Literature Events at the Imagine Arts Festival – 17th to 27th October

Reading in the Book Centre Date & Time: 25 October 2013 18.30 / Free Event
Of her second book Walk the Blue Fields, Joseph O’Connor has written: ‘This is one of the most exceptional collections of short stories to be published by any Irish writer in recent years … [ and will] surely place her where she truly belongs: among the greatest practitioners of the short-story form now writing.’
‘Among the finest stories written recently in English.’ – Observer
‘When it comes to dialogue, Keegan has oblique genius. With incident, Keegan has an unerring sense of odd pathos. With conclusions, Keegan is unprecedented … Reading these stories is like coming upon work by Ann Beattie or Raymond Carver.’ -L.A.Times.
Claire Keegan – Creative Writing Workshop –
Date & Time: Saturday 26th October 2013 at 10.00 am (finishes at 13.00)
Venue: Athenaeum House Hotel, Ferrybank,
Adm. €50 per person
Claire Keegan will be running a Writers’ Workshop in Athenaeum House Hotel, Christendom, Ferrybank, via Waterford on Saturday 26th October 2013.

Dermot Bolger – Reading
Venue: Greyfriars Gallery
Date & Time: Sunday 27th October 2013 at 12.30pm / Free Event
Dermot Bolger is an Irish novelist, playwright and poet born in Finglas, a suburb of Dublin. His work is often concerned with the articulation of the experiences of working-class characters who, for various reasons, feel alienated from society.
His novels include The Woman’s Daughter, The Journey Home, Father’s Music, The Valparaiso Voyage and most recently The Family on Paradise Pier. His debut play,The Lament for Arthur Cleary received The Samuel Beckett Award, two of his plays received Edinburgh Fringe First Awards and From These Green Heights received The Irish Times/ESB Prize for Best New Irish Play of 2004. Collections of his plays have been published by Penguin Books as A Dublin Quartet and by Methuen as Dermot Bolger: Plays 1. The author of seven volumes of poetry, most recently External Affairs (New Island, 2008) he has been Playwright in Association with the Abbey Theatre and Writer Fellow in Trinity College, Dublin. He devised the best-selling collaborative novels, Finbar’s Hotel and Ladies Night at Finbar’s Hotel and has edited many anthologies including The Picador Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction. In addition to premiering the Ballymun Trilogy, Axis also staged the premiere of his play, Walking the Road, a reimagining of the life and death of the poet Francis Ledwidge who died in Flanders in 1917. His first young adult novel, New Town Soul was published by Little Island i n June 2010.
His remarkable collection, The Venice Suite was reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement in June: “In the numbness of grief I felt certain I would never write poems again,” Bolger claims in his prefatory note. But his readers will be glad that he has done so… (in)… what is ultimately a book of celebration…unflinching and sad – and beautiful.”- Times Literary Supplement

Music and Poetry -The Lost Brothers and poets Dave Lordan and Sarah Clancy
Venue: Wander, Johnstown, Waterford.
Date & Time: 26th October 2013 / Doors: 9pm
Adm. €12/€10
“Irish duo The Lost Brothers offered exceptional interplay between their acoustic guitars, building from deceptively simple folk structures with tight paired harmonies from their recent The Passing of the Night . “ Doug Freeman. The Austin Chronicle, March 2013, Gig Pick Of the Day.
The Lost Brothers were also listed among Hidden Track and Glide Magazine’s Top Ten Bands To See at SXSW 2013.

This will be a special night for Imagine and the co-hosts Waterford Council of Trade Unions when they present a night of song and poetry featuring The Lost Brothers with two of Ireland’s strong outspoken poets Dave Lordan and Sarah Clancy.

This event is sponsored by Waterford Council of Trade Unions.