Cork World Book Festival
Cork World Book Festival 2011 takes place from April 20th to 23rd
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Cork World Book Fest 2010 - featured writers included Joseph O'Connor, renowned Irish Poet John Montague, Fintan O'Toole, Simon van Booy (winner of Frank O'Connor Award 2009), Rosaria Lo Russo (Italy), Hussein Bin Hamza (Syria), two of the leading US poets, Galway Kinnell and Brian Turner.
In 1995 UNESCO designated April 23rd as World Book and Copyright Day. For more than a century before that, however, this date, on which both Shakespeare and Cervantes died, had been celebrated in Catalunya as a day of books and writers. In homage to CatalunyaWorld Book Fest in coincides with this wonderful Catalan celebration of books and roses for La Diada de Sant Jordi. In Barcelona, lovers, and others less attached, share a book and a rose to celebrate the name day of the Patron Saint of Catalunya, Sant Jordi.
The first World Book Fest was held in Cork in 2005, when the city was European Capital of Culture. The Fest brings books and reading to the centre of Cork life for these four days; the highlight is the street fair on the Saturday, with more than thirty stalls plus street entertainment just outside the Central Library, all along the Grand Parade, and in Bishop Lucey Park. It is this 'fair day' atmosphere that distinguishes the Fest from other literary events around Ireland.