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President Michael D. Higgins and Catherine Keogh, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Kerry Group.
LISTOWEL Writers Week 2024 opened to much anticipation last evening, when the guest of honour, President Michael D. Higgins was presented with John B. Keane Lifetime Achievement Award, with a citation in recognition of ‘Service to the Arts in Ireland’, and in celebration of the connections between the President’s literary and political careers.
President Higgins was in Listowel to accept the award in person. The award was presented to him by Conor Keane, son of John B. Keane.
Martin Dyar, Festival Curator at Listowel Writers’ Week, said: “President Higgins coming to Listowel this week to receive the John B. Keane Writers’ Week Lifetime Achievement Award is historic, and a truly great moment, one that will no doubt endure as a cherished memory and inspiration in the years ahead.”
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Dyar continued: “The President’s literary and political achievements are abundant. In so many remarkable ways they are also intertwined. We are proud to recognise that abundance, together with the ways that President Higgins has united poetry and politics, and indeed poetry and the presidential office itself.”
Darragh McKeon, winner of the Kerry Group Novel of the Year 2024 and Catherine Keogh, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Kerry Group.
The evening featured two of the most prestigious and lucrative Irish literary awards, firstly, the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award for 2024 winner was Darragh McKeon for his novel ‘Remembrance Sunday’.
This much acclaimed award is in its 30th year, with Kerry Group being a stalwart supporter of the arts throughout this time.
It has been through their continued financial commitment that Listowel Writers Week has grown to be a festival that attracts esteemed writers from throughout the world, with the winner receiving a €20,000 prize fund.
The second much anticipated award of the night was the Piggot Poetry Prize Award 2024, with this year’s winner announced as Paula Meehan, “The Solace of Artemis”.
Now in its eleventh year, this award of a €12,000 prize fund to the winner, is Ireland’s largest monetary fund for a poetry collection.
Now in its fifty-third year, the literary festival continues until June 2nd. This year’s programme includes a host of big names, together with newer and diverse literary voices, a broad and family friendly appeal, and an environmentally themed schedule of events combining literature, music, and film.
On June 1st, marking the thirtieth anniversary of Riverdance, Grammy award winning composer Bill Whelan will be in conversation with presenter of RTE’s The South Wind Blows, Philip King, in the Listowel Arms.
On Friday May 31st, in The Plaza, there will be screening of the IFTA award winning film That They May Face the Rising Sun, followed by an exclusive live interview between the film’s director Pat Collins and the Shakespeare scholar Andy Murphy.
On May 30th, the legendary American novelist Alice McDermott will be reading from and discussing her new New York Times bestselling novel, Absolution.
There is broad interest from Leaving Cert students and secondary schools, as the poetry legend Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin will read in the Listowel Arms Hotel on the night of May 31st, just a few days before the first Leaving Cert English exam.
The American writer, Lily Kingsolver, who with has co-written the acclaimed children’s book Coyote’s Wild Home with her mother, the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Barbara Kingsolver, will be in conversation with writer and broadcaster Anja Murray on June 1st.
Former CMO Tony Holohan, discussing his highly regarded memoir We Need to Talk, with poet and curator of the 2024 Writer’s Week programme Martin Dyar, will be the festival closing headline event on June 2nd in the Listowel Arms Hotel. See www.writersweek.ie for more.
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