AboutFACE Ireland have announced the final selections for their 2017 NEWvember Dublin New Plays Festival – a showcase of original plays to be held at Belvedere Houseon Great Denmark Street, in Dublin’s city centre, November 16-19 2017. The announcement was made by AboutFACE Co-Artistic Directors Anna Nugent and Paul Nugent. NEWvember Dublin will feature these works over a four-day weekend, presented via rehearsed readings. After 6 years of NEWvember Festivals in New York, this is the first year the event will...

Global bestselling author Dan Brown is offering an exclusive meet and greet with one lucky competition winner on the night of his only UK appearance in Harrogate on Monday October 9. His UK publisher, Transworld, said: “It’s incredibly rare for Dan to host an individual meet and greet, even more so as this is his only UK appearance. Dan’s really thrilled to have chosen Harrogate, which has such a fantastic reputation for hosting literary events, to...

The full programme for the Dublin Book Festival 2017 is now live and available to view on the Dublin Book Festival website. The Festival will take place from 2 – 5 November, with Smock Alley Theatre as the festival hub. The Dublin Book Festival is one of Ireland’s most successful and vibrant book festivals, running since June 2006. The annual public festival showcases, supports and develops Irish publishing by programming, publicising and selling Irish published books,...

Elizabeth Reapy has been awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for her debut novel, Red Dirt. The prize is awarded for a body of work by a young Irish writer that shows exceptional promise. The novel was published in 2016 by Head of Zeus, and has since garnered considerable praise with Reapy named Newcomer of the Year last November at the 2016 Irish Book Awards. Following the announcement of Reapy’s victory, Jonathan Williams, literary...

Dublin City Council invites applications for a Writer in Residence, as part of its Culture & Creativity Plan under the Creative Ireland programme.  The residency runs for the period October 2017 to September 2018 and will be managed by Dublin City Public Libraries through the Director of Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and will be supported in kind by The Irish Writers’ Centre. The residency is open to published writers working in any genre of...

Judith Kerr, the best-selling children’s author, has been awarded with a Specsavers Platinum Bestseller Award as her classic children’s book, The Tiger Who Came to Tea surpasses one million units sold. Judith Kerr was presented with the award at a ceremony at the office of her publisher, HarperCollins Children’s Books, central London. The Specsavers Bestseller Awards, powered by Nielsen Book, celebrate the most successful books in Britain based on actual sales measured by Nielsen. Inspired...

Saturday 23rd – Sunday 24th September, Light House Cinema, Smithfield Having established itself as the most significant event for adults interested in children’s books in the country, the 27th Children’s Books Ireland annual conference once again promises a packed two-day programme of discussion and debate. The weekend long celebration of the very best in children’s books both at home and internationally, sees a whole array of speakers invited to discuss the numerous and innovative ways...

ECHOES will celebrate the work of Maeve Binchy and other renowned Irish writers this September. Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre is delighted to announce that Echoes, an inaugural event celebrating the work of Maeve Binchy and other renowned Irish writers, will take place in Dalkey on the 29th and 30th September. Echoes will feature thought provoking talks, walks, debates, interviews and theatrical events and will trace Maeve Binchy’s literary path from letter writing to journalism and on to becoming an internationally...

Chris Brookmyre has tonight scooped the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for Black Widow. Celebrating its thirteenth year, the Award is considered one of the most coveted crime writing prizes in the country. Black Widow is a story of cyber-abuse, where ‘even the twists have twists’. It features Brookmyre’s long-time character, reporter Jack Parlabane. Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that she had been given the novel as an early Valentine’s Day present by...

The Society of Authors started July  2017 with a total membership of 10,051. The 10,000 milestone will be celebrated on Tuesday 18 July at the SoA’s Summer Party at Waterstones Piccadilly, with an address from SoA council member Antonia Fraser dedicated to ‘Member 10,000’, the ten authors whose joining in June took membership numbers into five figures. The SoA invited current members to write welcome messages for Member 10,000, to be published this week in...