On the Town: A four-day celebration of the written word will hit the streets of Dublin this year with the 2005 Dublin Writers' Festival, which kicks off on Bloomsday, Thursday, June 16th.
According to programme director Pat Boran, this will be a time when "writers can be seen by and meet with their often invisible readers" and when readers can "lift their heads from their books or chores and make their way to the centre of a city famous for its love of literature, to join in a communal celebration of the written word".
"The danger is that we take this inheritance that we have here for granted. These writers encourage us to look at that tradition again," Boran added.
Some of the international names due to take part include Fiona Sampson, Paolo Ruffilli and Carolyn Forché. Tobias Hill, Hilary Mantel and the Irish writer, Eugene McCabe, who travelled from his home in Clones, Co Monaghan, to attend the launch, will all read at the festival's closing event. Other Irish writers at the Chester Beatty Library this week included poets John F Deane, Mary O'Donnell, and Jack Harte and his wife, Celia de Fréine .
"There's enough on over the four days of the festival programme to confuse and, I hope, delight the ghost of James Joyce if he looks down at all, which I'm sure he can't help doing," said the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Michael Conaghan, announcing this year's programme, which includes readings from more than 50 writers.
It's "an exciting cocktail of the very famous, the not so famous and the lesser-known writers of the world", said Jack Gilligan, arts officer of Dublin City Council and the festival's director.
Portuguese writers Almeida Faria and Hélia Correia, as well as the Booker- shortlisted Rachel Seiffert and Ronan Bennett will all be taking part in the event.
For more information, go to www.dublinwritersfestival.com