explore links between literature and mental illness, with a focus on new research that looks closely at how putting pen to paper can assist with mental wellbeing. Liz will be discussing her new website Headcase which seeks to ‘re-brand mental health’, while Carolyn talks about themes of mental illness in her work and her research in creative writing and wellbeing. A take-home creative writing workshop is available to all participants. Liz Fraser is one of the UK’s best-known writers and broadcasters on all aspects
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of modern family life, appearing almost daily on national TV and radio with much bigger hair than she has naturally. Her internationally best-selling books about the realities of being a parent re-moulded parenting forever by finally allowing it to be funny, and accepting that we all get most of it wrong – which is just as it should be. Carolyn Jess-Cooke is an award-winning poet and novelist published in 22 languages. Her most recent novel The Boy Who Could See Demons explores mental illness in the aftermath of The Troubles and is being made into a Hollywood film. She is currently Lecturer in Creative Writing at Glasgow University and is leading a new research project on writing and mental health.
DIS-EASE (Opening) CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE MONDAY 8 JUNE, 7.45PM free admission
WRITING & COMMUNITY: IDEAS OF PLACE CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE MONDAY 8 JUNE, 6.30PM free admission
A performance event for participants in a Big Lottery funded project, which asks writers to respond creatively to the notion of ‘place’. This is a chance to hear what living in Northern Ireland means to a host of new and established voices. The project is led by Leon Litvack at the School of English at Queen’s University, with co-operation from the Crescent Arts Centre, CAP, Fighting Words, Young at Art, and writers’ groups and experienced facilitators from across Ulster.
The poet, Moyra Donaldson and photographic artist, Victoria J. Dean met in 2010, the inaugural year of the ACNI’s Artist Career Enhancement Scheme for which they were both selected. Interested in each other’s work, and in expanding and challenging their individual practices through a collaboration across the disciplines of poetry and the visual arts, they decided to work together. Having agreed on the theme, Dis-ease, spanning concepts of disease, unease or discomfort, the collaboration took an organic course. Over the course of 6 months, each responded individually to the theme, whilst also exchanging thoughts and inspiration on an ongoing basis through regular meetings and discourse, cultivating the project as a whole with subtle influences and potential crossovers. With the support of Gregory McCartney through Abridged (in its 10th Anniversary year), the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the result was a publication and exhibition in 2014. The exhibition consists of a series of images combined with poems or extracts from poems.
monday 8 June
9
CARPET BURNS: MY LIFE WITH INSPIRAL CARPETS With ralph mcclean
black box MONDAY 8 JUNE, 8PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Tom Hingley's book Carpet Burns: My Life with Inspiral Carpets, is an account of his life as lead singer of Inspiral Carpets, one of the big three bands of the Manchester movement who, along with The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, changed music for a generation. He sang on 15 top twenty hits, appeared on TOTP 7 times, sold a million records and toured the world many times. Tom now performs solo as well as touring with his band. Tom will be talking about what it’s like to be in the eye of a pop hurricane and what happens when the hits end and the arguments kick in. The event includes a live acoustic set from Tom. Expect an eclectic mix of old Manchester classics, Blues originals and standards. "Oh my God! Every band is the same. I couldn’t put it down." Peter Hook carpetburns.wordpress.com tomhingley.co.uk 10 monday 8 June
DUKE SPECIAL & ANDREW DOYLE lyric theatre MONDAY 8 JUNE, 8PM TICKETS: £8 / £6
Platinum-selling singer songwriter Duke Special and writer/comedian Andrew Doyle discuss their new musical adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, which will be staged at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast later this year by Youth Music Theatre UK. This is Duke Special’s first theatrical venture since his acclaimed compositions for Mother Courage and Her Children at the National Theatre in 2009. The writers discuss their methods in adapting Swift’s novel into a musical, and their particular approach to the collaborative process, as well as exclusively previewing some of the new songs. Gulliver’s Travels is produced by Youth Music Theatre UK in association with Lyric Theatre Belfast and runs from the 30 July – 01 August.
Nuala Ní Conchúir & Henrietta McKervey
With Marie-Louise Muir CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE MONDAY 8 JUNE, 8.30PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Nuala Ní Chonchúir was born in Dublin in 1970, she lives in East Galway. She has published four short story collections, the most recent Mother America appeared from New Island in 2012. Nuala’s critically acclaimed second novel The Closet of Savage Mementos appeared in 2014, also from New Island; it was shortlisted for the Kerry Irish Novel of the Year Award 2015. Under the name Nuala O’Connor, Penguin USA, Penguin Canada and Sandstone Press (UK) will publish Nuala’s third novel, Miss Emily, about the poet Emily Dickinson and her Irish maid, in summer 2015. nualanichonchuir.com
Henrietta McKervey's first novel, What Becomes Of Us, was published by Hachette in April. Set at the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising, What Becomes Of Us unites the fledging feminist movement of the 1960s with the fledging women's movements of the early years of the twentieth century. The Sunday Times said, “This impressive debut marks the writer out as a talent able to tell a complex story with intelligence and humour.” She won the Hennessy First Fiction Award earlier this year, and in 2014, the inaugural Maeve Binchy UCD Writing Award. Born in Belfast, she lives in Dublin. monday 8 June 11
Tariq Ali The Extreme Centre: A Warning
In conversation with Seamus McKee
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE MONDAY 8 JUNE, 8.30PM TICKETS: £10 / £8
Britain’s leading radical delivers an eviscerating attack on the indistinguishable political elite of the UK. What is the point of elections? The result is always the same: a victory for the Extreme Centre. Since 1989, politics has become a contest to see who can best serve the needs of the market, a competition now fringed by unstable populist movements. The same catastrophe has taken place in the US, Britain, Continental Europe and Australia. In this urgent and wide-ranging case for the prosecution, Tariq Ali looks at the people and the events that have informed this moment of political suicide: corruption in Westminster; the failures of the EU and NATO; the soft power of the American Empire that dominates the world stage uncontested. 12 monday 8 June
Despite this inertia, Ali goes in search of alternative futures, finding promise in the Bolivarian revolutions of Latin America and at the edges of Europe. Emerging parties in Scotland, Greece and Spain, formed out of the 2008 crisis, are offering new hope for democracy. Tariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written more than a dozen books on world history and politics—including Pirates of the Caribbean, Bush in Babylon, The Clash of Fundamentalisms and The Obama Syndrome—as well as five novels in his Islam Quintet series and scripts for the stage and screen. He is an editor of the New Left Review and lives in London.
tuesday 9 June
RESEARCHING PAST LIVES, WRITTEN IN STONE CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 6.15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
LITERARY LUNCHTIMES voices from scotland ulster hall TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: £5
Cargo Publishing presents a trio of talented female novelists as part of Belfast Book Festival. Representative of the exciting new voices within Scottish writing all three will be reading from their recently published novels. The showcase will feature Margaret Montgomery, (Beauty Tips for Girls), Kate Tough, (Head for the Edge, Keep Walking) and Nicola White, (In the Rosary Garden).
Local historian Tom Hartley will take you on a journey through the graveyards of Milltown and Belfast City cemeteries and talk about his research into the lives of those buried there: priests and nuns, architects and footballers, businessmen and poets, hurlers and harp makers, British Army soldiers and IRA volunteers. Tom will examine key events in Belfast’s history – the First and Second World Wars, the Troubles, Home Rule, and the Dockers' Strike of 1907, as well as the development of shipbuilding and other industries, and the careers of the many writers, artists, entertainers and sportsmen. Tom Hartley was born in Belfast and has been active in politics for over forty years. In 1993 he was elected as a councillor for the Lower Falls on Belfast City Council and in 2008 was elected as Lord Mayor of Belfast. He is the author of The History of Belfast, Written in Stone series, Milltown Cemetery and Belfast City Cemetery, published by Blackstaff Press in 2014.
