Waterford City, Friday Oct 26th to Sunday Oct 28th
Waterford Writers Weekend celebrates the art and the craft of writing. This festival, devised and funded by the Library and Arts Service of Waterford city and County Council, has been running since 1996. It gathers authors and readers together to explore the joy of the written word in Ireland’s oldest city.
Friday 26 October:
Waterford Poetry Prize Presentation
The Book Centre at 7pm
Free Event
Join Rick O’Shea for the opening event of the WWW with the presentation of the national Weekend Poetry Prize 2018. Acclaimed poet James Harpur will get the evening off to a poetic start reading his work. The Arts Office, Waterford City & County Council invite you to meet the winners of the Waterford Poetry Prize and hear poet Grace Wells announce and read the winning poems.
The Irish Times Book Club Podcast
The Book Centre at 7:30pm
Free Event
A Live recording – author Helen Cullen talks about her debut novel the Lost Letters Of William Woolf with IT Books Editor Martin Doyle.
The “Oh My God What A Complete Aisling” Table Quiz.
Revolution Bar at 8:45pm
€20 for a table of four + booking fee
40 table capacity
A general knowledge table quiz for Aislings, Majellas and Generic Johns everywhere with prizes galore hosted by OMGWACA authors Sarah Breen and Emer McLysaght.
Modwords @ The Parlour
The Parlour Vintage Tea Rooms at 9pm
€2 (Need to Sign Up) – modwords@gmail.com
A collection of Waterford’s darkest and freakiest writers, floundering their words for all those ‘Batty’ enough to listen. Halloween special. Dress up if you must. Sign up if you dare. Special Ghost TBC.
Saturday 27 October:
Workshop – How To Write Memoirs With Sinead Gleeson
St. Patrick’s Gateway Centre at 9am
€25 (€20 Conc.)
Sinead Gleeson explores the art of the essay and memoir, focusing on the skills required for life-writing and first person non-fiction. This workshop will discuss how to put ideas into practice, beginnings and structure, making the personal universal and learning how to extract the key elements of your own story.
Workshop – From Seeds To Final Drafts – Poetry With Jessica Traynor
The Parlour Vintage Tea Rooms at 9am
€25 (€20 Conc.) + €1 booking fee
This course will focus on generating new ideas and fresh approaches to writing poetry. Each participant will get the opportunity to take a poem from first spark of inspiration to polished draft. This course is ideal for those new to writing poetry, or those looking to refresh their creativity.
Kids Event – The Children’s Books Ireland Book Doctors Clinic
The Book Centre from 12:00 to 4:00pm
Free Event
Are you a young reader? Looking for a new series to delve into? Feeling uninspired by your bookshelves at home? Do you need a prescription for an exciting new read? Then pop along to the CBI Book Clinic!
RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany
Theatre Royal at 11:45am
Tickets €10
A rare live recording of the long-running RTÉ Radio 1 programme of essays, poems and complementary music in the year of its 50th anniversary.
June, John And Caoilinn – The New Stars of Irish Writing
St. Patricks Gateway Centre at 2pm
Free Event
Bestselling Irish fiction, non-fiction and short story writers Caoilinn Hughes, John Connell and June Caldwell join Sinead Gleeson to talk about their respective first books.
The Waterford Writers Weekend Silent Reading Party
The Parlour Vintage at 4pm
Free Event
Is your idea of heaven coffee, cake and complete silence to get stuck in to a book for an hour? Then join Rick O’Shea and a room full of other readers doing just that all at the same time. For the first time ever the Waterford Writers Weekend is giving you what is sometimes so hard to find in the real world – complete silence to read in public.
The LIT Talks The Future Of Writing
Back Stage bar @ Theatre Royal at 4pm
Free Event
The LIT Festival, Europe’s first youth-run festival of literature based in Waterford, joins the WWW to talk about the future of writing, moderated by Sarah Maria Griffin.
Reeling From The Year
Downes Pub at 6pm
€7 + booking fee
The WWW’s flagship poetry event reflects on the extraordinary and sometimes baffling year we’ve had so far. Featuring Sarah Clancy, Elaine Feeney, Alice Kinsella, Erin Fornoff and Jessica Traynor.
Rick O’Shea In Interview With Sarah Winman
Garter Lane at 8:45pm
€10
The bestselling and internationally acclaimed author of Tin Man, When God Was A Rabbit and A Year Of Marvellous Ways talks to RTE’s Rick O’Shea.
Folklore & Fairies (Don’t P#@* Off The Fairies)
The Oak Room @ The Munster Bar at 9pm
Free Event
A night of fairytales and folklore and all the secrets of the wild the wind doth blow throughout Mountains and Oceans, through wild flowers and trees of Banshees and Pookas. Keep the secrets alive and share your story.
Sunday 28 October:
Workshop – “The Path To Publication: Taking Your Writing To The Next Level” With Derek Flynn
The Parlour Vintage Tea Rooms at 10am
€25 (€20 Conc.) + €1 booking fee
Do you have a story or a poem that you’d like to see published? Or a novel that you’d like to submit to an agent or publisher? Or perhaps even self-publish? Then this workshop is for you. Author, Derek Flynn, will show you how to take that story, poem, or novel from the page and into the hand of readers. Whether it’s through a literary journal, a publishing house, or a self- published book.
The Parlour Vintage Tea Rooms at 12:00pm
Free Event
Shaun Bythell owns Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop and has turned his pithy observations on customers into the bestselling Diary Of A Bookseller. In conversation with fellow bookshop owner Bob Johnston of The Gutter Bookshop.
How To Mind Your Mind And Body – Panel
The Book Centre at 2pm
Free Event
Comedian Aidan Comerford (Cornflakes For Dinner), Dr. Harry Barry (Emotional Resilience) and Aoife McElwain (Slow At Work) talk about how to sustain your mental health and not burn out in an increasingly taxing modern world.
Rick O’Shea In Interview With Celia Ahern And John Boyne
Central Library, Waterford at 4pm
€10 + booking fee
It’s a rare coincidence when multi- million selling Irish stars Cecelia Ahern and John Boyne both have new books out at the same time. Here they’ll be talking about Roar and Ladder To The Stars with RTE’s Rick O’Shea.
