The West Cork Literary Festival is one of my favourite writing festivals of the year. Rozz and I first went four years ago and went again the following year for a full week of workshops. I didn’t think back then that I would be featuring in any way at the festival a few years later. It was a huge thrill for me to be asked to read from Jewtown at Bantry Bookshop today as part of the festival programme.
The session consisted of me reading 7 of the poems followed by a Q and A with journalist, Don O’Mahony. It was lovely to see many familiar faces in the audience as well as loads of people who came because of the connection with the area around Albert Road. The Q and A was great fun with lots of questions about Jewtown itself, famous Jewish people and the demise of the Jewish community in Ireland as well as people remembering their Irish Jewish friends and so on. We also talked about writing and how I got from never writing a poem to publishing the book.
After the session, it was time for book signings and it was the busiest one I’ve had since the launch. Generally poetry readings will shift up to 10 books or so. I was delighted, however, that we sold every single book. Time for a reprint!
A big thanks to Eimear and Sara and all the people behind the festival for giving me the opportunity to read at the festival and thank you to the staff of Bantry Bookshop for their hospitality and kindness while I was there.