Sunday, January 28, 2007

Cúirt Festival/Over The Edge showcase

The 22nd Cúirt International Festival of Literature will take place from Tuesday 24th - Sunday 29th April 2007 and will once again bring authors of international, national and local repute to Galway. Over the course of its history, the Cúirt Festival has hosted a dazzling array of literary talent, including Nobel Prize winners, J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney.

The Cúirt/Over The Edge showcase reading, which took place for the first time at last year’s festival – and was a big success – is to become an annual event. The reading - an official part of the Cúirt programme - will give four emerging writers the opportunity to showcase their work at Ireland’s foremost literature festival.

The four writers to be showcased at this year’s festival in April will be chosen from a shortlist of those who have been Featured Readers at the popular monthly Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library.

In a joint statement Over The Edge organisers, Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins, said: “We would like to thank the Cúirt Festival Committee for their support. The fact that the Cúirt/Over The Edge showcase reading is now to be on ongoing part of the festival each year provides an excellent opportunity for new poets and fiction writers, both in Galway and nationally. We are delighted to play our small part in what is without doubt the best literary festival in the country.”

http://www.galwayartscentre.ie/cuirt.htm