On the Town: All manner of wordsmiths came to the Chester Beatty Library this week to hear what the Dublin Writers Festival 2004 has to offer. There's Wordweaver, a new documentary by film-maker Roger Hudson, about the 85-year-old writer, Benedict Kiely, which will be screened at the festival.
Then there's Molly Says No, presented by poet Michael O'Loughlin and soprano Judith Mok. This recital, set in the context of a dramatic text, aims to show a different side to the heroine of Joyce's Ulysses.
"She's supposed to be a diva," said Mok.
The presence of the San Francisco-based poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, will be one of the most exciting aspects of the festival, according to programme director Pat Boran.
"It's a big coup. He's one of the last of the surviving Beat poets. He was the publisher of all of them. He visited Dublin once but he hasn't been here since he was a student.
"Likewise with Harold Pinter," Boran added. "Everyone is excited about having him." And Tracy Chevalier was "another one to watch".
Children's author Herbie Brennan, whose Faerie Wars series was voted number one in the US Teens Top 10 Books for 2004, will take part in the festival too. He came to the reception in Dublin this week, with his wife Jacquie Burgess. Originally from Banbridge, Co Down, the writer now lives in Tullow, Co Carlow. His next book in the Faerie Wars series, The Purple Emperor, is due out in the autumn. Brennan described himself as "hugely disciplined" and "addicted" to writing.
"It's a drug to me," he says.
Festival director Jack Gilligan reminded us that singer Camille O'Sullivan, who will perform during the festival, will also be singing at the O'Reilly Theatre in UCD on Thursday, May 27th.
Other writers at the launch included Jamie O'Neill, Eamon Delaney, Kevin Kiely and Paul Murray, whose first book, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award last year and commended for the Guardian First Book Award. Christine Dwyer Hickey, whose book, Tatty, was recently published, was also present, along with poets such as John O'Donnell, Jean O'Brien, Gabriel Rosenstock and John F. Deane.
The Dublin Writers Festival 2004 runs from Thursday, June 17th to Sunday, June 20th