Bookville, a Kilkenny festival of books for families and children, celebrates its eighth consecutive year in 2024 with events from the 10th to the 16th October. For the first time in its eight year history there will be a pre-Festival launch event which will be held in the Mayfair library in Kilkenny City on Saturday September 14th from 2.30pm to 4pm with a Storytelling puppet to greet visitors, a mega-doodle with top children’s book illustrator Niamh Sharkey, storytelling by Kilkenny library service storyteller in residence, Helena Byrne and local author Helena Duggan. All events are free and no booking is required.
The Bookville Festival 2024 promises a fabulous programme of free events for school children and the general public. The Bookville Festival once again features the hugely popular activity book, which will be delivered to over 13,000 primary school children around the County. Over the six festival days there will be 60 workshops given by 27 children’s authors and illustrators, covering creative writing, history, comedy, music, illustration, Gaeilge, drama, music, storytelling and poetry. There will also be a Bookville exhibition and two comedy and theatre shows suitable for the whole family. All events will take place in eight libraries across County Kilkenny. Pre-booking is essential. Booking will open at 9am on Tuesday 17th September. Places are limited, so early booking is advised. For full details of all things Bookville go to www.bookvillekilkenny.com and follow us on social media.
County Librarian, Josephine Coyne said, “Bookville continues to bring new surprises every year. In this, it’s eighth year, the Bookville Festival will, for the first time, have an exciting, free launch event in our new state-of-the-art Mayfair library. We are also delighted to welcome local author and long-time Bookville supporter, Helena Duggan as our first ever Bookville Ambassador. The varied programme ensures a wide reach and engagement with more children, schools and families than ever before. The library service is delighted to be a part of this festival, inspiring local children to be involved in the world of books.”
As well as featuring many well-known children’s authors and illustrators, such as Chris Haughton, Duncan Beedie, Sadhbh Devlin and Robin Stevens, there will also be ‘celebrity’ authors including Éanna Ní Lamhna, Evanne Ní Chuilinn and Myles Dungan. Bookville is always proud to support the talent on their Kilkenny doorstep and the programme this year includes workshops with local authors and illustrators Ann Murtagh, Carol Ann Treacy, Eleanor Geohegan, Gemma Aloisi and Helena Duggan as well as drama workshops with Tada and singing, percussion and rhythm workshops with Music Generation, Kilkenny.
Bookville is pleased to present ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’, an exhibition at Mayfair library from October 12th to October 25th. The exhibition will be self-guided for the general public, with schools required to pre-book their visits. According to Kilkenny Assistant Arts Officer Kathy Conlan, “We are thrilled to bring this beautiful exhibition celebrating the 140th anniversary of the iconic and much-loved story ‘Pinocchio’. Visitors of all ages will have the opportunity to create their own Pinocchio artwork inspired by the collection of illustrated editions of the books on display.”
For 2024, Bookville is delighted to welcome our first Bookville Ambassador, local children’s author Helena Duggan. Helena was originally involved in Bookville in 2019. “When Bookville asked me to be their first Ambassador, I was honoured. On a personal note, as a local Kilkenny writer, Bookville has been extremely good to me. But outside of that, Bookville champions children. Year on year, Bookville puts together a line-up of authors and illustrators to rival any, ensuring there is something for everyone, so that children of all levels can access the power of the story”.
The official launch of Helena’s latest book, ‘The Light Thieves and the Terrifying Dawn’ will take place at the Bookville launch event in the Mayfair library at 2.30pm on Saturday 14th September – all welcome!
The annual Bookville Festival is a collaboration by the Kilkenny Arts Office and Kilkenny County Council Library Service and supported by Creative Ireland and the Arts Council of Ireland. The books featured are available from local Kilkenny libraries, Khans Books and the Kilkenny Book Centre.
NEW Launch Event for Bookville Festival 2024
