The ‘Omagh Literary Festival’ makes return to Strule Arts Centre

Bookmark the dates, folks, as the Omagh Literary Festival is making a novel return to the Strule Arts Centre this month.

It will feature everything from engaging talks with seasoned authors and film directors, to relaxed coffee-shop style recitals to ignite imaginations and cultivate creativity.

The fantastic festival, which will honour Benedict Kiely, will launch on the evening of Friday, October 21, with an event titled ‘Neil Hegarty In Conversation with Sam McBride’, beginning at 8pm.

Sam McBride is an author and journalist, who is currently Northern Ireland editor of the Belfast Telegraph and the Sunday Independent.

He will be in conversation with author Neil Hegarty, who co-edited ‘Impermanence’, a collection of essays about Northern Ireland. The insightful event costs £10 per person to attend.

Words and worDsmiths

On Saturday, October 22, at 12pm, the ‘Literary Allsorts’ event will open the minds and hearts of the people of Omagh and beyond to the talents of local wordsmiths.

The coffee-morning style book event, priced at £5 per person, will see local writers and speakers deliver short extracts of their prose, while winners of the ‘Benedict Kiely Short Story’ competition 2022 will recite their award-winning works.

At 2pm, the Omagh Literary Festival Book Club will introduce ‘The Quiet Whispers Never Stop’, by Olivia Fitzsimmons.

The event, priced at £7 per person, is perfect for members of any book club to attend, as it will see Olivia take centre stage as she reads from, and discusses, her award-winning debut novel – hailed as one of the North’s most renowned, recently-published titles.

Olivia, who will then answer any curious questions and direct queries from the audiences, was born in County Down, and is an esteemed past winner of the Benedict Kiely short story competition.

Indeed, her novel was also a winner at the ‘Irish Writer’s Centre Book Fair’ in 2020.

At 3.30pm, ‘The Novel v The Short Story’ will see two of Northern Ireland’s leading contemporary writers, Adrian Duncan and Wendy Erskine discuss the special relationship that Irish readers have with both the novel and short stories – and what makes them unique.

Wendy Erskine is a popular Belfast writer, whose fiction and non-fiction works have been published by Faber & Faber, Tangerine Press and No Alibis Press.

Her collection of short stories, titled ‘Sweet Home’, was short listed for the ‘Edge Hill Prize’ and ‘Republic of Consciousness Prize’.

Meanwhile, Adrian Dunbar is based in Ireland and Berlin. His debut novel, ‘Love Notes from a German Building Site’ won the 2019 John Mc Gahern Book prize, among others. The engaging discussion is priced at £7 per person to attend.

On Saturday night at 7pm, the exciting Irish premiere of Colin Broderick’s ‘A Bend in the River’ will take place – complete with a bubbling champagne reception for attendees.

Filmed in Tyrone, and beautifully-shot, the premiere sees Colin travel all the way from his New York home to Omagh, to introduce the film and present a talk ahead of its screening.

It also features a star-studded cast, including John Duddy, a former professional boxer and now-popular actor; Kathy Kiera Clarke who plays ‘Aunt Sarah’ in ‘Derry Girls’ and John Connors of RTÉ’s drama television series, ‘Love/Hate’.

The tickets, which cost £10 per adult and £5 per student, also include an opportunity to meet Colin, producer, Julie Ryan, and some members of the cast.