Cork author spearheads event celebrating crime writing

A MAJOR initiative to celebrate crime writing is being launched across Ireland and the UK in June, and will be spearheaded locally by author Catherine Kirwan.

Catherine and other ambassadors, including best-selling authors Steve Cavanagh, Louise Phillips, Anthony Horowitz and Ian Rankin, will be encouraging bookshops, libraries and schools to get involved with their own events for National Crime Reading Month (NCRM).

Interested organisers can download promotional tools including logos, posters and press release templates at www.crimereading.com. They can also upload all their events at the site.

NCRM will be launched in Cork at Cork City Library on June 1, where Catherine will be in conversation with fellow author Tadhg Coakley to chat about favourite crime novels.

“I’m delighted to support National Crime Reading Month as the Crime Writers’ Association Republic of Ireland Library Champion,” said Catherine. 

“Crime writers are crime readers first and foremost, and there’s nowhere better to nurture a love of reading than your local library.

“This June, I encourage everyone to #PickUpAPageTurner and escape into the vivid and varied world of crime fiction.“

She hopes the audience in the city library will join in what should be a lively discussion.

Catherine’s most recent crime novel, featuring Cork solicitor Finn Fitzpatrick, is Cruel Deeds and her previous crime novel Darkest Truth was Cork City Libraries’ One City One Book in 2019. Tadhg’s crime novel Whatever It Takes was Cork City Libraries’ One City One Book in 2020. His debut The First Sunday In September was published in 2018.

That week is going to be extremely busy for Tadhg. His latest book, The Game: A Journey Into The Heart of Sport, is being launched the following night in Waterstones on Patrick Street by Danny Denton.

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ANOTHER UPCOMING FESTIVAL

THE 2022 Cork International Poetry Festival, which is organised by the Munster Literature Centre, takes place next week, running from May 18-21.

In addition to workshops taking place at the Literature Centre, events will also be held at Cork City Library, Cork Arts Theatre and Nano Nagle Place.

Among the highlights are the Fool for Poetry & Gregory O’Donoghue Prize Readings, taking place in Cork Arts Theatre on Saturday.

At this event, the winning chapbooks of the most recent Fool for Poetry Competition, Earth’s Black Chute, by Cian Ferriter, and Corona Connemara & Half a Crown, by Jamie O’Halloran, will be launched with readings by the poets.

The winner of the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition, Timothy McBride, will receive his €2,000 prize and have the opportunity to read from a selection of his poems.

The full programme, including readings, chapbook launches, and workshops, is available at corkpoetryfest.net.

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The Munster Literature Centre is also currently accepting entries for the Seán O’Faoláin International Short Story Competition.

The competition is open to original, unpublished and unbroadcast short stories in the English language of 3,000 words or fewer. The story can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere.

The closing date for entries is July 31.