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Doire Press Authors
With stephen connolly black box TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 6.15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Breda Wall Ryan is from Wicklow and was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series in 2014. In 2015 she won the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize; in 2014 she won 2nd place for the Patrick Kavanagh Award; in 2013, she won the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Competition and the Dromineer Poetry Competition. In a Hare’s Eye was published in March. Irish-Australian Robyn Rowland has nine books of poetry and work in forty anthologies. She won the Catalpa Poetry/ Writers Prizes (Australian-Irish Heritage Association), Poetica Christi Poetry Prize, Writing Spirit Poetry Award, and has read and published in Ireland, Australia, Turkey, Greece, Austria, Bosnia, Serbia, India, UK, USA, New Zealand, Italy, Spain. Line of Drift was published by Doire Press in May. Elaine Gaston is from Ballycastle, County Antrim and received an ACE Award from
KARIM MISKÉ: ARAB JAZZ With Malachi O'Doherty
Crescent Arts Centre TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 8:30PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Born in 1964 in Abidjan to a Mauritanian Muslim father and a French atheist, Marxist mother, Karim Miské moved to Paris as a young boy before leaving to study journalism in Dakar. He now lives in France, and makes documentary films on a wide range of subjects including the common roots between Judaism and Islam. He runs a Senegalese restaurant in Paris’ 11th arrondissement and has started writing TV scripts. In Arab Jazz, his debut novel, Karim Miské demonstrates a sharp eye for character and an evocative sense of place, moving seamlessly between the sensual streets of Paris and the synagogues of New York to reveal the truth behind a horrifying crime. Set in the 19th arrondissement, a cosmopolitan district where multicultural citizens live, love and worship alongside one another, Arab Jazz is not only a nail-biting thriller but also a visceral denunciation of religious fundamentalism. tuesday 9 June 15
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SACRUMPROFANUM: Live Performance & Exhibition Crescent Arts Centre TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 8PM TICKETS: £8 / £6
SacrumProfanum combines contemporary music, poetry, video installation and visual art, fieldwork reportage and innovative publication design in a large-scale multimedia performance and exhibition responding to the enigmatic sheela-na-gig stone carvings. Sheela-na-gigs are stone carvings of naked female figures that prominently depict the vulva. They are found on medieval churches, castles, wells, and town walls, with over one hundred carvings found in Ireland and around thirty-five found in England, Scotland, and Wales. Their meaning, dating, and origins are disputed. Scholars have suggested that the carvings are warnings against lust and sin; fertility charms that aid in conception and childbirth; icons of female power; emblems of the power of nature to give and take life; protective talismans against the evil eye, or symbols of sovereignty over land and nation. While there are numerous theories about what these carvings signify and from when and where they originate, ultimately, there is insufficient evidence in favour of any one interpretation. Creative Directors Kimberly Campanello (poet) and Benjamin Dwyer (composer/ guitarist) approach the sheela-na-gigs through an aesthetics of damage, excavation
and assemblage, drawing upon ‘found’ text, visuals and music to evoke the carvings' potential meanings. They have brought together an innovative and dynamic team of some of the finest musicians and artists working today in order to profoundly engage with themes of identity, politics, (post)colonialism, feminism and ritual. SacrumProfanum (mixed ensemble and installation) Creative Director, Composer, Guitar: Benjamin Dwyer Creative Director, Poet, Viola: Kimberly Campanello Video Artist: Dylan Griffith Viola: Garth Knox Soprano: Sylvia O’Brien Percussion: Alex Petcu Sean-nós singer: Áine Ní Dhroighneáin Uilleann pipes: Donnacha Dwyer Translator: Aifric Mac Aodha The SacrumProfanum exhibition runs at the Crescent Arts Centre Gallery from June 10-23 and includes video and photographic installations, original manuscript scores, imagines (the complete set of limited edition lithograph books of Benjamin Dwyer’s scores for solo viola and four of Kimberly Campanello’s poems published by New Dublin Press) and fieldwork photographs and sketches of the sheela-na-gigs. Please note: Some audio and visual content is of an adult nature.
tuesday 9 June 17
THE LIFEBOAT THE SUNFLOWER BAR TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 9PM free admission
MOBY DICK black box TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 8.15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
"Call me Ishmael," the narrator begins, in one of the most recognisable opening lines in American literature. On board the Pequod we are taken into the minds of the crew, who are sworn by Ahab, the captain, to chase and kill the great whale Moby Dick, but his obsession leads them to perilous danger. Herman Melville's epic prose from 1851 still has much to tell us about the nature of man and is brought to the stage by Conor Maguire, who has performed Oscar Wilde in De Profundis and Brendan Behan in The Confirmation Suit for the Belfast Book Festival.
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The Lifeboat is a reading series which hosts poets who have published a collection of poems with poets who have yet to publish a collection of poems. This reading features David Wheatley, Emma Must and Francine Elena. David Wheatley has published four collections with Gallery Press, including A Nest on the Waves (2010). He lives in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Emma Must has recently published a pamphlet, Notes on the Use of the Austrian Scythe, with Templar. She is a PhD student in the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, where she also teaches. Francine Elena was born in in Canterbury and grew up in London, Lisbon and Scotland. Her poems have been published in Best British Poetry 2013, Poetry London and The Honest Ulsterman.
wednesday 10 June
SELF-PUBLISHING SALON CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE wednesday 10 JUNE, 1PM free admission
RANDALL STEPHEN HALL CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE wednesday 10 JUNE, 1PM free admission
Since gaining airplay on the Gerry Anderson Show, BBC Radio Ulster in 2010, Stephen has continued to perform live, either with a band or on his own. The idea of a one man show has developed slowly, out of his work as a storyteller and his work as a musician and illustrator. His unusual mixture of gifts sets him apart and adds an unusual originality to his work, along with a quirky sense of humour. Stephen appeared on the Gerry Anderson Show four times in the one year 2010-2011 with his band The Moon Shed, this is a rare accolade. Since the launch of his first CD, The Wee Wee Man/Songs from the Moon Shed, Stephen has been playing locally and writing more songs. His next album, RE-WIRED, is due out in 2015. randallstephenhall.com
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Why not pop along to this free event and meet some possible stars of the future? In recent years self-publishing has grown in popularity. It’s relatively cheap and offers new writers a vehicle to bring their work to a wider audience. Famous writers such as E.L James (50 Shades of Grey) and Hugh Howey (Wool Trilogy) launched their careers through self-publishing. This lunchtime event features Deirdre Devlin’s Fogmakers, J.S. Comiskey’s Solstice: The Goddess Awakens and Susan Sand’s All by myself.
LITERARY LUNCHTIMES SARA BAUME
Book Detectives with Sam Porciello
ulster hall wednesday 10 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: £5
crescent arts centre wednesday 10 June, 4pm free admission, ages 7-10
Liven up lunchtime with bookish adventures in the Group Space featuring readings by popular writers and specially themed literary events.
Put on your detective’s hat and grab your magnifying glass, we are going on a character investigation hunt and not one book will be left unturned! Activities will include, interviewing suspects and witnesses while finding and investigating clues.
Spill Simmer Falter Wither is Sara Baume`s debut novel. This quietly powerful story is told through the eyes of a man speaking to his only companion, a rescue dog he calls One-Eye. Set against the changing seasons in rural Ireland, this is an affecting, reflective novel on isolation and belonging. Sara Baume has been published in The Dublin Review, The Moth, The Penny Dreadful, The Stinging Fly and the Irish Independent as part of the Hennessy New Irish Writing series. In 2014 Baume won the Davy Byrnes Short Story Award for her story Solesearcher1.
We need your detective skills to help us find the characters who have escaped their story books! children's event
Presented by John Hewitt Society, in association with the Belfast Book Festival.
wednesday 10 june 21
OISÍN THE BRAVE – ROBOT ISLAND With Derek Mulveen
EASON BELFAST WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE, 4PM free admission, Age 3 - 7
First published in 2012, Derek Mulveen's debut children's book Oisín The BraveMoon Adventure (Eire's Kids, 2012) was widely received in Ireland and across the Atlantic in the United States. Co-writing with his wife Michelle Melville, Derek has completed two U.S book tours and headlined various book festivals including Listowel Writers Week, Milwaukee Irish Fest and Dublin Book Festival.
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During story time, Derek ignites the imagination and innocence of young children. He loved Irish Myths, Fairy Tales and Biblical stories as a young boy. Educated in Galway, Derek works as a special needs assistant at Lakeview School working with children that experience difficulties in learning and various disabilities. "Activate the Dolmen!...... Type the Adventure in!!...... a Rocket Ship to the MOON or a GOLDEN KEY to open your imagination and create an ADVENTURE!!!" With the release of his second book Oisín The Brave-Robot Island (Eire's Kids, 2014) saw his book reviewed on National Television reaching to an audience over 1.3million viewers. His first charity book for publishing this year titled Where Do All the Balloons Go? will raise needed awareness for the Irish charity Act For Meningitis.
children's event
LAURENCE DONAGHY Crescent Arts Centre WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE, 6:15PM tickets: £6 / £4
The world of fanfic is much maligned, its authors either pilloried for dedicating untold amounts of their time to stories no one ever reads and hardly anyone cares about, or harangued for when those same stories go on to sell tens of millions of copies. Yet there is a huge and passionate fanfic community out there and Laurence Donaghy knows quite a bit about it. Before his Folk'd trilogy was published by Blackstaff Press, he was a regular contributor, writing unheralded sequels to Superman Returns and unofficial Star Wars novels. In Building Better Toyboxes Laurence will talk about his take on fanfic, explore why it has a place in the wider writing world as a springboard for those too intimidated to construct their own worlds, and talk about his own journey from fanfic dabbler to published author. Laurence Donaghy is Belfast born and bred and has lived for approximately 32.5 per cent of his total life expectancy off the Falls Road, where he currently lives with his wife and two young children. A geek before geekchic was chic, he’s been a fan, follower and writer of sci-fi and fantasy most of his life. He is the author of the Folk’d Trilogy: Folk’d (2013), Folk’d Up (2014) and Completely Folk’d (2015), published by Blackstaff Press.
THOMAS HITZLSPERGER
in conversation with denise watson ERRIGLE INN (ORMEAU ROAD) WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE, 7PM TICKETS: £8 / £6
Thomas Hitzlsperger is a former German footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent the early part of his career playing for Aston Villa, before returning to Germany to play for Stuttgart, where he won the Bundesliga title in 2007. In 2010 he signed for Italian side Lazio, before moving back to England to join West Ham United later that year. Hitzlsperger also represented the German national team, earning 52 caps and being selected for the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008. Following a series of injuries, he retired from football in September 2013. Following his retirement Thomas Hitzlsperger became the most highprofile footballer to come out, and in a long interview to the German paper Die Zeit, he stated he wanted "to further the debate about homosexuality among sports professionals". "Being gay is a topic that is 'ignored' in football and not 'a serious topic in the changing room'. Fighting spirit, passion and winning mentality are intrinsically linked, that doesn't fit the cliché: 'Gays are soft'". This event has been kindly sponsored by Hill Business Growth Consultants.
