The Dublin Book Festival starts in just two days time, and we thought we’d delve into the programme to give you some of our highlights.

First up, we have old friend Donal Ryan with John Boyne and others at the National Gallery – Thurs 13 Nov / 6.30pm – Lines of Vision: Alex Barclay, Kevin Barry, John Boyne and Donal Ryan In Conversation with Seán Rocks.

Our next choice is on Friday and is another RTE Arena special, this time at Smock Alley. It includes Music as well as discussion. –  Fri 14 Nov / 7.00pm – RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena Live Show – Rob Doyle, Daniel Seery, Dimitra Xidous in conversation with Seán Rocks. Music by Hannah McPhillimy and Hilary Woods

The next one we’d recommend is free, so you really have no excuse! It’s on Saturday at Smock Alley – Sat 15 Nov / 2.30pm – The Anti-Room @ DBF Anna Carey, Mary Costello, Léan Cullinan, Sinead Gleeson, Anna McPartlin.

If you haven’t heard about Dubliners 100, this would be the perfect place to start. The current crop of Irish writers have been inspired by Mr. Joyce and the result is a quite delicious volume of short stories which will be discussed here. Sat 15 Nov / 4.30pm – Dubliners 100 – Belinda McKeon, Peter Murphy, Donal Ryan in conversation with Thomas Morris.

This next event is a remembrance of the first world war and is a nice combination of poetry and art. Could be fascinating. World War 1 Remembered Gerald Dawe and Hughie O’Donoghue in conversation with John McAuliffe – In Association with Poetry Ireland.

Another free event which sounds intriguing is a discussion on the Irish at the First World War. Sun 16 Nov / 2.00pm – The Irish Who Went to War – WW1 Turtle Bunbury in conversation with Myles Dungan.

The final event we’d recommend is on Sunday and is performance/ discussion on song writing with Cathy Davy, Hilary Woods and more. Sun 16 Nov / 7.30pm – Songbook – Exploring the Craft of Songwriting in Music | Performances & live chats from Hilary Woods & The Young Folk in conversation with Emmet Condon and Cathy Davey.

There’s lots more to check out and even a full list of events for kids. You can find the full programme here if you want to check it out for yourself.

Dublin Book Festival 2014 – 13 – 16 November 2014

4 Days of Readings, Public Interviews, Debates, Book Launches, Workshops and More

The Dublin Book Festival will run from 13 – 16 November in and around Smock Alley Theatre, Temple Bar as well as satellite venues around the city including, The Gutter Bookshop, The Irish Writers Centre, Fighting Words, Irish Georgian Society, Cooks Academy, National Library of Ireland and Dublin City Public Libraries.

The Dublin Book Festival has something for everyone and the vast majority of the events are free, making for a fun, affordable day out for everyone. It is one of Dublin’s largest book festivals and celebrates Irish published authors and Irish publishing, across the whole range of genres, from comedy and literary fiction, business, cookery and children’s, to poetry and Irish language events.