Books are my business: Director of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature Manuela Moser

Her role as director means she does everything — from programming the festival and managing the budget to set design and buying vases 

Manuela Moser: 'It’s great to be able to plan the programme, involving lots of authors I admire.' Picture: cuirt.ie

Manuela Moser is director of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature and a founding editor of The Lifeboat Press. 

She grew up in Morecambe in north-west England and is now based between Belfast and Galway.

How did you get into your current role?

I studied English literature, poetry, and creative writing for 10 years at the Séamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast. I did a BA, an MA, a PhD, and then a fellowship; I was there for a long time.

While I was there, I started running, with my boyfriend, a series of poetry readings on a barge. Then we moved the readings into a pub, and we started a press publishing poetry and doing events, which I loved.

I then started working at the Belfast Book Festival; I interned for a year, and I worked there for a second year, but that year was during covid, so we programmed the festival, and then it didn’t happen, which was very sad.

Following that, I worked at Catalyst Arts, a volunteer-run, artist-led space in Belfast, for two years, which was really fun. 

I played around with a lot of different things there. As soon as I finished there, the job with Cúirt was advertised and I applied.

What does your role involve?

Everything. I programme the festival with help from my advisory panel, which is a big chunk of the work. 

I manage the budget, and I do all of the funding applications. I hire the team and manage the team. 

I do the set design — every year we have flowers on stage, so yesterday we went around a lot of charity shops to get vases. 

This year, we have also been digitising a lot of stuff, like programmes, and scanning all the old posters for the festival — we are going to be displaying them around the venues and selling them, so that people can take a part of the festival home with them, which is nice. 

When the festival happens, there is a lot of running around, welcoming authors, introducing events, although hopefully there will be time to have a rest and go to Neachtain’s pub, which is where the festival club is based.

What do you like most about what you do?

I really like planning things. All the prep work is fun, and then actually getting to enjoy it. It’s also great to be able to plan the programme, involving lots of authors I admire.

What do you like least about it?

When the festival is over, you are kind of swimming around going, “what am I meant to do now?” and then gathering momentum back up again.

Three desert island books

The first two are by authors on the festival programme — The Gathering by Anne Enright, which I read as a teenager and loved, and Father’s Father’s Father by Dane Holt, which is a new poetry book.

We published some of the poems from that collection in a pamphlet, and I’ve spent a lot of time with those poems already; I think I could read that book for a long time.

The third one would be Bluets by Maggie Nelson, because I wrote my PhD on it. 

If I could sneak in another one, it would be Autumn Journal by Louis MacNeice, which I reread every year.

• Cúirt International Festival of Literature, which is celebrating its 40th year, takes place in Galway from April 8 to April 13. Authors appearing include Sally Rooney, Donal Ryan, Roddy Doyle, Kevin Barry, and Eimear McBride;
• See cuirt.ie for more.

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