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The Literary Capital of the S
L-R: Laura Valeri, Eoin Colfer and Andreae Callanan.
The Wexford Literary Festival, founded in 2013 as the Focal Festival, is very proud to have recently held its 8th annual Festival. Embracing Covid 19 and all its debilitating restrictions, the enterprising Committee, under Chairman Richie Cotter, went digital this year and last to keep the Festival alive and to support literature, writers, playwrights and poets through the dark days of pandemic. And to say it was successful would be an understatement. Welcoming the opportunities presented to us through social media, we established literary links with our very close cousins in St. John’s, Newfoundland; Savannah, Georgia; St. Louis, Missouri and St. David’s, Wales. In our Premiere Poetry – Hyacinths & Biscuits – we were thrilled to welcome Andreae Cal-
lanan, celebrated author and poet from St. John’s, Newfoundland, who spoke of the indigenous peoples of Newfoundland and the very strong Irish-Wexford connection, before reading from her own work. Our own Eamonn Wall came to us from his American home in St. Louis, an avid supporter of the Festival since its inception, Eamonn delighted us as usual with his beautiful words. In our Premiere Authors, we were treated to readings from Felicity Hayes McCoy coming to us from her London home and reading from her latest book The Year of Lost & Found, and author Laura Valeri established our great Wex-Sav link reading her work from Savannah, Georgia, very much in keeping with our mission to deliver an International Literary Festival with emphasis on promoting and awarding new and existing writing across many genres.
Speaking of which, we are pleased to have received submissions for all our Awards – The Colm Toibín Short Story Award, The Anthony Cronin Poetry Award and The Billy Roche Short Play Award from right across the globe, from all parts of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, New York, California, Florida, Philadelphia, Denmark, Germany, France, and Canada, establishing the Wexford Festival as a global event on the world’s literary calendar. And this year we went a step further adding yet another award and another genre to our amazing list of competitions, with famous Wexford Children’s author Eoin Colfer agreeing to his name on an award for our new category – Children’s Short Story Award. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Eoin and tell him that we were delighted with both the response and the standard of the submissions. The Festival continues to grow and prosper with each passing year, and we are extremely proud to say that we have taken on the Covid challenge and, by going digital, managed not only to attract a greater global audience but produced the only festival in this county during the pandemic. The Festival Committee is dedicated to the promotion of reading and writing through our extensive programmes with special emphasis on social inclusion, and contribute to cultural
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