Hewitt Spring School

Just got this from the committee of the John Hewitt International Summer School, of which I am a former member. The summer school is held in Armagh but there is an annual spring school in Carnlough; this year's is entitled: "let there be no wall". And it will be held on Saturday 5th April, 2008, at Londonderry Arms, Carnlough, Co Antrim. Here is the programme with contact details and also some advance notice of the summer school, amongt whose number is one Seamus Heaney:

sixth john hewitt spring festival
sat 5th apr ‘08 at londonderry arms hotel, carnlough, co antrim.

…let there be no wall
to shut the warm winds out that bring us word
how over Europe liberty has fared
John Hewitt from Freehold

11.00 am: coffee
11.15 am: the great northern novel

As the Book Group phenomenon spreads wildfire-like—and the annual Readers’ Group is now a key feature of the Hewitt Summer School in Armagh—“the Hewitt in the Glens” continues the search for our Great Northern Novel, drawing on the expertise, this year, of
- Richard Irvine, literary critic & editor of Incertus, of
- Mary O’Donnell, (see our evening event) and of
- Guardian journalist/BBC Writer-in-Residence at Queen’s, Ian Sansom,
to debate the merits of their chosen “northern” novels
- Borderlands by Brian McGilloway,
- Resurrection Man by Eoin McNamee and
- Flann O’Brien’s At Swim Two Birds:
for those attendees who like to read the novels in advance, please note that library copies will be in increased demand in the pre-Spring-Festival weeks!

1.00 pm: lunch
2.30 pm: “a local poet”

Publication of The Day of the Corncrake nearly 40 years ago by the Glens of Antrim Historical Society marked recognition of Belfast-man John Hewitt as “a local poet”, a role on which he would often reflect in his writing, counting both Ulster-Scots weaver poets and later local ballad-makers such as Cushendall-born James Stoddart Moore (who wrote as “Dusty Rhodes”) among his own literary precursors.
- Frank Ormsby, co-editor (with Michael Longley) of Blackstaff’s recent Hewitt Selected, reads and discusses Hewitt’s “Glens” poetry;
- and C.L. Dallat talks about Hewitt’s interest in Stoddart Moore and “The Smith of Tiveragh”
- in an event celebrating Glens/Hewitt links and the Glens Society members who became the Hewitt Society’s first three directors, Jack McCann (d. 1993) followed by Pat Clerkin and Cahal Dallat both of whom died in 2007.

4.00 pm: coffee
4.30 pm: “new voices” poetry reading

- Iggy McGovern (b. Coleraine) is associate professor of Physics at Trinity College Dublin—The King of Suburbia, his first collection, won the 2006 Glen Dimplex Award;
- Paul Maddern (b. Bermuda) is building a digital audio library of Irish poets at QUB;
2007 Eric-Gregory-Award winner Miriam Gamble is a part-time tutor at Queens—her first pamphlet is This Man’s Town (tall lighthouse, 2007);
- Maureen Boyle won the 2006 Strokestown International Poetry Prize & was shortlisted for the Kavanagh Award in 2004;
- Kevin Higgins (b. Galway) grew up in the West of Ireland and now co-hosts Galway’s Over The Edge readings—1st collection The Boy With No Face (Salmon, 2005);
- and Peter Wyton is a Gloucester-based poet with Cushendall connections, latest book, The Ship in the City (Poetry Monthly Press, 2006).

6.30 pm: drinks reception & literary quiz
Reception & quiz sponsored by Blackstaff Press, publishers of John Hewitt: Selected Poems ed. Michael Longley and Frank Ormsby (2007).

7.00 pm: dinner
8.30 pm: david park & mary o’donnell

Since the publication of his first short-story collection, Oranges from Spain, David Park’s fiction has cast a clear eye on divided perceptions, separate traditions, unshared memory in the North: his latest controversial novel, The Truth Commissioner explores the ongoing difficulty of burying divided pasts.

Mary O’Donnell’s first novel was The Light Makers (1992) was named the Sunday Tribune's Best New Irish Novel; her 5th poetry collection is The Place of Miracles: New & Selected Poems (New Island, 2006) and a second short-story collection, Storm over Belfast is published in May this year.

10:00 pm: music

Full day incl. lunch&dinner £45(£38 concs) half day with dinner £30; half day with lunch £25; individual events £8 each at door to book. Send cheque (payable to John Hewitt Society) & contact details (name, address, phone, e-mail) to Tony Kennedy, Director, John Hewitt Society, c/o Unit 5, Weavers' Court Business Park, Linfield Road, BELFAST BT12 5GH. tel: 02890-321 462

And Mon 28th July to Fri 1st August 2008, Twenty-First John Hewitt International Summer School at The Marketplace Theatre, Armagh with Seamus Heaney, Billy Collins, Imtiaz Dharkar, Lisa Appignanesi, W.J. McCormack, Rita Duffy, Conor O’Clery, Maurice Riordan, Ruth Carr, Maurice Hayes, Joan Newmann, Jane Duran, Maureen Boyle… and many more in a week of lectures, readings, discussions, writing, talks, drama, music & entertainment.

website: www.johnhewittsociety.org