Guests at this year’s Cúirt Festival of Literature, which runs from April 8 to 13, will include Booker prize winners Anne Enright and Roddy Doyle,  while Sally Rooney, Donal Ryan, Paul Muldoon, Denise Riley, Eimear McBride, Patricia Forde, Seán Hewitt, and Mary O’Malley will also be among the participants.

Palestinian-British author Ahmed Masoud give the annual Cúirt lecture, which is being reinstated as part of a series of events to mark the festival’s 40th anniversary. He will speak on Palestinian literature.

Cúirt is programmed by Manuela Moser, who was appointed as festival director in 2022. This is her third festival and will kick off with a reading from Sally Rooney and Paul Muldoon, the current Ireland Professor of Poetry, on Tuesday, April 8, at 8pm. And, during the festival, there will be further conversations on the Town Hall Theatre stage with Sally Rooney and Galway’s John Patrick McHugh, and Kevin Barry and Eimear McBride.

There will also be readings from debut novels from Seán Hewitt, Garrett Carr, Roisín O’Donnell, and Scotland’s Stuart Murdoch, while international writers this year include Salim Bachi, Kayo Chinyongi, and Luisa Castro.

On the poetry front, the festival will host Áine Ní Ghlinn, Moya Roddy, Mary O’Malley, Zara Meadows, Alanna Offield, and Michael Dooley, alongside Denise Riley, Gustav Parker Hibbet, and Richard Scott.

There will be reflections on the legacy of Irish literature, with Galway writer Alan McMonagle hosting a seminar on the importance of creative writing. Cúirt’s own place in literary history will also be celebrated with an interactive archival project, Capturing Cúirt, offering people a chance to share memories from past festivals. A selection from the festival’s archive of posters will be selected for reprint and will be for sale.

Festival favourites will include the New Writing Showcase, highlighting the best in new poetry and fiction. The Cúirt New Writing Prize will be judged by author, Wendy Erskine, poet Victoria Kennefick, and poet and author, Liam Carson, who writes in Irish and English.

The Irish Writers Centre Young Writer Delegates programme now in its eighth year, will allow four young writers to immerse themselves in the festival, receive mentoring from Alan McMonagle, and deliver an event at Nuns’ Island Theatre. Cúirt also continues its partnership with Faber Academy, offering workshops from experienced authors and editors.

A selection of children’s events, with local authors Serena Molloy and Gráinne O’Brien, will run over the weekend. And the Cúirt Labs will return to Cúirt, in partnership with Galway City Council, with three writers in residence: Patricia Forde, Clara Kumagai and Shirley-Anne McMillan.

Cúirt readings, launches, workshops and exhibitions will takes place in venues throughout Galway from Tuesday to Sunday, April 8-18 and tickets for all events are now on sale from http://www.cuirt.ie or through the Town Hall Theatre on 091 569 777, www.tht.ie.

Pictured: Seán Hewitt. Photo: Bríd O’Donovan.