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PRESS RELEASE September 2009 For Immediate Release
CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL 2009
FÉILE LEABHAR NA bPÁISTÍ 2009
1st-31st October 2009
www.childrensbooksireland.ie
Worlds of magic and monsters, demons and other delights are waiting to
be discovered during the Children’s Book Festival, running 1st-31st October
with events across Ireland. Throw in some comic-book craziness with an
Manga expert from Kyoto, seven regional creative-writing residency
schemes and a national touring roster featuring both famous names and
exciting new talent, and you have what promises to be an amazing month
for young readers.
The wonderful Philip Ardagh, a gentle giant with a fearsome beard, will be
launching the festival with his unique comic flair in a fantastic event on the 1st
October in Cork City Library, before he moves on to a sell-out show at the
Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray on 2nd October.
Top Irish authors lined up to appear include Darren Shan (author of the
vampiric Saga of Darren Shan, soon making its cinema debut in The Vampire’s
Assistant), Celine Kiernan (whose Moorehawke Trilogy was snapped up at
Bologna and is being published here by O’Brien Press), Sarah Webb (author of
the Amy Green teen series), prolific author and illustrator Oisín McGann
(launching his new title The Wisdom of Dead Men), Maeve Friel (whose works
include the Witch-in-Training and Tiger Lily Series), Tom Kelly (winner of last
year’s Bisto Eilís Dillion award for The Thing with Finn), Michael Smith, author
of Tom Crean – Ice Man and many more besides.
These longstanding favourites will be joined by a bumper crop of new talents,
such as teen-novelist Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon’s Lexicon) and Mercier
Press debutants Kieran Mark Crowley (Colm and the Lazarus Key) and Susan
E. Connolly (Damsel). Other well-known names on the bill include performance
poet Brian Moses, Spooks Apprentice author Joe Delaney, two-time Red House
Award winner Sophie McKenzie and F.E. Higgins, who was Bisto shortlisted in
2008 for