Renowned US writer kicks off Cork short story festival

Cork International Short Story festival kicked off at Triskel Christchurch last night with a reading from famed US writer Richard Ford.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Independence Day and The Sportswriter is on his third visit to the event, and underlined his affection for Cork.

“Why does one love a place? I feel the same way about New Orleans. Not that there’s not a thousand things to like about Cork, a thousand things to like about coming to Ireland. The first time I came here I just felt, ‘This is right. This is right for me’. So I’ll come back as long as I’m able,” he said.

The festival runs until Saturday at a number of venues in the city, with readings, workshops, and discussions on the short form that Cork has such a strong tradition in.

Among the highlights will be a reading by Colin Barrett and a presentation to the young Mayo author of the €25,000 Frank O’Connor Short Story award. US writer Susan Maier-Moul will go home with the €2,000 prize named in honour of another Leesider, Seán Ó Faoláin.

International guests at the festival include Chinese writer Sun Wei along with Jordanian author Hisham Bustani.

Closer to home, Danielle McLaughlin will read at Triskel on Saturday, marking a superb week in which the hotly tipped writer from Donoughmore, Co Cork, also had a story published in the New Yorker.

McLaughlin credits the Cork festival for kickstarting her fledgling writing career in 2010.

“I hadn’t a word of fiction published at that stage, but I was blown away by the writers and energy at the festival. I signed up for workshops straight away and learnt so much. Every year since, I feel like grabbing people in the streets and dragging them along to the festival, telling them, ‘You need to know how great this is’.”

The short story festival also marks the start of a hectic few weeks in Cork’s cultural life, with Culture Night on Friday also coinciding with the launch of Kinsale Arts Festival.

They will be followed by the folk festival (October 2-5); the jazz festival (October 23-27), and then the film festival (November 7-16).