Book Festival news for May (we've been busy!)

This week started with a bang as the Schools Programme was launched  - and is now open for booking (and it is booking fast!!!). The line-up features some of the biggest names in children’s books, including Liz Pichon (Tom Gates), Philip Ardagh, Gary Northfield, Tommy Donbavand, Patricia Forde and Laureate na nÓg, Niamh Sharkey.We are also delighted to welcome back Fighting Words, who will be running two very special outreach workshops in local secondary schools.

For 2013 the price for all the school theatre events has been maintained at just €3 per student, with tickets available from Monday 20th May. As usual, we anticipate that these events will fill up quickly, so please get your booking in as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
For the full Schools Programme click here

In other new we announced that award winning playwright and crime writer Declan Hughes will be the Writer-in-Residence at the 2013 Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival. Ed Loy, Hughes's Irish-American Private Eye will feature in a special short story set at this year's book festival - Ed will find himself casting his weary, laconic eye over the festival itself and leafy suburban Dún Laoghaire. The story will be posted online on the Mountains to Sea website in mid July. Can't wait to read it!
Declan will also be blogging about the festival, commenting on developments and making his own recommendations about books and writers.

We're also starting an online bookclub featuring books by three of the authors taking part this September.First up is Téa Obreht with her thrilling novel The Tiger's Wife, published in 2011 and winner of the Orange Prize that year. We will be reading this for the month of June so get hold of a copy from your local library or bookshop and get reading so you can join in the discussion. We will have a separate Facebook page for the bookclub from 22nd May at https://www.facebook.com/MountainsToSeaBookclub and we'll be blogging about here.