{"id":9217,"date":"2015-05-27T09:40:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T08:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=9217"},"modified":"2015-05-27T09:40:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T08:40:11","slug":"authors%e2%80%99-voices-to-fill-the-city-at-the-fifth-belfast-book-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2015\/05\/authors%e2%80%99-voices-to-fill-the-city-at-the-fifth-belfast-book-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"AUTHORS\u2019 VOICES TO FILL THE CITY AT THE FIFTH BELFAST BOOK FESTIVAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

With over 100 events<\/strong>, many completely FREE<\/strong>, the fifth Belfast Book Festival, 8-14 June, is getting ready to showcase some of the biggest names in the literary world from home and beyond.<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>
On the case of the fifth Belfast Book Festival, 8-14th June, which will showcase some of the biggest names in the literary world from home and aboard at the Cresecent Arts Centre and across the city, were from left Glenn Patterson,who will launch his book here's me here at the festival, Deepa Mann-Kler Chair of the Crescent Arts Centre, and Conor Maguire who will perform a one man show of Moby Dick. For further details visit belfastbookfestival.com. Photo by Simon Graham\/Harrison Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The voices of authors, poets and performers will come alive at the Crescent Arts Centre as well as other locations across the city. From young to old from first timers to late bloomers \u2013 whatever your age or level of\u00a0 \u00a0reading interests the jammed packed programme is guaranteed to have something to encourage you to take part.<\/p>\n

Notable highlights for this year include;\u00a0a conversation with Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee<\/strong> and David Walker<\/strong> on their co-authored book \u2018Cameron\u2019s Coup\u2019;\u00a01991 Booker prize winner, novelist and short story writer Ben Okri<\/strong>; writer, filmmaker and radical thinker Tariq Ali <\/strong>in conversation on his book \u2018The Extreme Centre: A warning\u2019; Comedian Mark Thomas<\/strong> who will be raising the roof of the Belfast Empire; actress and comedienne Helen Lederer<\/strong> who will discuss her book \u2018Losing It\u2019.\u00a0 Plus hear from Eimear O\u2019Callaghan<\/strong> on her book \u2018Belfast Days: A 1972 Teenage Diary.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Belfast Book Festival is proud to present a range of firsts, late bloomers, launches, weeklong events, workshops, lunchtime sessions, as well as providing a platform for unknown authors. \u00a0Look out for \u2018Fiction Firsts\u2019 featuring first time novelists, contemporary writers at \u2018Young Irelanders\u2019 and, showing it\u2019s never too late to start writing, will be the \u2018Literary Late Bloomers\u2019. Join local author Glenn Patterson<\/strong> as he launches his latest book ‘Here’s me Here.’ \u00a0Get yourself heard through events such as Self-Publishing Salon, Publishing Day and Squat Pen.\u00a0 Need a festival fix during the day?\u00a0 Then, make sure you check out the literary lunchtimes featuring a range of local author\u2019s voices. Weeklong events include \u2018SacrumProfanum\u2019<\/strong> an exhibition in the 1st<\/sup> floor Crescent Arts Centre gallery whilst workshops range from fiction writing with Claire Keegan<\/strong> to performance reading for writers with Rosie Pelan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The festival will also provide a voice on interesting topics and debates. Highlights include \u2018Writing on Depression\u2019 with Liz Frazer<\/strong> and Carolyn Jess-Cooke<\/strong>, high profile former Premiership footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger<\/strong> in conversation with Denise Watson<\/strong> and racy revelations of a famous Dublin Madame with Julie Peakman<\/strong> and Nuala McKeever<\/strong> \u2013 \u2018Peg Plunket: Memoirs of a Whore.\u2019<\/p>\n

Poetry lovers will be in their element with the wide choice of events available. Some of the events include; \u2018The Accessible Muse\u2019 Brian Patten<\/strong> one of the legendary Liverpool Poets<\/strong>; exhilarating performance poet Tony \u2018Longfella\u2018 Walsh<\/strong>; the annual Poetry Slam<\/strong>; award-winning Kate Newmann<\/strong> and Nessa O\u2019Mahony<\/strong> or hear from John F Deane<\/strong>, James Harpur<\/strong> and Anthony Cronin<\/strong> at Three Voices.<\/p>\n

The voices of children and children\u2019s authors will also be heard with support from Eason<\/strong> and the best bit – all of these events are FREE<\/strong>. Hear from Julie-Anne Graham\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018The Perfect Percival Priggs\u2019, to Chrissie Gittins<\/strong>\u2019 \u2018Stars in Jars\u2019 to Derek Mulveen\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Oisin the Brave \u2013 Robot Island\u2019.\u00a0 Kids will enjoy the book detective events where they can track down escaped book characters as well as the outdoor Eason Family Fun Day<\/strong> at Crescent Arts Centre featuring art workshops and magical stories.\u00a0 Want to spark their imagination then get your 7 \u2013 12 yr along to the Scribbling & Rory\u2019s story cubes workshop.\u00a0 Local school pupils will get the chance to be involved in the Festival when featured authors will join them for workshops. Register your interest at outtreach@crescentarts.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If music is your interest then the Belfast Book Festival has something for you. Look out for a discussion with local musician Duke Special<\/strong> & writer and comedian Andrew Doyle<\/strong> on their forthcoming musical adaption of Gulliver\u2019s Travels at the Lyric Theatre<\/strong> with Youth Music Theatre UK.\u00a0 Hear from storyteller, illustrator and musician Randall Stephen Hall<\/strong> on his one man show.\u00a0 Go behind the scenes of the Eurovision Song Contest<\/strong> with David Blake Knox or hear about life in 90s Manchester band Inspiral Carpets<\/strong> with frontman Tom Hingley<\/strong>.
\nFestival Director, Keith Acheson, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year the Belfast Book Festival provides an opportunity for authors, poets and performers, to showcase their work.\u00a0 Yet again we reveal another packed programme of events which we hope will appeal to everyone – no matter what age or level of interest in literature. Whilst we are delighted to welcome returning supporters we are keen to reach out to those who have never participated in our festival before and encourage them to join us in trying something new.\u00a0 I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our key funders the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and\u00a0Belfast City Council<\/strong> for their continued support as well as all of our many festival sponsors and partners.”<\/em>
\nFor further details on the Belfast Book Festival including the full festival programme \u00a0visit\u00a0www.belfastbookfestival.com<\/a> or follow on facebook \u2013 Belfastbookfestival or twitter @belfastbookfest #belfastbook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With over 100 events, many completely FREE, the fifth Belfast Book Festival, 8-14 June, is getting ready to showcase some of the biggest names in the literary world from home and beyond. The voices of authors, poets and performers will come alive at the Crescent Arts Centre as well as other locations across the city. … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9219,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9217\/revisions\/9219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}