OPENED last night, the 27th Listowel Writers' Week begins in earnest today, with Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting, and the poet Paul Durcan both giving talks and readings.
Tomorrow Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole will give the Seamus Wilmot Memorial Lecture, Anne Brogan will perform a monologue by Jennifer Johnston and the novelist Hugo Hamilton will give a reading.
There will also be a civic reception to honour two of the founding fathers of Writers' Week, the writers John B. Keane and Bryan MacMahon.
On Saturday there will be a panel discussion on "The Cult of Heritage", with Frank McDonald, Environment Correspondent of The Irish Times, writer and mystic John Moriarty, Dr Pat Donlon, former director of the National Library, and Jimmy Deenihan, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture.
There will be a street parade, a reading by Ciaran Carson, and the biographer of Lady Lavery, Sinead McCoole, will give a lecture on "Writing Women into History".
On Sunday there will be a Meet the Author session with Irish Times columnist,
Nuala O'Faolain.