FESTIVAL READINGS Mickey Gorman was for many years a well-loved tutor in the Department of English in U.C.G., but now lives in London. His celebrated slim volume of poetry, "Postcards from Galway" was one of the first ventures of the Galway Arts Group, who ran the Festival in its early years.
This poetry head-to-head, will provide a stimulating contrast between Rita's robustness and Mickey 's reticence - each displaying that wry poetic wit that has made them so popular. The reading will be followed by a concert by the innovative new all-female band from Waterford "Miss Brown To You".
WESTERN WRITERS
An evening of stories, Sean-Nos and poetry. Nuns Island Arts Centre. 26 July at 8.30 p.m. Tickets: £3.00
JOHN McGAHERN
Athlone poet Desmond Egan will be the featured artist at this year's Western Writers Reading at the Festival. Born in 1936, he has an M.A. from U.C.D. and taught English in Newbridge for a time but is now a full-time w riter. He has worked extensively in the U.S. and in Japan where he is advisor to Osaka University's Irish Studies programme. His work has been translated into several languages.
Festival Reading, Nuns Island Arts Centre. 25 July at 8.30 p.m. Tickets: £3.00
John McGahern, currently riding high in .the best selling lists with his latest novel '½mongst Women': has had a long association with the Galway Arts Festival. He has read at several Festivals in previous years and in 1988 received a special Festival award for his outstanding contribution to contemporary Irish literature.
Also featured in the Western Writers evening will be Sean-Nos singer Tracie Ni Mhiollain from Inismor, who has toured in Europe with De Danann and Clannad and short story writer Mick Carragher, from South Armagh, whose work has been published in the Irish Press and the Belfast Review.
McGahern is hardly prolific but the quality of his work ensures his enduring standing. '½mongst Women" is the story of Moran, an old Republican whose life was transformed by the glory days of the War of Independence. Now in his old age he must come to terms with his relationship with his wife and three daughters. It is a story of the complex challenge of love and fear, of self and other people. '½mongst Women" has been universally greeted by major Irish book of the year.
SEAN CONNAUGHTON
Festival Reading, Druid Theatre. 28 July at 3.00 p.m. Tickets: £2.00.
Shane Connaughton was born in the borderlands of Cavan and brought up in a Garda Station where his father served as Sergeant. He has worked on farms, in East End factories, City Offices and the Theatre, but he is now a full-time writer, based in London. For his first celebrated novel, however, Shane returned to his childhood scene in "The Border Station". It was an instant success and was short-listed for the 1989 GPA award. The Daily Telegraph said of it: "The vivid sense of how childhood memory seizes upon objects, incidents and smells is beautifully wrought".
Sponsored by Matt O'Flaherty.
RITA ANN HIGGINS AND MICHAEL GORMAN
Poetry Head To Head, Acoustic Room, The Warwick
23 July at 8.30 p.m.
Tickets: £3.00 (incl. admission to "Miss Brown To You")
Rita Ann Higgins has been writing poetry since 1982 and has published to major volumes "Goddess on the Mervue Bus" (1986) and "Witch in the Bushes" (1988). Her poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers and has been dramatised by R.T.E. Eileen Ni Chuilleanin has described her work as "witty and frightening, exposing hidden anxieties or dismissing them to make anarchic fun".
Shane, however, remains primarily a playwright and he has recentl y received a new international prominence as co-screenwriter of "My Left Foot".
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Mr. Connaughton's visit to Galway has been sponsored by Eason's bookshop and signed copies of "The Border Station" will be available in the shop on Saturday morning.