West Cork Literary Festival Director: People ask if I am a writer...not unless you include spreadsheets

A highlight of the summer for many a literature fan, the West Cork Literary Festival will return to Bantry this year from July 10 to 17.

The internationally renowned celebration of writing is now in its 28th year, and this summer’s programme is its most ambitious yet.

“As always, we have some of the really big names coming, like Ian Rankin, Miriam O’Callaghan and Charie Mackesy,” says Eimear O’Herlihy, Director of the West Cork Literary Festival. “We have Katriona O’Sullivan coming with her second memoir Hunger, and Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, who are famous for the Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling series and have a new stand-alone book, Our Deadly Summer. And we have Jung Chang, the writer of Wild Swans, who now has a follow-up memoir, Fly, Wild Swans.”

The above is just a taster of what this year’s audience can look forward to.

“This is my twelfth year being involved with the festival,” Eimear continues, “so I end up being excited about everything because I work on it all-year round.”

It’s not hard to see the reason for her excitement – alongside the big names in international and Irish literature are a huge number of other attractions for fans of all genres, in poetry and prose. The programme is, as regular visitors to the festival will have come to expect, positively heaving with panel discussions, interviews, talks, workshops, and more.

“I mean, it is really chock-a-block,” says Eimear, who’s overseeing it all and wants to leave attendees with a positive lasting impression. “I think if you’re making the trip over, then I want you to have the opportunity to pop into loads of things. Rather than just starting in the evening, having things on all day really encourages people to come down and make a day of it.”

An annual highlight of the festival is the boat trip to Whiddy Island. “The authors and the audience travel out together on a boat,” explains Eimear, “and we try and tie a maritime theme into that.”

This year’s authors, Australian Charlotte McConaghy and Dutch writer Eva Meijer, will speak about their topical ‘eco-thrillers’ at the magical event.

Another popular listing is the Grapevine Storytelling Night, which sold out quickly in 2025. Bringing together the best in Irish storytelling, spoken word, theatre and comedy, the event originated in Cork – at Prim’s bookshop in Kinsale – and is the brainchild of writer and storyteller Daniel Galvin. Elsewhere, followers of Laureate for Irish Fiction Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s Island of Imagination Tour can join her at the West Cork leg of her journey around Ireland to unearth literature from every county.

There are also plenty of sessions for children and young people, with all events for this age group completely free of charge. Something a bit different for the school holidays, particularly when the summer weather is unreliable!

Tickets for West Cork Literary Festival events vary in price, but it’s not just children’s listings that are free – each year, Bantry Library and Bookshop host a range of sessions that won’t leave any dent in attendees’ pockets.

The jam-packed, inclusive programme contributes to what Eimear considers to be one of the most special things about a literary festival – the discovery of authors and genres.

“I think that’s the magic thing about a festival,” she says. “Audiences are more willing to take a chance on things in a festival context. Before I started working on festivals, I used to attend them as an audience member. I was always drawn down by the really big names, but then, when I’d be there, I’d discover authors that I’d never heard of or even genres that I wasn’t familiar with. And these were the events that really stayed with me.”

The community vibe of festivals also, Eimear believes, makes them special.

“That feeling of people being at a gig together, when reading and writing are normally such solitary activities. Seeing all these people come together for a chat with their friends, or attending the festival by themselves and just chatting to everybody about what they’re reading and about the event they were at.”

With numerous writing workshops, aspiring authors can meet, share ideas, and be inspired at the West Cork Literary Festival, but it’s also a week-long celebration of literature for anybody who just loves to read – people like Eimear herself.

“People always ask me, am I writer myself?” she laughs. “And I am absolutely not. Unless you count lists and spreadsheets!”

Eimear is certainly passionate about literature and has worked in the arts for 30 years.

“I started off in the National Sculpture Factory in January, 1996. I did a couple of years there and then a year in Australia. When I came back, I sort of moved between genres.”

A stint at Mercier Press established the groundwork for her later role at the literary festival, but Eimear has also worked at the Cork Film Festival, the Everyman Theatre, and a number of other festivals as a freelance director.

Her years of experience have stood to Eimear, as organising the West Cork Literary Festival is unsurprisingly a mammoth task.

“It’s sort of a rolling thing,” she explains of the process. “I’ll officially start my 2027 reading the day after this year’s festival, but I already have a long spreadsheet of ideas – certain things that I couldn’t fit in this year, or writers that I really want to work with... It’s definitely year-round and seems to be getting bigger every year.”

Eimear has watched the festival go from strength to strength in her 12 years at the helm. This is partly due to ambition - “I have so many ideas and I hate saying no to people!” - but also the event’s popularity, with audiences and authors alike chomping at the bit to attend each year.

“The festival’s profile has really grown,” she reflects, “and I’ll often get contacted by an author who’ll say that their friend had a great time at the festival, so they really want to get involved.”

The fantastic writers and events may be the main draw of the West Cork Literary Festival, but the stunning location certainly doesn’t do it any harm.

“The whole town is our stage, really,” says Eimear. “The thing about a town like Bantry is that it’s just the right size, there’s loads to do, but also everyone is sort of in it together, so there’s no escaping the festival!

“When an event is over, the audiences, the writers, the big names, the new names – everyone just goes to the same place. You keep bumping into each other all over the place, everywhere you go in town”

Many visitors to the festival – from attendees to some of the biggest names in international literature – use it as an excuse to explore more of what West Cork has to offer.

“We get people coming to the festival and discovering West Cork,” says Eimear, who points out that it works both ways in the busy summer season. “But we also get people coming to West Cork and discovering the festival.”

For Eimear, one of the best things about her job is having the opportunity to read so widely, discovering new authors and genres along the way.

“It’s incredible, and has made my reading broader and more ambitious,” she says. Another highlight, and something she looks forward to every year, is “seeing the audience react to the event and to the writer. It’s wonderful to know that the audience in the room are just having such an incredible experience, as is the writer.”

Eimear is proud of her role in facilitating such a beloved festival every year. She loves “knowing that you’re a part of a team that is helping people to have these fabulous experiences – they’re having a great day out or a brilliant holiday – and we’re part of the reason that that’s happening.”

With another week of fabulous experiences lined up for July, Eimear and her team can be confident that this year’s festival will be a huge success.

For the programme of events at the West Cork Literary Festival, see https://www.westcorkmusic.ie/literary-festival/programme/