Paul Theroux, Jay Rayner, John Boyne, Linda Grant and Liz Lochhead are among the names booked in for this year's Belfast Book Festival, which begins on Monday. Brian Campbell talks to festival coordinator Hugh Odling-Smee
THE third Belfast Book Festival gets underway next week and - believe it or not - it's not all about books.
While there are big literary names on the bill - Paul Theroux, John Boyne, Linda Grant, Jay Rayner and Scotland's Makar (national poet) Liz Lochhead - there will also be film, music, theatre, workshops and family events.
Festival coordinator Hugh Odling-Smee said he was keen to mix up the programme this year.
"We did a lot of research and we found that about 1,000 people go to literature events here, so you can't run a festival based on that. So we want to bring in the theatre crowd and the film crowd," he said.
"Books sit at the centre of culture. Look at The Great Gatsby now and how that has developed into film and music. I think books have a primary position in our culture, but to me it seems silly just to do a festival all about books."
So next week you can go along to a gig and 'art of songwriting' workshop by Belfast act Malojian, see I, Kavanagh - Noel McGee's one-man show on Patrick Kavanagh - check out Wireless Mystery Theatre's witty and wicked The Play of the Book or dip into the mini-season of films on the beat writers at QFT.
Nathaniel Joseph McAuley will also mix poetry and songwriting at an event introduced by Ciaran Carson.
Odling-Smee quoted late English poet Robert Graves, saying "There's no money in poetry, but there's no poetry in money, either" and he says the likes of Heaney and Longley have helped make poetry "the great heritage of Belfast".
Poets on the bill for the book festival include Sinead Morrissey, Martin Mooney, Geraldine O'Kane and the Voica Versa collective, while there will also be a poetry slam.
Odling-Smee says he's delighted to have Liz Lochhead open the festival at lunchtime on Monday.
"I'm a huge fan of hers. She's a brilliant performer, there's no-one like her."
He is also happy to have Paul Theroux, the acclaimed travel writer (and father of Louis Theroux), booked in to talk about his new book The Last Train to Zona Verde.
"He's a huge name and we're lucky to have him. This year marks 30 years since he published A Kingdom by the Sea, so it'll be interesting to see his take on how Belfast has changed.
"What he wrote about Belfast [in 1983] was pretty brutal but he was also being honest. He was a Canadian arriving here having travelled around places like South America and Africa in the previous 10 years and had found a place that was nominally a developed country but actually was a security nightmare.
"He describes in detail the ring of steel and he also goes to the Martin Lynch play The Interrogation of Ambrose Fogarty."
Food writer Jay Rayner, music writer Paul Morley and John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, This House is Haunted) are three more big names in the programme.
Odling-Smee is also keen to promote up-and-coming literary talent.
"One thing we try to do is to provide a platform for new people coming through.
"David at the No Alibis book store put me on to Claire McGowan and Thomas Mogford, so they are in the programme. If David says they're good, that gives people confidence to take a punt and go and see them."
Other names to look out for are Peter Murphy (June 10), talking about his book Shall We Gather, the follow-up to John the Revelator; novelist Deirdre Madden in conversation with Finola Meredith (June 12); Tony Macaulay (June 13); a lunchtime debate on fracking (June 13); Anne-Marie Scully discussing IVF and her book Motherhoodwinked (June 14); a debate on Scottish independence (June 14); psychoanalyst Stefan Grosz (June 16); and a literary quiz (June 15).
There will also be a host of events for families and children.
"We have a big family day on June 15, with writers, stilt-walkers, storytelling, puppet-making workshops, food and a book doctor.
"We need to encourage children and young people to make reading a part of their lives, because it does you such good. A city like ours really needs to encourage reading."
And where does he stand on printed books versus e-books such as Kindles?
"The jury's out. It's way too early to tell what kind of effect it's having. With the Kindle Fire, you get this line along the bottom of the screen with other books you might want to read, so it's actually like reading a book in a bookshop; and nobody ever finishes a book in a bookshop.
"But at the end of the day, good writing is good writing no matter what way it comes to you. As long as people are reading, that's a good thing."
? The Belfast Book Festival runs from June 10 to 16 (www.belfastbookfestival.com / 028 9024 2338). ? BUSY: Belfast Book Festival coordinator Hugh Odling-Smee is looking forward to this year's jam-packed programme which will include film, music and theatre
? ACCLAIMED: Writers Paul Theroux and Claire McGowan are just two of the big names appearing at this year's Belfast Book Festival