‘It’s like going to the well,” said a friend of mine when asked why, once the annual round of literary festivals kicks off, she makes a pilgrimage to some corner of Ireland every month.
We now have a literary festival season – at last count, I totted up 12 such festivals in Ireland and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few. Festival programmers like me attempt to bring some creative coherence and distinctiveness to proceedings. The burgeoning literary festival season should serve as confirmation that we are somehow getting it right.
Most towns can boast a festival of some kind. For some, the need to “festivalise” everything jars a bit. Yet the challenge of crafting an enjoyable festival is a task we find hugely rewarding.
For the many thousands of people who have ventured to Ennis for the 10 years of the Ennis Book Club Festival, buying a book and immersing themselves in it is a social activity. For them, their intimate relationship with a book is worth talking about, debating and exploring in the company of others and most importantly, in the company of the authors. We seem to have a growing appetite to hear, first-hand, the voices of writers whose work we read and enjoy.
For writers, the growing festival circuit is bound to be demanding of both their time and energy. So why do they do it? Both veterans and novices at the Ennis festival, when asked, agreed that the public appearance aspect of festivals, takes some getting used to. It stands to reason that a writer, who leads a solitary and studious existence, would not delight in entertaining a large audience.
Interestingly, however, all agree that it is gratifying to meet readers/prospective readers, and to have contact with the wider literary community. A slew of novelty questions is unlikely to surface. Instead, most of us want to know about the fundamentals of technique, narrative, character and the writer’s own development.
While some authors love the bright lights, others find the entire process excruciating. So much so that some do not see the need to promote their work at all. Elena Ferrante, when asked to promote her books said “books, once they are written, have no need of their authors. If they have something to say, they will sooner or later find readers; if not, they won’t”.
The challenge for literary festivals, then, is not just to deliver audiences but to do so while keeping everybody happy – authors and readers. The festivals that get it right have the more established authors subsidise the “early career” ones and offer readers a way to make new connections.
In common with most literary festivals, the Ennis Book Club Festival offers opportunities to discover new writers – the many brilliant writers who have ‘surfaced’ in the recent past are actively promoted.
Literary festivals do much more than spotlight writers. Local bookshops are supported, authors and their work are publicised.The Ennis Book Club Festival celebrates the great book club movement which has turned reading into an opportunity for a regular gathering.
The Ennis festival is powered by an all-woman committee of volunteers. Máire Logue, of Listowel Writers’ Week, says women engage more deeply with the work involved in making a festival happen, the writers we invite and the act of reading. And she should know: Listowel is where most Irish writers cut their festival wisdom teeth.
Off we go then: spring has sprung and we’re all racing around to the various literary festivals, hearing from our favourite authors, encountering new ones, buying books and staying up late to talk about them.