wednesday 10 june 23
THREE VOICES
John F Deane, James Harpur, Anthony Cronin With stephen connolly CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE, 6:15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
John F. Deane was born on Achill Island in 1943. He founded Poetry Ireland – the National Poetry Society – and The Poetry Ireland Review in 1978, and is the founder of The Dedalus Press, of which he was editor from 1985 until 2006. He is the recipient of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry and the Marten Toonder Award for Literature and is a member of Aosdána. His poetry has been shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. In 1996 Deane was elected Secretary-General of the European Academy of Poetry. In 2007 he was made Chevalier en l’ordre des arts et des lettres by the French government. He is currently the editor of Poetry Ireland Review. The poems in Semibreve combine lyric grace with a fiercely questing intelligence, pushing against the mysteries of faith in a fractured world, paying tribute to the value of human life and love. Running through the book is a thread of elegy for the poet’s brother, who died of cancer in 2010. Throughout, Deane gives poetic voice to the paradox of human existence as simultaneously ‘blessed and broken’. Born of Irish-British parents, James Harpur has had five poetry collections published by Anvil Press, including his latest, Angels and Harvesters (2012), a PBS Recommendation and shortlisted for the 2013 Irish Times Poetry Prize. The Dark Age (2007) won the Michael Hartnett Award; Oracle 24 wednesday 10 june
Bones (2001) was a Tablet Book of the Year; The Monk’s Dream (1996) includes the sonnet sequence that won the 1995 British National Poetry Competition; and A Vision of Comets was based on the poems that won him an Eric Gregory Award. He is a member of Aosdána and lives in West Cork. In this exciting new collection, veteran poet Anthony Cronin draws on his years of writing experience to create mesmerising poetry. Resonating with history and memory, Cronin’s elegant writing and consummate poetic skill shine through in the poems in Body and Soul. As well as eleven collections of poetry, Anthony Cronin has written a number of admired prose works. He is married to the writer Anne Haverty, and lives in Dublin. He is a founding member of Aosdána, of which he was made a Saoi in 2003, a distinction conferred for exceptional artistic achievement. "Cronin is a major voice; he is Ireland’s modern-day Dryden, a master of the public word in the public place."– George Szirtes
BRIAN PATTEN: THE ACCESSIBLE MUSE CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE, 8.30PM TICKETS: £10 / £8
One of the UK’s most distinctive and popular poets, Brian Patten has been delivering scrupulously crafted, heartbreakingly honest, funny and uplifting poems for nearly five decades. A master of performance – genuine and generous – his readings are always memorable. Brian Patten made his name in the 1960s as one of the Liverpool Poets, alongside Adrian Henri and Roger McGough. His individual strength within this trio lay in his ability to write and perform a powerful mix of serious and humorous work Their joint anthology, The Mersey Sound (1967), has been credited as the most significant anthology of the twentieth century for its success in bringing poetry to new audiences and is now in Penguin Modern Classics.
He has published over forty books and his poems are translated into many European languages. They include Collected Love Poems (HarperCollins) and Selected Poems (Penguin Books). His books for children include The Story Giant, Gargling With Jelly, and Juggling With Gerbils. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. "A magic ability to turn radiant imagination loose" - The Times "His poems are made with great skill and honesty" - British Book News "A marked sensitivity and eye for the unusual" - The Guardian "Humour, sincerity, sheer brilliance - not to be missed" - The Scotsman
wednesday 10 june 25
SHORT STORIES WITH THE STINGING FLY WITH Marie-Louise Muir
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE, 8.30PM TICKETS: £8 / £6
Spill Simmer Falter Wither is Sara Baume`s debut novel. This quietly powerful story is told through the eyes of a man speaking to his only companion, a rescue dog he calls One-Eye. Set against the changing seasons in rural Ireland, this is an affecting, reflective novel on isolation and belonging. Sara Baume has been published in The Dublin Review, The Moth, The Penny Dreadful, The Stinging Fly and the Irish Independent as part of the Hennessy New Irish Writing series. In 2014 Baume won the Davy Byrnes Short Story Award for her story Solesearcher1. Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire, in the southwest of England. After studying literature and drama at the University of Roehampton in London, she settled in Galway. Her short fiction and essays have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Penny Dreadful, The Moth, Colony, The Irish Times, The White Review and Gorse. She was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize in 2013 and has received bursaries from the Arts Council and Galway City Council. Her debut short story collection Pond, is published by The Stinging Fly Press. Danielle McLaughlin has won various awards for her short fiction, including the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Competition 2012, The From the Well Short Story Competition 2012, The Willesden Short Story Prize 2013, The Merriman Short 26 wednesday 10 June
Story Competition 2013 in memory of Maeve Binchy, and the Dromineer Literary Festival Short Story Competition 2013. She was shortlisted for the Writing.ie Irish Short Story of the Year category in the Irish Book Awards in 2013 and 2014, and her story The Dinosaurs on Other Planets was shortlisted for the Davy Byrnes Award 2014. Her debut collection of short stories Dinosaurs on Other Planets will be published in Ireland in autumn 2015. Presented by John Hewitt Society, in association with the Belfast Book Festival.
thursday 11 June
Ireland and the Eurovision CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: £5
Dancing grannies, Polish milkmaids and the Bearded Lady. There’s no denying that the Eurovision Song Contest remains one of the most enduring phenomena of popular culture –and, perhaps, also one of the strangest. Ireland’s relationship has not always been an easy one; Ireland has won the contest more than any other country, and the Eurovision has been a launching pad for some of Ireland’s most successful acts. But there have also been some spectacular and costly flops. David Blake Knox goes behind the scenes to deliver the inside story of what really happens behind the power ballads, sequinned costumes and glitter cannons. The book relives the most iconic moments of the past fifty years; the highs, the lows and the downright embarrassing. David Blake Knox has a longstanding association with the Eurovision Song Contest, and has made several TV documentaries about the event, including 2015’s Ireland and the Eurovision. He was Head of Entertainment and Drama in RTÉ from 1990 to 1994 – during Ireland’s ‘golden era’ when it won and staged the Eurovision contest three years in a row. 28 thursday 11 June
LITERARY LUNCHTIMES
KELLY CREIGHTON IN CONVERSATION WITH JAN CARSON ulster hall THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 1PM Ticketed Event: Free Admission
Belfast Book Festival presents Kelly Creighton in conversation and reading from her debut novel The Bones of It published, May 2015 (Liberties Press). Kelly is an arts facilitator and editor of The Incubator literary journal. She was named runner-up for the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award in 2014, and has been shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing, the Fish Short Story Prize and the Cúirt New Writing Prize For Fiction. Her writing has featured in The Stinging Fly, Litro and Cyphers, among other places. Her poetry chapbook, Three Primes, was published by Lapwing. Kelly co-founded the Square Circle Writers’ Group in Newtownards. This event is free but ticketed.
MARK LYNCH: AMERICAN NEMESIS WITH Debbie McGrory
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 1PM free admission
It’s July 2030. The American States are no longer united, as the ‘Tea Party’ Republicans have seceded from the Union to form a new nation, the Confederated Christian States of America. For a decade the two ideological rivals have faced off against each other across the intra-American frontier. It’s an uneasy truce that begins to crumble as a tragic incident pushes both sides to the very brink. Mark Lynch, who has lived in Northern Ireland all his life, studied History & Politics at Queen’s University Belfast and maintains a keen interest in both of these subjects. He currently works as an office administrator in Belfast city centre and enjoys reading both fiction and non-fiction, but is particularly keen on the science fiction genre and its sub-genres, such as alternative history and space colonisation.
CHRISSIE GITTINS EASON BELFAST THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 4PM free admission | AGes 6+
Trapped wasps, sweet-smelling pirates and embarrassing dads: anything is possible in poetry. Come and hear one of the brightest children’s poets around as she delves into two decades of her best work; Chrissie Gittins’ three collections for children (Now You See Me, Now You …, I Don’t Want an Avocado for an Uncle, The Humpback’s Wail) were all chosen for the PBS Children’s Poetry Bookshelf, and she has twice been shortlisted for the CLPE Poetry Award. Her new and collected children’s poems Stars in Jars is published by Bloomsbury, and she has make an hour’s recording for the Poetry Archive. Chrissie’s poems have been animated for CBeebies TV and published in many anthologies. She was a finalist in the first Manchester Children’s Poetry Prize 2014 with a portfolio of new poems. Chrissie also writes poetry for adults, short fiction and radio drama. chrissiegittins.co.uk "Chrissie Gittins knows just what words can do: she makes them dance, sing, sit still for a moment and then leap across the page with joy!" - Ian McMillan
children's event thursday 11 june 29
jason lewis
THE FIRST HUMAN-POWERED CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE EARTH CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 6:15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
What can a crocodile attack, a year at sea in a tiny boat, contracting blood poisoning and malaria, and getting hit by a car and left for dead with two broken legs teach us about global sustainability? Touted by the The Daily Mail as “the most remarkable adventurer in the world today,” author Jason Lewis draws insights from his historic circumnavigation of the world using only human power – biking, hiking, and inline skating five continents, and kayaking, swimming, rowing, and pedalling a boat across the oceans – to offer choices we can all make to safeguard a healthy planet for future generations. Jason Lewis is an explorer, author, and sustainability campaigner. He is recognized by Guinness World Records as the first person to circumnavigate the Earth using only human power: walking, cycling, and inline skating five continents, and kayaking, swimming, rowing, and pedalling a boat across the rivers, seas, and oceans. 30 thursday 11 June
KATE NEWMANn & Nessa O’Mahony with stephen connolly
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 6:15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Kate Newmann's third collection of poetry, I Am a Horse was published in 2011 (Arlen House) and three of the poems were recorded on a CD, How Well Did You Love? She has won the Listowel Poetry Prize, the Roundyhouse Poetry Prize, the Allingham Prize and the James Prize and has been short-listed for the UK’s National Poetry Competition. Her most recent collection is Grim (Arlen House 2015). Paula Meehan, Ireland Professor of Poetry, comments: "Susan Sontag has delineated the pornography of fascism; these powerful poems chart its lunacy, its aberrant, horrific, distortions of reason". Nessa O’Mahony is a Dublin-born poet. She has published four books of poetry – Bar Talk, appeared (1999), Trapping a Ghost (2005), In Sight of Home (2009) and Her Father’s Daughter, published by Salmon in September 2014. O’Mahony won the National Women’s Poetry Competition in 1997 and was shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh Prize and Hennessy Literature Awards. She was awarded an Arts Council of Ireland literature bursary in 2004 and 2011. She lives in Rathfarnham, Dublin, with her husband, the videographer, Peter Salisbury.
JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS LOVER! WATERSTONES THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 6:30PM free admission
THE SQUAT PEN CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 6:15PM free admission
The Squat Pen presents an evening of poetry, music and prose. Our special guests are Kathleen McCracken, author of seven volumes of poetry, most recently Double Self Portrait with Mirror; and Sheena Wilkinson, author of four novels, most recently Still Falling. We are also delighted to present: musician and film-maker John T Davis, and poets Peter Francis Fahy and Geraldine O’Kane. The Squat Pen presents up-and-coming writers and performers, alongside those more established. We have been holding regular literary evenings in Belfast and across Northern Ireland since 2013 Entrance is always free. You'll find a showcase filled with riches, a cornucopia of words and music. We hope you will be thrilled.
You've been there. Invited in for a coffee after that perfect evening of dinner, dancing and candlelight. You've gone from fancy car to swanky house and into the perfect living room of your new soul-mate-to-be, only to catch a quick glimpse of their bookshelves and have the whole illusion fall to pieces in a big pile of supermarket bestsellers and celebrity bios. Judging a Book by its Lover is the speeddating night that makes sure you get the important things straight from the start. You will be allowed to choose one book and you will have one minute to talk about it to each potential partner, then another minute to listen to theirs before you move on. The guys at The Bear and the folks at Waterstones Belfast are sure that, even if you don't find the new love of your life, you'll find something brilliant to read. The Bear is an online literary journal based in Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh. As well as publishing brand new fiction, poetry and essays, it is also responsible for the live literary chaos that is Write Fight.
The Squat Pen is hosted by poets Ray Givans and Paul Jeffcutt. For further info: facebook.com/squatpen thursday 11 june 31
Micheál Ó Conghaile
With Fiontán de Brún Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich thursday 11 JUNE, 7.30PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Micheál Ó Conghaile was born in Conamara, Co. Galway in 1962. He has published poetry, short stories, a novel, plays, a novella and translations. Among his awards are the Butler Literary Award, the Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year Award, the Stewart Parker/BBC Ulster Award, multiple Oireachtas awards and a Writers Week/Listowel Award. His books include An Fear a Phléasc, Sna Fir, An Fear nach nDéanann Gáire, Cúigear Chonamara. His latest collection of stories is Diabhlaíocht Dé. His works have been translated into various languages and three of his books are available in English, The Connemara Five, The Colours of Man and Rambling Jack. An Taibhdhearc has produced three of his plays. He is a member of Aosdána since 1998. He was writer in Residence at Queen’s University, Belfast and at the University of Ulster Coleraine between 1999 – 2002. He established the publishing company Cló Iar-Chonnacht (CIC) in 1985 and is director of Cló Iar-Chonnacht, An Clóchomhar and Sáirséal: Ó Marcaigh. He received an Honorary degree from NUIG in 2013. 32 thursday 11 June
CRESCENT WRITERS GROUP CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 8PM free admission
Come along and listen to the writers who attend the diverse range of writing classes held weekly at the Crescent Arts Centre. Ruth Carr will be hosting this showcase of local hidden talent...but come early, as every year this event has been sold out!
GORDON STEPHEN GILBERT JOHN Andrew Doyle with stephen connolly SINCLAIR: BLOOD WHISPERS
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 8PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Belfast novelist Stephen Gilbert (19122010) published five novels in his lifetime, including the best-selling Ratman’s Notebooks, which was adapted into the Hollywood blockbuster Willard in 1971. In this event Andrew Doyle will consider how the events of Gilbert’s work shaped his work, with a particular focus on Gilbert’s unpublished novels, many of which are based on his personal experiences of the Troubles. This event will coincide with a launch of one of Gilbert’s previously unpublished novels, edited by Andrew Doyle from the original manuscript.
with David Torrans
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 8:30PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Kaltrina Dervishi is a prostitute on the run from Serbian gang leader Fisnik Abazi. The police want her to give evidence against him: Abazi wants her dead. Only her lawyer, Keira Lynch, can keep that from happening. What Keira doesn't realise is that this is a case with global repercussions and it's not long before the CIA come calling. John Gordon Sinclair was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He moved to London in the early Eighties and now lives in Surrey with his wife, Shauna, and their two children. John's first film won him a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer to a Leading film Role. His first outing in London's West End won him an Olivier award for Best Actor. Seventy Times Seven, his first novel, was published in 2012 and was described by Barry Norman as 'a remarkable first novel' and as 'an impressive debut . . . Fast and bloody . . . ' by The Times. thursday 11 june 33
TONY WALSH 'LONGFELLA'
Sex and Love and Rock and Roll
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 10PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Following a standing ovation at his 2012 performance in Belfast, the Belfast Book Festival is delighted to welcome Tony Walsh, aka Longfella; “one of the UK’s most renowned performance poets.” Based in Manchester and the son of a Cavan man, his trademark mix of intimacy and controversy, comedy and tragedy has been stunning audiences from grass-roots poetry gigs to international literature festivals since 2004. His work has been published in the UK, USA and Russia, commissioned by BBC television and radio, and showcased at prestigious international poetry festivals including Ledbury, Strokestown and StAnza. He has performed at the Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw; as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 50th anniversary celebrations; and as website 34 thursday 11 June
Poet in Residence for the world-renowned Glastonbury Festival. His eagerly-awaited debut collection, ‘SEX & LOVE & ROCK&ROLL’ takes us on an extraordinary journey through ordinary lives; proudly flying the flag for the exciting new poetry scene which is packing out venues and festival tents around the UK and Ireland. Make no mistake, these are accessible, musical poems; influenced by the songs which soundtrack our lives; brimming with northern warmth and humour; propelled by passion and compassion as their bassline and their beat. “Fired and inspiring." John Hegley "Fabulous stuff…" Irvine Welsh "A call to arms…." Billy Bragg "He is the real deal!" Benjamin Zephaniah. With five star reviews and the odd standing ovation this will be one book event that is simply unmissable. Think that you don’t like poetry? Think again. longfella.co.uk Twitter: @LongfellaPoet
STEWART NEVILLE BOOK LAUNCH with David Torrans
NO ALIBIS THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 6:30PM free admission
saved his brother Thomas from a far lengthier sentence, and Cunningham can see the unnatural hold Thomas still has over his vulnerable younger brother Stuart Neville's debut novel, The Twelve (published in the USA as The Ghosts of Belfast, won the Mystery/Thriller category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was picked as one of the top crime novels of 2009 by both the New York Times and the LA Times.
We are proud to announce that we will be launching Stuart's latest novel, Those We Left Behind in this years Belfast Book Festival.
He has been shortlisted for various awards, including the Barry, Macavity, Dilys awards, as well as the Irish Book Awards Crime Novel of the Year.
When 12-year-old Ciaran Devine confessed to murdering his foster father it sent shock waves through the nation.
He has since published three critically acclaimed sequels, Collusion, Stolen Souls and The Final Silence.
DCI Serena Flanagan, then an ambitious Detective Sergeant, took Ciaran's confession after days spent earning his trust. He hasn’t forgotten the kindness she showed him – in fact, she hasn't left his thoughts in the seven years he’s been locked away.
His first four novels have each been longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and Ratlines was shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.
Probation officer Paula Cunningham, now tasked with helping Ciaran re-enter society, suspects there was more to this case than the police uncovered. Ciaran’s confession
His fourth novel, Ratlines, about Nazis harboured by the Irish state following WWII is currently in development for television.
thursday 11 june 35
Weeklong Events Dis-ease
Opens 8 June
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Belfast: Toward A City Without Walls
11 - 21 June
Red Barn Gallery
Free
SacrumProfanum
10 - 21 June
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Belfast Photo Festival Exhibitions
6 - 30 June
Iris Colour Photo Park
Free
Writers In Schools (Kids Event)
8 - 12 June
Various Schools in Belfast
Free
Poetry & Community: Ideas of Place
18 May - 29 June
Various Venues
Free
Monday 8 June Dermot Bolger: Tanglewood
1:00 PM
Ulster Hall
£5
Self Publishing Salon
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Book Detectives (Kids Event)
4:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Writing on Depression
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Oggy Boytchev: Simpson & I
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Writing & Community: Ideas of Place
6:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Dis-ease (Opening)
7:45 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Carpet Burns: My Life with Inspiral Carpets
8:00 PM
Black Box
£6/£4
Duke Special & Andrew Doyle
8:00 PM
Lyric Theatre
£8/£6
Nuala Ní Conchúir & Henrietta McKervey
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Tariq Ali: The Extreme Centre: A Warning
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£10/£8
at a glance
Tuesday 9 June Voices from Scotland
1:00 PM
Ulster Hall
£5
Tom Hartley: Researching Past Lives
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Doire Press Authors
6:15 PM
Black Box
£6/£4
SacrumProfanum Live Performance & Gallery Opening
8:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£8/£6
Moby Dick
8:15 PM
Black Box
£6/£4
Karim Miské: Arab Jazz
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
9:00 PM
The Sunflower Bar
Free
The Lifeboat
Wednesday 10 June Self Publishing Salon
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Randall Stephen Hall
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Sara Baume
1:00 PM
Ulster Hall
£5
Book Detectives (Kids Event)
4:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Oisín the Brave (Kids Event)
4:00 PM
Eason
Free
Laurence Donaghy
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Three Voices
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Thomas Hitzlsperger
7:00 PM
The Errigle Inn
£8/£6
Brian Patten: The Accessible Muse
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£10/£8
Short Stories with The Stinging Fly
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£8/£6
Thursday 11 June Ireland and the Eurovision
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£5
Literary Lunchtimes: Kelly Creighton in Conversation with Jan Carson
1:00 PM
Ulster Hall
Free
Mark Lynch: American Nemesis
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Chrissie Gittins (Kids Event)
4:00 PM
Eason Belfast
Free
Kate Newmann & Nessa O'Mahoney
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/4
Jason Lewis
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
The Squat Pen
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Judging a Book by its Lover!
