The Dublin writers festival is up and running again, with their full programme announced, and tickets on sale for most events. It’s a decent line up, but possibly lacks a few big names that would give it a bit more attention, but still worth investigating. Richard Dawkins is possibly the leading light of the event, as they seem to continue their fascination with BBC2 stars (It was Michael Palin last year, if I remember correctly).

There’s a series of music related writers, which is something we’ve been discussing on the blog for a while now. Along with Josh Ritter, there’s also Mike Scott and the Pogue’s James Fearnley.

There’s also an interesting event with two up and coming writers, in Chad Harbach and Patrick de Witt. De Witt wrote the Sister’s brothers, which was one of the better novels from the booker short list of last year. Tim Parks and Mark Haddon are also at the event, so a variety of young talent.

Another name of interest is Bryan Talbot, who along with his wife Mary will be talking about their work ‘Dotters to a Father’s eye’. Bryan is an interesting comic writer/ artist and has worked on many 2000AD stories and American comics such as the Sandman and Hellblazer. He’s also made a number of his own series ‘Alice in Sunderland’ and ‘The Adventures of Luther Arkwright’, in a long and varied career.

You can see their full programme here, and see what you think for yourself…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J18h98nUh3U