Building on this important history, the Limerick Literary Festival seeks to promote Limerick nationally as a place of literary excellence and provide a platform where readers can meet their favorite authors and other readers.
The 2026 Festival will kick off with two free events on Friday, February 27. In the afternoon, poet Gustav Parker Hibbett will be in conversation with Niall MacMonagle, followed by an intimate evening of literature and music, while fiction laureate Éilís Ní Dhuibhne will enjoy a lively discussion with Limerick writer Sarah Gilmartin as part of her "Island of Imagination: A Literary Tour of Ireland" program for 2025/2026. This will officially kick off what will be a full weekend program for the Limerick Literary Festival in Honor of Kate O'Brien, returning in 2026. The event-packed program concludes with broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan presenting her recently published autobiography.
For three days of literature, poetry, music, and art, we will be joined by novelists Muriel Barbery, David Park, Eoin McNamee, and Grainne O'Brien, along with poet Gustav Parker Hibbett and psychiatry professor Veronica O'Keane. We will host perennial favorites: the Kate O'Brien Hour, featuring a rehearsed reading of O'Brien's play "Distinguished Villa" by College Players and Desert Island Books, and the presentation of the 2026 Kate O'Brien Prize for the first novel or collection of short stories by an Irish woman author, now including a €5,000 prize, sponsored by Bill and Denise Whelan. In addition to our regular 2026 program, we have a special event: "A Life of Her Own," reflections on the life and work of Maeve Kelly: writer, feminist activist, and advocate for the voiceless.
The festival is generously supported by the Arts Council, Limerick City and County Council's Festival & Events and Arts Office, the French Embassy in Ireland, RTE Supporting the Arts and O'Mahony's BookSellers.
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