6:30 PM
Waterstones
Free
Stewart Neville - Book Launch
6:30 PM
No Alibis
Free
Micheál Ó Conghaile
7:30 PM
Cultúrlann
£6/£4
Crescent Writers Group
8:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Stephen Gilbert
8:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
John Gordon Sinclair: Blood Whispers
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
10:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Sex and Love and Rock and Roll
Friday 12 June Belfast Days: A 1972 Teenager Diary
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£5
Peg Plunkett: Memoirs of a Whore
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£5
Word Of Mouth - Lunchtime Readings
1:00 PM
Linen Hall Library
Free
Book Detectives (Kids Event)
4:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
The Perfect Percival Priggs (Kids Event)
4:00 PM
Eason Belfast
Free
Hallelujah for 50ft Women
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Andrew Doyle: Forest Reid
6:15 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Cameron's Coup
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£8/£6
Ben Okri
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£8/£6
Mark Thomas - 100 Acts of Minor Dissent
10PM (Doors 8PM)
The Belfast Empire
£10/£8
Saturday 13 June 10AM-4:30PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£30/25
Eason Family Fun Day (Kids Event)
11:30AM-4:30PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Katharine Norbury: The Fish Ladder
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Paul Burgess & Steve Cavanagh
3:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Fiction Firsts
4:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Helen Lederer: Losing It
7:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£8/£6
Glenn Patterson: Here's Me Here
8:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Poetry Slam
9:30 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£4
Sunday 14 June Travel in Extraordinary Places
1:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
The Incubator Journal
2:00 PM
Black Box
£2
Literary Late Bloomers
3:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Lucy Fry
4:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Studio NI
4:30 PM
Black Box
Free
Shalom Writers' Group
5:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
Free
Young Irelanders
5:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Parishes Boarding On Silence
7:00 PM
Crescent Arts Centre
£6/£4
Workshops in Crescent Arts Centre Fiction Workshop with Claire Keegan
10AM-5:30PM
8 – 9 June
£325
Scribbling & Rory's Story Cubes (Kids Event)
4PM-5PM
9 June
Free
Slán Abhaile - Safe Home - Leaving Home - Finding Home
10AM-1:30PM
10 June
£15/12
Creative Writing For Children
4PM-5:30PM
11 June
Free
Write What You Don't Know
10:30AM-1:30PM
13 June
£15/12
Performance Reading For Writers
2PM-4PM
13 June
£12/10
Papermaking With Irish Linen
10AM-4PM
13 June
£20/15
at a glance
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1. Crescent Arts Centre 2. The Ulster Hall 3. Black Box 4. Lyric Theatre 5. The Belfast Empire 6. No Alibis Bookstore 7. Eason 8. The Sunflower Bar 9. Errigle Inn 10. Linen Hall Library 11. Waterstones 12. Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich 13. Writers Square 14. Red Barn Gallery 9
friday 12 June
years later. The result is poignant, shocking, wryly funny and above all, explicitly honest.
Belfast Days: A 1972 Teenage Diary Eimear O'Callaghan with Paul McFadden
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: £5
It’s the bloodiest year of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ and sixteen-year-old Eimear O’Callaghan, a Catholic schoolgirl in Andersonstown, West Belfast, bears witness in her new diary. What follows is a unique and touching perspective into the daily life of an ordinary teenager coming of age in extraordinary times. The immediacy of the diary entries are complemented with the author’s mature reflections written forty
40 friday 12 June
Belfast Days demonstrates how one person’s examination of her own ‘story’, upon rediscovering her 1972 diary on the eve of the publication of the Saville Report, provided her with a new perspective on one of the darkest periods in twentieth century British and Irish history. Eimear O’Callaghan is a former BBC news editor with more than 30 years’ experience in print and broadcast journalism. While most of her career was with BBC Northern Ireland, she also worked with the Irish News and with RTE in Dublin. She left the BBC in 2010 to set up a communications consultancy, Leapfrog Communications, and continues to work as a freelance writer. "A startling account of day-to-day life during the deadliest year of the Troubles…" - Irish News "Belfast Days is an unintended history. An extraordinary aspect is the contrast between the everyday lives of people (family, schoolfriends…) and the bizarre often terrifying series of events going on all around them." - Belfast Newsletter
WORD OF MOUTH LINEN HALL LUNCHTIME READINGS PEG PLUNKETT: MEMOIRS OF A WH0RE
Julie Peakman with nuala mckeever
crescent arts centre FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: £5
Revelations and racy anecdotes about the lives of the rich and famous of Dublin and London abound within this book. From a violent domestic background, Peg blitzed her way through balls and masquerades creating scandals and gossip wherever she went, leaving dukes, barristers and lieutenants stranded in her wake. She was the first madame ever to write her memoirs, thereby setting the template for the whore's memoir. She wrote not merely to reveal herself but to expose the shoddy behaviour of others and her account of her life. Dr. Julie Peakman is Honorary Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is a frequent contributor to journals, magazines and television documentaries for BBC, Channel 4 and the Biography Channel. Her first book Mighty Lewd Books: The Development of Pornography in Eighteenth-Century England (Palgrave 2003) was met with acclaim, her second book Lascivious Bodies: A Sexual History of the Eighteenth Century (Atlantic Books, 2004) was a more light-hearted romp through the eighteenth-century sexual underworld. Her last book was The Pleasure's All Mine. A History of Perverse Sex (Reaktion, 2013).
LINEN HALL LIBRARY FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 1PM free admission
The Linen Hall has been working in partnership with Word of Mouth Poetry Collective to develop this forum to support and encourage local writing talent. Moyra Donaldson was born in Newtownards and educated at Queen’s University, Belfast and Ulster University. She is the author of six collections of poetry; her most recent is The Goose Tree (2014). Sophie Collins is co-founder and editor of tender, an online journal promoting work by female-identified writers and artists. In 2014 she received an Eric Gregory Award and was poet in residence at the LUMA / Westbau exhibition space in Zürich.
friday 12 june 41
THE PERFECT PERCIVAL PRIGGS Book Detectives with Sam Porciello Julie-Anne Graham crescent arts centre friday 12 June, 4pm free admission, ages 7-10
EASON BELFAST FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 4PM free admission. ages 3-7
Put on your detective’s hat and grab your magnifying glass, we are going on a character investigation hunt and not one book will be left unturned! Activities will include, interviewing suspects and witnesses while finding and investigating clues.
Percival Priggs works hard to be the perfect child for his highly accomplished parents. Surrounded by trophies and awards he practices every day to be practically perfect in every way. But things go wrong when he tries to take on too much. Are Percy’s parents really as perfect as they look? And will they still love him if they find out he’s not?
We need your detective skills to help us find the characters who have escaped their story books!
children's event
Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Julie-Anne Graham is a graduate of the MA in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. Just like Percy, she has many loves, and she dances, doodles, stitches, and makes stories in London, England. You can find her online at www.julieannegraham.com and on Twitter @Ja_Illustrator. Julie-Anne will be reading from the book, then working with children to create some fun art pieces based on the story. Suitable for children aged 3-7 years old.
42 friday 12 June
children's event
CAMERON’S COUP with noel thompson
FOREST REID Andrew Doyle in conversation with Stephen Connolly
crescent arts centre FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 6:15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Described by E. M. Forster as “the most important man in Belfast”, Forrest Reid (1875-1947) is a major literary figure whose books have somehow fallen into obscurity. The writer of sixteen novels, including Young Tom (winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction), Reid was a founder member of the Irish Academy of Letters, and received an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University, Belfast. Andrew Doyle discusses his life and his legacy, and explains why a revival of interest in Reid’s work is long overdue. forrestreid.com
crescent arts centre FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 8:30PM TICKETS: £8 / £6
Polly Toynbee and David Walker have co-authored Dogma and Disarray: Cameron at Half-Time, Unjust Rewards: Exposing Greed and Inequality in Britain Today, The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain? and Better or Worse: Did Labour Deliver? Polly Toynbee is a columnist for the Guardian. David Walker is a contributing editor to the Guardian Public and former director of public reporting at the Audit Commission. The NHS devastated without so much as a by-your-leave; Gen Y hung out to dry; legal aid cut for the vulnerable; social housing on the brink of collapse ...Cameron has been busy. Margaret Thatcher sold off the nationalised industries, her political heirs are intent on leaving an even more radical legacy - selling off the state itself. Written with their trademark precision and passion, Toynbee and Walker reveal how in four short years a party that failed to win a Commons majority has been devastatingly effective. Blending polls and statistics with moving human stories from Taunton to Teeside, Cameron's Coup shows the alarming reversal in decades of social progress. As Toynbee and Walker argue, it has been nothing short of a revolution. And they ask the pressing question: are these changes irrevocable? This is essential reading for anyone who cares about their country. friday 12 june 43
HALLELUJAH FOR 50FT WOMEN CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 6:15PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
‘When we decided to work together again we thought we'd look back over the thirty years (impossible!) that have passed since our first show In the Pink and examine the changes in women's lives. We decided to focus on one area where there’s still trouble enough - our bodies - a place where abuse, commerce, politics, time, culture and religion still have their battleground.’ - Sue, Dee & Fan It’s 33 years since RAVING BEAUTIES cabaret of songs and poetry In the Pink famously featured on Channel 4's opening night in 1982. Now they’re back with a passionate book and performed reading of poems celebrating the female body. Hallelujah for 50ft Women spans six centuries of women poets from Gwerful 44 friday 12 June
Mechain writing about vaginas in the 15th century to modern internet sensation Hollie McNish whose rap poem ‘Embarrassed’ addresses attitudes to breastfeeding in public. Actors Sue Jones-Davies, Fan Viner and Dee Orr (with founder member Anna Carteret) gained critical acclaim as RAVING BEAUTIES following a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival in 1982. Their subsequent shows and books exploring love, creativity, motherhood, work and sex have touched the lives of thousands of women across the world. Make It Work was commissioned for Channel 4’s second birthday. A third show about the relationship between mothers and daughters, Tea at the Ritz, premièred at the Young Vic Studio. The Women’s Press invited them to edit collections of poetry inspired by their shows. This led to In the Pink (1983), No Holds Barred (1985), Anna Swir’s Fat Like the Sun (1986) and a collection of prose and poetry about relationship breakdown, Bust Up! (1992). Raving Beauties have toured their live shows and readings in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Jamaica, Norway and Mexico. For individual biographies visit: ravingbeauties.co.uk
Credit: David Hartley/REX
BEN OKRI
with Marie-Louise Muir CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 8:30PM TICKETS: £8 / £6
Novelist, short story writer and poet Ben Okri was born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and Urhobo father. He grew up in London before returning to Nigeria with his family in 1968. Much of his early fiction explores the political violence that he witnessed at first hand during the civil war in Nigeria. He left the country when a grant from the Nigerian government enabled him to read Comparative Literature at Essex University in England. His first two novels, Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981), are both set in Nigeria and feature as central characters two young men struggling to make sense of the disintegration and chaos happening in both their family and country. The two collections of short stories that followed, Incidents
at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988), are set in Lagos and London. In 1991 Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village, this is the first in a trilogy of novels which tell the story of Azaro, a spirit child. Azaro’s narrative is continued in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Other fiction includes Astonishing the Gods (1995) and Dangerous Love (1996), which was awarded the Premio Palmi (Italy) in 2000, In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007). A collection of poems, An African Elegy, was published in 1992, and an epic poem, ‘Mental Flight’, in 1999. A collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, was published in 1997. Ben Okri is also the author of a play, ‘In Exilus’. His recent books include A Time for New Dreams (2011), a collection of linked essays, poetry collection Wild (2012) and novel The Age of Magic (2014). Ben Okri has been Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.
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MARK THOMAS 100 ACTS OF MINOR DISSENT – THE BOOK THE belfast EMPIRE FRIDAY 12 JUNE, 10PM (Doors 8PM*) TICKETS: £10 / £8
Mark Thomas is well versed in the art of creative mayhem and over the years his troublemaking has changed laws, cost companies millions and annoyed those who most deserved to be.
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In 2014 Mark set himself the task of committing 100 Acts of Minor Dissent in the space of a year. Mark catalogued everything from the smallest and silliest gesture to the grandest confrontations and the results are subversive, hilarious, mainly legal and occasionally inspiring. In this event, part book reading/part stand up, Mark launches his new book celebrating the year’s activity. *Local support from 8PM. Mark Thomas on stage at 10PM.
saturday 13 June
PUBLISHING DAY Crescent Arts Centre SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 10AM – 4.30PM Cost: £30 / £25 IWC Members & Crescent Arts Centre Writing Groups. Booking: irishwriterscentre.ie
The Irish Writers Centre is thrilled to take our established Publishing Day series on the road and connect with new audiences in Northern Ireland. This one-day seminar is suited to writers of all genres and forms who are seeking to get published. Industry professionals like Patsy Horton of Blackstaff Press/Publishing Ireland will highlight some of the trends and changes in the publishing sector, Dan Bolger, Commissioning Editor at New Island Books, will examine the best practice for submissions and arts publicist Stephanie Dickenson will reveal all about the must-have author profile and book PR. We will also welcome established writers in discussion about their own publishing experiences. Our expert line-up is certain to help you on your way from manuscript to finished publication. This event is kindly supported by Words Ireland.
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THE FISH LADDER: KATHARINE NORBURY With Jane Wenham-Jones Crescent Arts Centre SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Part travelogue, part memoir, Katharine Norbury’s moving and lyrical story of self-discovery – told through journeys on foot along the glittering rivers of Britain – is nature writing at its finest. For fans of Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk and Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Katharine Norbury’s memoir is a powerful tale of grief and redemption. Katharine Norbury trained as a film editor with the BBC and has worked extensively in film and television drama. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA programme at UEA and a doctoral candidate at Goldsmiths. She lives in London with her family. The Fish Ladder is her first book. @kjnorbury "What a delight! The Fish Ladder is a luminous sort of book, beautifully written, darting here and there like a kingfisher over a stream. A beautiful, strange, intoxicating and utterly unique story" Philip Pullman "The Fish Ladder is truly compelling... Warm and touching, its impact lies in its simplicity and emotional power" Jo Brand
Paul Burgess & Steve Cavanagh With Peggy Hughes
Crescent Arts Centre SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 3PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Thomas Paul Burgess’ new political thriller White Church, Black Mountain explores a society’s hunger for redemptive catharsis. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the fragile Peace Process is still haunted by the crimes of the past. “This novel is at the forefront of an emerging ‘post-conflict’ canon,” explains Burgess. “It explores the legacy of conflict and how it impacts on those who seek to build a future in its aftermath.” Dr. Thomas Paul Burgess holds degrees from the University of Ulster, Cork and Oxford and has been published widely in the areas of cultural identity and community. He is a songwriter with his critically acclaimed band, Ruefrex.
He has worked as a commentator for a number of national newspaper publications and broadcasters and is currently a senior lecturer at University College, Cork, Ireland.
Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren't that different. It's been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie's back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter Amy. Eddie only has 48 hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial - and win - if wants to save his daughter. Steve Cavanagh was born and raised in Belfast before leaving for Dublin at the age of eighteen to study Law. He currently practices civil rights law and has been involved in several high profile cases. Selected for the Amazon Rising Stars programme 2015. ACES award winner 2015 from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. saturday 13 june 49
FICTION FIRSTS With Jane Wenham-Jones Crescent Arts Centre SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 4.30PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
been published in the Irish Independent, Horizon Review, Crannóg Magazine, Cuadrivio (in Spanish Translation) and the Chattahoochee Review. Máire was nominated for a Hennessy Literary Award in Emerging Fiction in 2012, and was the overall winner of the Doire Press Chapbook Competition, 2013. Her chapbook of short stories Your Mixtape Unravels My Heart was published by Doire Press in 2013. Skin, Paper, Stone is her first novel. "Skin, Paper, Stone is a deceptively simple novel that packs a punch." - The Irish Times
Join us for this early evening panel featuring three first time novelists, Doreen Finn, Máire T. Robinson and Gerard Lee. Doreen Finn was born in Dublin. She was educated at UCD, and holds a degree in English and Spanish, and a Master’s in Education. She has lived in Madrid and Los Angeles, and currently resides in Dublin with her husband and two small children. My Buried Life is her first novel. "Doreen Finn has created a loaded pistol in Eva Perry, an embittered poet whose creative voice has been silenced … Finn’s language showers sparks as Eva confronts her own difficult nature and her family’s clouded past" – Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander Máire T. Robinson’s short stories have 50 saturday 13 June
Gerard Lee is a writer, actor and theatre director. His television and film appearances include Father Ted; Proof; Kilinaskully; Rough Diamond; Mattie; Vicious Circle; The Ten Steps; Golgotha and Angela’s Ashes. He has read winning stories for the Francis McManus Short Story Series, and has been a contributor to RTÉ’s popular Sunday Miscellany, and was featured in the Best of Sunday Miscellany 1995-2000, ed. Marie Heaney. Forsaken is his first novel. "A dark and chillingly disturbing odyssey into the wounded innocence of a damaged child, trying to compensate for a real world that is bereft of happy-ever-afters." – Dermot Bolger
LOSING IT: Helen Lederer
In conversation with Jane Wenham-Jones Crescent Arts Centre SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 7PM TICKETS: £8 / £6
Helen Lederer, best known for her role as dippy Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous, as well as creating the 'Girl at the Bar' in Naked Video, has published her debut comedy novel: Losing It. Helen Lederer started out as part of a group of early 1980’s comedians, including Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, the late Rik Mayall and Ben Elton who made their names at London’s Comedy Store. Her unique wit and observational humour means that as well as writing and performing her own material, Helen has starred in many top TV comedy and radio shows.
Onscreen these range from The Young Ones, French and Saunders, Happy Families, Saturday Night Live, Bottom, Miss Marpleand Hollyoaks, to children’s TV including 'Miss Bowline-Hitch' for CBeebies' Old Jacks Boat and the film of Horrid Henry. On the airwaves, achievements include Life with Lederer and All Change as well as being a frequent panellist on discussion shows. Theatre work high points include Educating Rita, The Vagina Monologues, The Killing of Sister George and Calendar Girls. She appears as an alcoholic midwife in Hollyoaks in April 2015. The Times described Losing It as "Funny and sharp and often horribly true". "Funny, witty, quirky...like the woman herself. Treat yourself." -Jo Brand "Desperately funny, desperately engaging, desperately readable and desperately adorable." - Stephen Fry saturday 13 june 51
FAMILY FUN DAY Crescent Arts Centre & Lower Crescent Park Saturday 13 June, 11.30AM - 4.30PM free admission
children's event
For the 3rd year running, we'll be taking over the Crescent Park to bring you an event for all the family, young and old. With children's writers, storytelling, food and drink and loads and loads of books, the Book Festival invites you to enter the magical world of stories. With entertainment, art workshops and much much more. Â We'll be publishing a specific running order for the events at the start of June, so keep an eye on the Book Festival website. We are delighted that the Fine and Dandy Market will be celebrating their 2nd Birthday with us on the day.
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GLENN PATTERSON: HERE’S ME HERE LAUNCH
Crescent Arts Centre SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 8.30PM free admission
"Clear-eyed and compassionate" – Anne Enright "Glenn Patterson is a national treasure" – Ian Sansom Join us for the launch of Here’s Me Here: Further Reflections of a Lapsed Protestant featuring a wide and thought-provoking selection of Glenn Patterson’s writings. With his trademark wit and intelligence, Patterson offers his wry take on life on this planet – from Northern Ireland to Berlin, from Warsaw to Dublin and back again to Belfast. Boldly written with fresh perspectives, Here’s Me Here is packed with charm and honesty, humour and cutting insight. Glenn Patterson, award-winning writer and broadcaster, was born in Belfast in 1961. He is the author of nine novels: Burning Your Own (1988), Fat Lad (1992), Black Night at Big Thunder Mountain (1995), The International (1999), Number 5 (2003), That Which Was (2004), The Third Party (2007), The Mill for Grinding Old People Young (2012), and The Rest Just Follows (2014), and a memoir, Once Upon a Hill: Love in Troubled Times (2008). A previous collection of journalistic writings, Lapsed Protestant, was published by New Island in 2006. He lives here, or there.
POETRY SLAM Crescent Arts Centre SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 9.30PM TICKETS: £4
Purely Poetry presents The Belfast Book Festival Poetry Slam. Open to all poets, we invite you to 'take the mic' and enter our annual poetry slam competition. Share your work in front of a live and lively audience, with new readers always welcome. To enter, just register at the start of the night; names will be drawn out at random, with each poet invited onstage to read by our resident emcee, Colin Dardis. You have three minutes in which to compete, our judges scoring on delivery and poetical quality and deciding who gets through to the next round. There's three rounds in all, with the outright winner declared Slam Champion 2015!
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sunday 14 June
TRAVEL IN EXTRAORDINARY PLACES: Richard boggs Crescent Arts Centre SUNDAY 14 JUNE, 1PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
"My most recent travel book is Becoming Plural: A Tale of Two Sudans. Through photography and writing I describe my encounters with the Sudanese as the country officially became two separate states, depicting the Sudanese as I found them in Juba, Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan. In Hammaming in the Sham I describe the cultural life of Syria just before it collapsed into chaos, focusing on the hammams (Turkish baths) of Aleppo and Damascus. My first book, The Lost World of Socotra, explores the culture and environment of an island between Yemen and Somalia, the land of the Dragon’s Blood Tree." Richard Boggs has worked for over a decade in the Arabic-speaking world, teaching in Yemen, Lebanon and Khartoum. For two years he lived on one of the most remote places on earth: the Yemeni island of Socotra. His island experiences are published in his first travel book, The Lost World of Socotra (Stacey International, 2009). When not travelling he likes to cultivate his herbaceous border in Ireland. 56 sunday 14 june
THE INCUBATOR JOURNAL BLACK BOX SUNDAY 14 JUNE, 2PM TICKETS: £2 (On door)
The Incubator is a quarterly literary journal, showcasing new writing from NI and Ireland. With the contemporary Irish short story at the heart of the journal, it also features interviews and reviews. Issue 5 will include memoir. Join us to launch the latest issue with readings from contributors. theincubatorjournal.com
LITERARY LATE BLOOMERS with peggy hughes
Crescent Arts Centre SUNDAY 14 JUNE, 3PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
It seems to be accepted wisdom that first novels are published by ‘bright young things’ fresh from university clutching their MAs in creative writing proudly to their breasts, but two local writers have shown that it’s never too late to begin a publishing career. Alrene Hughes and Helen Nicholl are authors who have begun a writing career past the age of fifty. Taking their cue from great novelists such as Daniel Defoe (who completed Robinson Crusoe just before his sixtieth birthday) and Mark Twain (who published Huckleberry Finn aged forty-
nine), Alrene and Helen will read from their work before taking part in a discussion about how it’s never too late to write, submit and publish your work. Alrene Hughes was born in Enniskillen, grew up in Belfast and now lives in Manchester. She is a member of the Manchester Irish Writers and her short stories and poetry have been published in anthologies and broadcast on radio. The Golden Sisters (2015) is the sequel to the hugely successful Martha’s Girls (2013). Both books are published by Blackstaff Press. Helen Nicholl was born and brought up in Cape Town, South Africa. Moving to London in 1970, she embraced Hippydom and worked and travelled in England, Northern Ireland and – for 18 years –Zimbabwe. Helen returned to Belfast in 2000, and was the co-manager of War on Want Bookshop in Belfast before her recent retirement. Happily divorced with one cat, she still travels at every opportunity. The Traveller’s Guide to Love will be published by Blackstaff Press in June 2015. sunday 14 june 57
LUCY FRY Crescent Arts Centre SUNDAY 14 JUNE, 4PM TICKETS: ÂŁ6 / ÂŁ4
Three sports in one event? Triathletes must be crazy, right? At the age of thirty-one, Lucy Fry was pretty certain she knew her limits: triathlon was not for her. But as increasing numbers of her female friends signed up to tri, Lucy couldn't help wondering: what was it about this sport that women found so transformative? The time had come to find out. Over one year, five triathlons and hundreds of training hours, Lucy discovers the competition and camaraderie, how to wear a sports bra under a wetsuit, whether getting over 'jelly legs' makes you a more resilient human being - and that maybe she doesn't know her limits after all ... Funny, warm and engaging, Run, Ride, Sink or Swim is for the tri-curious and the trihard, and for any woman looking to make the transition from sofa to start line. Lucy Fry writes a weekly fitness and wellbeing column for the Living section of the Sunday Telegraph, previously had a fitness-travel column at Easy Jet Magazine, and is currently the travel editor for DIVA. She writes regular features for many other newspapers and fitness and adventure magazines. Lucy is also an experienced and fully qualified Personal Trainer. 58 sunday 14 june
STUDIO NI BLACK BOX SUNDAY 14 JUNE, 4.30PM free admission
Studio NI, the largest Arts & Culture group in the North of Ireland, runs an annual short story contest called the TITANIAs - Top Independent Talented Artistes N.I. Award. The shortlisted stories are published in an annual anthology, and placed on sale with profits going to charity. This summer sees the launch of the 2015 Anthology ("Tense Situations"). Contributors have volunteered to read from their work. The Short Story TITANIA is an audience choice award, so attendees are encouraged to vote for their favourite.
FROM CONCEPTION YOUNG IRELANDERS TO CREATION: BETWEEN THE LIGHT AND THE HALF LIGHT Crescent Arts Centre SUNDAY 14 JUNE, 5PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
Young Irelanders is an exciting anthology of short stories that will open your eyes and soul to a new and continually evolving Irish literary scene, featuring a selection of Ireland's most gifted and daring contemporary short-fiction writers.
Young Irelanders reinvigorates the traditional Irish short story with a palpable sense of adventure. From Kevin Curran’s heartwrenching portrayal of bullying and suicide to Roisin O’Donnell’s beautifully poignant narrative of a Brazilian girl’s journey to Ireland for love. Editor Dave Lordan, a well-known writer, editor, educator and literary commentator. will be joined by three writers featured in the anthology, Kevin Curran, Roisin O’Donnell and Sydney Weinberg.
Crescent Arts Centre SUNDAY 14 JUNE, 5PM FREE ADMISSION
Shalom Writers' Group & Crescent Arts Creative Writers. Shalom Poets have a wealth of experience in publishing pamphlets, collections and anthologies of poetry. They invited writers from the Crescent Arts Writing classes to contribute to their latest publication, Between Light and the Half Light, which was launched in March this year. Come and hear them read together and talk about the process of making your own poetry anthology a reality. sunday 14 june 59
PARISHES BORDERING ON SILENCE Crescent Arts Centre SUNDAY 14 JUNE, 7PM TICKETS: £6 / £4
The title of this event comes from George Steiner who said that “every language is a world. Without translation, we would inhabit parishes bordering on silence." The three writers tonight are people who are at home in both the Irish and English language worlds and have graced us with their writing in both languages. Alan Titley is a novelist, story writer, playwright, and scholar who writes an weekly column in Irish for The Irish Times on current and cultural matters. He has a collection of essays, Nailing Theses, published by Lagan Press and he wrote the first ever verse novel in Irish, An Bhean Feasa, before tackling and transforming the leviathan of Irish literature, Cré na Cille, into The Dirty Dust. He is the perflect blend of erudition and wit and supports Cork City FC.
