Cúirt International Festival of Literature announce programme for 2024

From Tuesday, April 23 through Sunday April 28 the Cúirt International Festival of Literature will be hosted in Galway.

There will be over 50 events including poetry, fiction, memoir, non-fiction, masterclasses and workshops, exhibitions and family events. The festival has been curated by its Director, Manuela Moser.

Highlights of the festival include two Booker Prize winners, Paul Lynch and John Banville. Other headliners include Rita Ann Higgins, Edel Coffey, Elaine Feeney, Mary Costello and Mike McCormack, all of whom are from Galway. The festival will also welcome Paul Murray, Jackie Kay, Sinéad Gleeson, Rafeef Ziadah, Lemn Sissay, Leontia Flynn and many more.

The Cúirt International Festival of Literature was founded in Galway in 1985 and is one the oldest and most recognised literature festivals in Europe. It was created to spotlight national and international literary talent and promote the written and spoken word in poetry, literary fiction, non-fiction and genre writing.

💫The Cúirt 2024 programme is now live
Discover the full programme online now at https://t.co/vT5t20Qky9 and join us this April 23-28 in Galway.
We are honoured to feature this incredible artwork from Galway based artist Miriam de Búrca#Cúirt2024 #galway #discoverireland pic.twitter.com/V5PNoFIqtD

— Cúirt Festival (@CuirtFestival) March 6, 2024

As always, the festival will host a series of authors, poets and artists. There will be special events including a screening of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie for April’s edition of the Cinema Book Club partnership with Pálás.

As well as many conversations about Ireland about a wide array of topics including the treatment of women and the legacies of the past, growing up in the Troubles and a conversation about Leon Diop and Brianna Fitzsimmons' book Black & Irish: Legends, Trailblazers & Everyday Heroes.

The weekend before the festival there will be an event hosted in partnership with Ireland’s Children’s Literature Laureate, Patricia Forde, who has created an interactive storytelling event for families. There will be many family friendly events throughout the festival.

In the 39th year of the festival, this is a week-long international literary festival that occurs in Galway in April every year. Over the years, the festival has seen dozens of Nobel prize-winners, Poet Laureates and prize-winning authors from around the world.

The programme is selected by the Programme Director each year. This year’s director Moser hails from Morecambe in the Northwest of England. She has been awarded the inaugural Publishing Fellowship at the Seamus Heaney Centre. Her debut pamphlet, Last Night, The Mountain was published by Bad Betty Press in 2021.

She is also the founding editor of The Lifeboat Press where she publishes work by emerging Irish writers. Moser also commissioned Queering The Green: Post-2000 Queer Irish Poetry which was edited by Paul Maddern.

The goal of this year's Cúirt is to amplify Irish voices which is the type of work Moser has dedicated her life to. When speaking about the festival, Moser says, “We’re excited to welcome audiences and authors to Galway this April for what is sure to be an inspiring week in celebration of literature. Cúirt celebrates stories and ideas, and as ever, we’re thrilled to host a wide selection of world-class authors at the pinnacle of their careers alongside exciting new voices.”

The festival will be put up in partnership with the Arts Council, Galway City Council, Galway County Council and ACNI. A full list of the festival events with its dates and times can be found here. Tickets are now available through the event site here or though the Town Hall Theatre on 091 569 777.