Spring into books – Line-up revealed for International Literature Festival Dublin

What a twist: Alisha Katongole (8) at the Peace Garden in Dublin, to mark this year’s International Literature Festival Dublin. Photo: Julien Behal

Louise Kennedy

April 14 2021 02:30 AM

The International Literature Festival Dublin will go virtual for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The festival, founded in 1998, has a line-up of writers for all ages and a host of readings, discussions, debates, workshops, performances and screenings.

Among those taking part is Salman Rushdie, who will make an appearance to discuss his new essay collection Languages of Truth, and TV presenter Dermot O’Leary, who is promoting his new children’s book Toto the Ninja Cat and the Jewel Thief.

Award-winning poet, writer and children’s advocate Laura Mucha and International Booker Prize winner Lydia Davis – known as the godmother of ‘flash fiction’ – will also be participating in the festival.

Davos disruptor and renowned thinker Rutger Bregman will discuss Humankind, one of the key ‘big ideas’ books of Covid-19 times, while Jhumpa Lahiri, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, discusses her new novel Whereabouts.

Writer, music critic and poet Hanif Abdurragib will weave a unique and intimate history of black performance.

The programme will open on May 20 and run for 10 days. The winner of the €100,000 Dublin Literary Award, the world’s most valuable prize for a single work of fiction, will be announced on day one of the festival by Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu.