Dun Laoghaire Poetry Now Festival

The Dun Laoghaire Poetry Now International Poetry Festival has become one of the top poetry festivals in the country. This year's event takes place from Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th March 2009. The festival website doesn't seem to have been updated yet but some details are available on this page from the venue, the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire.

Some very interesting poets there including Colette Bryce and Adam Foulds on the Sunday. Adam is the author of The Broken Word which won the Costa Poetry Book award recently and Colette who is from Derry tutored an Arvon course I attended in Yorkshire two years ago.

This festival brings together poets of many nationalities – Irish, English, American, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Indian - many of whom are relatively unknown here. Especially interesting this year are Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun, (picture left from his website), Belarusian poet Valzhyna Mort and Lithuanian scholar, poet and author Tomas Venclova.

The keynote address is by veteran US poet, novelist and translator (of Dante's Inferno among others), Robert Pinsky, who served as US Poet Laureate 1997 - 2000.

A festival not to be missed!