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Celia de Fréine is a poet and playwright who writes in Irish and English. She was born in Newtownards but has lived in Dublin for many years. Celia was one of the women affected by the Anti-D scandal in the 1990s and wrote about her experience and the experience of other women in a series of astonishing poems called Fiacha Fola, later appearing in English as Blood Debts. A lesson in Can’t, inspired by her time working with Travellers, is her latest collection. Gabriel Rosenstock is the author/ translator of over 160 books, including 13 volumes of poetry and a volume of haiku in Irish and in English, as well as numerous books for children. Gabriel is a member of Aosdána and has given readings in Europe, South, Central and North America, India, Australia, Japan and has been published in various leading international journals. Recently he has re-created Irish language versions of the songs of Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and others. Alan will launch his book at 7pm, followed by refreshments and then, at 8pm, the three guests will read from their books. Gabriel will be joined by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Chathain from Bréag who will sing some of his translations.
weeklong events BELFAST: TOWARD A CITY WITHOUT WALLS DIS-EASE CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE opening MONDAY 8 JUNE, 7.45PM free admission
The poet, Moyra Donaldson and photographic artist, Victoria J. Dean met in 2010, the inaugural year of the ACNI’s Artist Career Enhancement Scheme for which they were both selected. Interested in each other’s work, and in expanding and challenging their individual practices through a collaboration across the disciplines of poetry and the visual arts, they decided to work together.
red barn gallery OPENING: THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 6-9PM free admission
By Vicky Cosstick, photos by Frankie Quinn, foreword by John Paul Lederach Launched with an exhibition of Frankie’s images from the book, at the Red Barn Gallery, 43b Rosemary Street, Belfast, BT1 1QB on Thursday 11th June, 6-9pm. "Depressing in its depiction of the past and exhilarating in its vision of the future, Vicky Cosstick's compelling story of a wounded city maimed by walls is a call to the barricades for all who believe Belfast's future lies in building bridges and tearing down barriers.” Máirtín Ó Muilleoir
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SACRUMPROFANUM BELFAST PHOTO FESTIVAL: UNSEEN DUmmY AWARD
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE 9-21 June. OPENING: TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 9PM (AFTER LIVE PERFORMANCE) free admission Hours: Mon-Sun, 10am – 7pm.
The SacrumProfanum exhibition runs at the Crescent Arts Centre Gallery from June 9-21 and includes video and photographic installations, original manuscript scores, imagines and fieldwork photographs and sketches of the sheela-na-gigs.
BELFAST PHOTO FESTIVAL: PHOTO STORY GROUP EXHIBITION IRIS COLOUR PHOTO PARK (WRITER’S SQUARE) 6-30 June 2015 OPENING: SATURDAY 6 JUNE, 7PM free admission Hours: tue-Sun, 11am – 7pm.
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IRIS COLOUR PHOTO PARK (WRITER’S SQUARE) 6-23 JUNE 2015 OPENING: SATURDAY 6 JUNE, 7PM Hours: Tue - Sun, 11am - 7pm free admission
WRITERS IN SCHOOLS VARIOUS SCHOOLS ACROSS BELFAST 8-12 june free admission
Local pupils from schools across Belfast are participating at this year's festival. Featured authors will be visiting the schools to facilitate workshops in creative writing from short stories to poetry and even the odd Haiku! To register your interest or for further information please contact Ann at outreach@crescentarts.org
POETRY AND COMMUNITY: IDEAS OF PLACE VARIOUS VENUES 18 May – 29 June free admission
This project (funded by the Big Lottery) adopts literary, historical, geographical and social perspectives to explore the ideas about place in Northern Ireland. Specially designed workshops will engage young people and adults to discuss how they think about place and belonging, and will then facilitate them in producing their own short imaginative works, to enhance their verbal expression, and examine in a creative way what 'place' mean to them. These works will form the basis of performance events, and an anthology of selected work, which will provide a permanent record of the project's output, and will be lodged with stakeholder organisations.
Such expression will help individuals to acquire pride in where they are from, will challenge them to consider what place and belonging mean in an atmosphere of increasing globalisation, and will encourage self-confidence in using new skills and working together in a shared learning environment.  Poetry is a powerful tool for evoking emotions; by learning, discussing, and 'doing', participants will gain an understanding of how it is possible to express strong, honest feelings about belonging, identity, and purpose. This innovative project is designed to improve individual and communal wellbeing and quality of life by introducing participants to new ways of evoking ideas about place and belonging, through composing their own works on these themes. The project is firmly embedded within local communities, and provides opportunities for developing new creative skills, through encouraging participants to produce their own forms of artistic expression (whether poetry, song, or performance) through writing, as well as audio and video recording. The carefully planned workshop sessions and performance events, led by experienced facilitators, will encourage talent, increase self-awareness and self-confidence, and will build community capacity to understand not only established ideas about place, but also to engage with new ideas about mobility, immigration, pluralism, and evolving communities. Project Director: Leon Litvack School of English Queen’s University
This project will engage participants in learning about how to think and speak about place, origins, identity, and community, and will then facilitate these participants in expressing ideas about their own sense of community and belonging -whether in an urban or rural environment.
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workshops FICTION WORKSHOP SCRIBBLING & rory's STORY CUBES
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE MONDAY & TUESDAY 8 & 9 JUNE, 10am-5.30pm WITH CLAIRE KEEGAN
Claire Keegan, internationally acclaimed author and teacher of creative writing will be running a fiction workshop to conincide with the Belfast Book Festival. The two days will concentrate on works-in-progress submitted by participants. Manuscripts are due on or before May 29, distributed to and read in advance by all participants. Keegan will spend between 3-5 hours on each text and then examine and discuss the manuscripts with the group. Discussion will include the structure of a narrative, paragraph structure, time, tension, drama, melodrama, statement, description, suggestion, conflict, character, humour, point of view, place, time and setting. The workshop will be of particular interest to those who write, teach, read or edit fiction -- but anyone with an interest in how fiction works and helping others to do so, is welcome to attend. Tuition is ÂŁ325. To book contact: ckworkshops @yahoo.co.uk 64 workshops
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE TUESDAY 9 JUNE, 4-5pm WITH SHARON DEMPSEY & EOIN MITCHELL free admission (7-12 years)
This workshop is designed to spark the imagination of 7-12 year olds so they can develop their writing skills within a fun and relaxed environment. Using supportive materials, writing prompts, fun activities and inspiration, each student will have the chance to develop their communication skills and begin to understand creative self-expression. Please bring a notebook or exercise book.
children's event
SLÁN ABHAILE SAFE HOME LEAVING HOME FINDING HOME CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE, 10am-1.30pm With Dr Robyn Rowland TICKETS: £15 / £12, Age 16+
This workshop considers the histories of emigration and immigration. It covers the meaning of land, people and spiritual practice and what those losses involve, particularly the loss of language. Experiences involved in arriving in a new land are considered, and firmly relate to the reasons for departure. The workshop involves a talk by Robyn and discussion of her work and other poets/ writers, a guide through the particulars of writing, a meditative moment and the creation of a piece of work, followed by detailed feedback. Each participant is given notes to keep which relate to the topic, as well as copies of Robyn’s or other poems which exemplify the theme. Appropriate to poetry and prose writers, experienced and beginners. It is useful to participants if they can bring an item relating to the topic, e.g. photos, a piece of lace, music, trinkets, which they can use in an experiential moment within the workshop.
Wannabe Wordsmiths CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE THURSDAY 11 JUNE, 4pm-5.30pm free admission WITH CAROLINE HEALEY, ages 10-12
Calling all young writers, poets, cartoonists, songwriters, playwrights and imaginationists , this is your chance to develop your writing skills and be part of the Belfast Book Festival. There will be word games, writing prompts, storytelling tips and lots of room for scribbling.
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WRITE WHAT YOU "DON’T" KNOW CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 10.30am-1.30pm WITH DR RUTH GILLIGAN TICKETS: £15 / £12, Age 16+
So often, writers are advised to ‘write what you know’ – to stick to material from their own lives – an approach I followed for my first three, largely-autobiographical novels. However, for my latest book I decided instead to take a leap and step outside the confines of my own experience. Through reading and writing tasks, we will consider what is at stake when we try to write about somebody of a different gender/ religion/race/class. How might we best go about such a process? What is lost and what is gained along the way? What ethical and technical challenges will we encounter? By the end, I hope we will each have produced the first draft of a short story, and above all, will have come to realise that the beauty and power of fiction often lies in writing far beyond what you thought you knew. Ruth Gilligan is a bestselling novelist and journalist from Dublin now working as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. She was the youngest person ever in Ireland to reach number one on the bestsellers’ list. Her fourth novel, Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan, will be published by Atlantic Books in 2016. 66 workshops
PERFORMANCE READING FOR WRITERS CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 2-4PM TICKETS: £12 / £10, Age 16+
If you are a writer who would like to read your work in public, this workshop will help you develop the skills essential to lifting words off the page and communicating them effectively to an audience. You will be provided with texts and exercises as well as useful tips and techniques that will develop your sight reading ability and help you use your voice as a flexible and expressive instrument. Feel free to also bring along any of your own texts to practice reading aloud. Rosie Pelan is a classically trained actor who now teaches many acting and voice classes at the Crescent Arts Centre and on the QUB Drama degree. She worked for over twenty years as a professional actor, playing many leading classical and modern roles. She has read Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace and Bernard McLaverty's Grace Notes for BBC Radio Scotland, as well as many short stories and dramas for BBC Radio 4. Rosie is also an 'Expert in Residence' at Stormont, as part of the Politics Plus project.
Papermaking and Literature CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE SATURDAY 13 JUNE, 10AM-4PM TICKETS: £20 / £15, Age 16+
This programme will introduce people to the joys of creating handmade paper with a literary theme! We will make paper using plant material from the artist’s garden, and discover how letters and words can be incorporated into paper to create unique pieces of work. Shakespeare wrote about roses, Wordsworth mentioned daffodils, Tennyson pondered his chances with Maude in the garden, and Heaney picked blackberries! We’ll be making paper with all sorts of literary flowers/plants in them, using “rag” pulp from old books and recycled linen from Banbridge. This course is intensive and fun: a must for those who want to know more about paper, its history
and the many ways in which art, literature and nature can be blended together. Jonathan Korejko is a freelance papermaker and artist. He tours the UK running workshops at literature festivals, and in schools, colleges, museums, RHS gardens, National Trust properties, Botanic Gardens, and craft fairs/trade fairs. He works with all age groups and ability levels, and has developed special tools and equipment, making it possible for everyone to produce good results. In the past few years he has been at the Lisburn Museum, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, and at W5 in Belfast sharing his skills and techniques with many different groups.
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