Cork World Book Festival takes place from 15-23 April 2023 and welcomes Irish and international writers to Cork for an extravaganza of books and writing
Thursday 20 April — Molly Twomey & Jim Crickard, presented by Stan Notte
Venue: The City Library | Grand Parade | 6.00pm | Free
- Molly Twomey grew up in Lismore, County Waterford, and graduated in 2019 with an MA in Creative Writing from University College Cork. She runs an online international poetry event, Just to Say, sponsored by Jacar Press. In 2021, she was chosen for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions series and awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary. Her debut collection, Raised Among Vultures, was published in May 2022 with The Gallery Press.
- Jim Crickard is a poet living in Cork City, originally from North Kerry. His poetry is camp, entertaining work exploring culture, sexuality and identity. He is the reigning Munster Poetry Slam Champion and placed third in the All Ireland Poetry Slam (2022).
- Stanley Notte is a writer, poet, artist and performer whose work has appeared in numerous print and broadcast media outlets.
Thursday 20 April — Intimate Republics with Peter Sirr, Stav Poleg and Adrian Duncan
Venue: The City Library | Grand Parade | 7.00pm | Free
The street, its ramblers and the homes that contain us are each Intimate, little republics. Join authors Peter Sirr, Stav Poleg and Adrian Duncan as they reveal page by page the layers of the physical space we inhabit, our built environment and the place we call home.
- Peter Sirr lives in Dublin and is a member of Aosdána. The Gallery Press has published his eleven poetry collections since Marginal Zones (1984), most recently The Gravity Wave (2019) which was a Poetry Society Recommendation and winner of the 2020 Farmgate Café National Poetry Award. Intimate City: Dublin Essays (2021), reflects a long standing attachment to and obsession with the Dublins of past and present.
- Stav Poleg‘s debut poetry collection, The City, was published by Carcanet in spring 2022 and was chosen by the Financial Times as one of the best Summer Books of 2022. Her poetry has appeared on both sides of the Atlantic, in The New Yorker, Kenyon Review, Poetry London, Poetry Ireland Review, PN Review and elsewhere.
- Adrian Duncan is an artist and award-winning writer based in Ireland and Berlin. His debut novel Love Notes from a German Building Site (2019, The Lilliput Press/Head of Zeus) won the 2019 John McGahern Book Prize. A Sabbatical in Leipzig (2020) was shortlisted for the Kerry Novel of the Year Award and The Geometer Lobachevsky was published in April 2022.
Saturday 22 April — Spoken Words and Music 2023
Venue: Carnegie Space at the Cork City Library | 12.00 pm – 2.00 pm | Free
Goldiefish Events are delighted to be hosting musicians and spoken word artists on Saturday 22nd April, 2023, at the Carnegie Space at the Cork City Library as part of the Cork World Book Festival. The multi-talented DJ and songwriter, Ronan Leonard, will be MCing and doing a short DJ set with solo performances from classical guitarist Colin McLean, singer-songwriter Hánt and the poet Molly Twomey.
Saturday 22 April — Paul Muldoon, Howdie Skelp – A call to Poetry. Introduced by Thomas McCarthy
Venue: Triskel Christchurch | 8.00 pm – 9.00 pm | Tickets
A “howdie-skelp” is the slap a midwife gives a newborn and is the title of the latest collection of poetry by Ireland Professor of Poetry Paul Muldoon (2022-2025).
- Paul Muldoon was born in County Armagh in 1951. He now lives in New York. A former radio and television producer for the BBC in Belfast, he has taught at Princeton University for thirty-five years. He is the author of fourteen collections of poetry including Howdie-Skelp, published by FSG and Faber and Faber in 2021.
- Thomas McCarthy, born at Cappoquin, Co. Waterford and educated at University College Cork worked for many years at Cork City Libraries. A former Editor of Poetry Ireland Review and The Cork Review, he is a member of Aosdána. His literary diaries, Poetry, Memory and the Party: Journals 1974-2014, was published in 2022 by The Gallery Press, Dublin.
