Belfast Has A Book Festival!
Festival Director, Keith Acheson said: “Every year the Belfast Book Festival provides an opportunity for authors, poets and performers, to showcase their work. Yet again we reveal another packed programme of events which we hope will appeal to everyone – no matter what age or level of interest in literature.
Kate Newman reading from poetry anthology ‘Grim’
“Whilst we are delighted to welcome returning supporters we are keen to reach out to those who have never participated in our festival before and encourage them to join us in trying something new. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our key funders the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council for their continued support as well as all of our many festival sponsors and partners.”
Kate Newmann, read from her wonderfully atmospheric collection of poetry , Grim.
Conor Maguire performing from his one man show of Moby Dick
Conor Maguire, also performed an extract from his one man representation of ‘Moby Dick’, which was atmospheric and riveting. Herman Melville’s epic prose From 1851 still has much to tell us about the nature of man and is brought to the stage by Conor Maguire, who has performed Oscar Wilde in ‘De Profundis’ and Brendan Behan in ‘The Confirmation Suit’ for the Belfast Book Festival.
The festival is of course about books, and central to its ethos is that of bringing books to schools through it Writers in Schools workshops in creative writing, from short stories to poetry and even the odd Haiku! – all supported by featured artists.
Thomas Hitzlsperger in his Everton days. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA
But, for the LGBT community we have a treat, NIGRA has been working with Keith Acheson to introduce an LGBT element into the festival, and indeed a first, in that Thomas Hitzlsperbger, a former German footballer who played the early part of his career with Aston Villa, before returning to Germany to play for Stuttgart. Following a series of injuries, he retired from football in 2013, and he announced that he was gay.
We welcome this inclusion, and hope that the community will make every effort to support the night by coming along. I for one am looking forward to hearing his conversation with Denise Watson.
…He had thought about coming out while still playing for Wolfsburg in 2011-12 but then listened to people who warned him of the negative consequences. “They all said ‘don’t do it, a big wave will crash on you’,” he says…
I urge everyone to come along to as many events as you can, there is something for everyone, of every age, gender, colour or creed. I have already picked my events.
Belfast Book Festival 2015
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