Literature at Kilkenny Arts Festival

About the Curator

A native of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Colm Tóibín lived in Spain for many years. He has been a fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at New York Public Library, Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University and a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin. His novels include The South (1991), The Heather Blazing (1992), The Story of the Night (1996), The Blackwater Lightship (1999), and The Master, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2005 and won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2006. A collection of short stories, Mothers and Sons, was also published in 2006. He is a member of Aosdána and lives in Dublin.

Literature Programme

The Literature strand features two very special Kilkenny events this year: a recording of RTÉ Radio 1’s much-loved Sunday Miscellany from the Watergate Theatre, and a look back at Kilkenny 100 Years Ago with the help of the 1911 Census. The Ireland of today comes under scrutiny as Professor Morgan Kelly, one of the most prescient commentators in recent years, examines ways out of the banking crisis, while in The Great Natural Resources Debate a distinguished panel considers whether Ireland has squandered its natural resources.

The environment is on the mind of TC Boyle, one of America’s most prolific and wildly inventive writers, while another great American writer, Tobias Wolff, shares the stage with David Vann. John Banville discusses Benjamin Black with literary critic Michael Wood, while Dermot Healy and Patrick McCabe offer mysterious slices of rural life in the Watergate, and Belinda McKeon, Kevin Barry and Paul Murray demonstrate that the future of Irish fiction is in safe hands.

Paul Muldoon was a promising young poet when he appeared at the inaugural festival in 1974. Thirty-seven years (and a Pulitzer) later, he makes a long-awaited return in the company of another celebrated Northern Irish poet, Michael Longley. In the majestic surroundings of St Canice’s Cathedral, this will be a moment to savour.

View the 2011 Literature Programme