The Belfast Book Festival 2011
It seems to be festival month all around, with yet another literary event taking place near our shores in June – namely, the Belfast Book Festival 2011. The Festival kicks off on the thirteenth June (so that’s next Monday for the date illiterate among you) and unlike some other three day literary festivals being held this month, this one carries on for just under a week, not concluding until the following Sunday (the nineteenth, in other words).
There’s plenty to appeal to all writers and those with a literary eye, too, (whether in the self publishing field or not), with plenty of big name guests such as John Banville, David Peace, and Maurice Leitch. There will also be appearances by poets such as Leontia Flynn, Ben Maier, and Martin Mooney, as well as performing artists such as Owen O’Neill and Larry Lamb. Writers Jo Baker and Lucy Caldwell will also be on hand to appear in the Festival, conveniently timed to allow them to bang on about their new books.
There’s loads of other stuff going on in the Festival too, including the sort of things you expect such as workshops in creative writing and similar activities, while one of the highlights of the entire event will almost certainly be readings from a book taken from eye witness accounts of the Belfast Blitz, entitled “The Belfast Blitz: The People’s Story”.