Fundraising in the gutter
As part of the Gutter Bookshop's June programme, the National Women's Council of Ireland will host a special fundraiser this evening, June 10th, with author and blogger Emer O'Toole in conversation with Sinéad Gleeson, presenter of The Book Show on RTÉ Radio 1. O'Toole will read from her new book Girls Will Be Girls: Dressing Up, Playing Parts and Daring to Act Differently. Tickets are €15 and include a glass of wine. The Gutter outlets in Dalkey and Temple Bar are taking part in the Independent Bookshop Week (June 20th-27th). As well as limited edition books and awards, there's also a special #bookshopcrawl on Saturday, June 27th where participants can win prizes. See here for more information.
Dalkey Book Festival
The Canadian novelist Patrick de Witt, Belinda McKeon, Sara Baume, Gabriel Byrne and Paul McGuinness are among the line-up for this year's Dalkey Book Festival, which looks like it might get the weather this weekend. Running from June 11th-15th, a mix of literature, theatre, poetry, sports, economics and music should result in something for everyone. Events include Sara Baume on stage with Belinda McKeon, Inside Fifa with sports writer Simon Kuper, Fintan O'Toole on Yeats's legacy 150 years after his birth, and children's literature with authors Sarah Webb and Shane Hegarty. More information here.
Irish Writers Centre events
The Irish Writers Centre's popular Publishing Day series goes on the road to the Belfast Book Festival this Saturday, June 13th. Aiming to connect with new audiences in Northern Ireland, the one-day seminar costs £30/£25 for members and is suited to writers of all genres and forms. Heading to the other end of the country the following Saturday, June 20th, the centre is running Mindshift: Tough Crowd in Cork in association with Children's Books Ireland. The half-day workshop is designed to equip children's authors and illustrators with the tools they need to interact with young audiences at schools, libraries and literary festivals. Tickets are €30. More information on all three events here.
Bloomsday celebrations
A range of different events, from pub crawls to street parties to literary salons, are running this week and next for this year's Bloomsday celebrations. A full listings of events can be found at http://bloomsdayfestival.ie/programme/. One to watch out for is Portal of Discovery, in aid of the Simon Community, an afternoon of readings, song, comedy and food, "with some of Ireland's most interesting creative people" taking place in The Martello Tower in Sutton on Sunday, June 14th. Organised by the non-profit collective Young Hearts Run Free, it features the comedian Fred Cooke, actor and playwright Gina Moxley, the spoken word poet Stephen James Smith, with live music from The Evertides and Dylan Tighe. From 4-7pm, tickets are €20 and can be purchased here.
Dublin Writers Retreat
Dubliners take note – you can finish that novel without ever having to leave the capital. The Dublin Writers Retreat, a five-day writers' workshop, takes place at the United Arts Club in Dublin 2 from July 20th-24th. Led by the New York Times bestselling author and literary agent Wendy Goldman Rohm, the international conference has been held since 2002 worldwide and was originally inspired by Rohm's Masters Tea at Yale University. This is the third year the event has taken place in Dublin, with the programme open to both fiction and non-fiction writers. Running Monday-Friday from 1pm - 5pm, with a networking event each evening, participating writers are guided through the creation process, "fine tuning and perfecting their manuscripts from the seed of an idea to a high-quality draft." The retreat will also be visited by a number of guest authors. More information here.
Contact sarah.gilmartin@gmail.com with your literary listings
