Book Club Festival already set for 2012

FOLLOWING the success of this year’s Ennis Book Club Festival, organisers have already confirmed dates for next year’s event. The 2012 festival will take place from March 2 to 4, and judging from this year’s event, a host of high-profile writers are set to once again descend on the town.
Ciana Campbell of the Ennis Book Club Festival committee said that they are thrilled with how this year’s events have been received not only by locals and visitors to the town, but also by the authors themselves.
“We are delighted with the success of the 2011 Ennis Book Club Festival. Feedback from the authors, speakers and festival-goers has been very positive.  The broad programme offered great choices and the audiences were enthusiastic and receptive.
“There has been much praise for the organisation of events and for the venues involved. Thousands of tickets were sold and the shops and hotels all did good business.  We were also delighted to showcase, for the first time, the winners of the Clare Champion Short Story competition. The young writers had an opportunity to read their work in front of established authors and to read to large audiences. They were very well received. So too were the young actors of Clare Youth Theatre who performed dramatised extracts from literature. Their work was praised by many, including bestselling author, Paul Murray.”
She also said that many of the visiting authors took the opportunity to explore the county during their time here.
“Anne Enright visited relatives near Kilkee, Nancy Dowd, head of marketing at the New Jersey State Library, was thrilled to stand on the Cliffs of Moher and Blake Morrison and his wife enjoyed watching the surfers in Lahinch,” Ms Campbell explained.