Belfast Meets Wales on St David’s Day

28/02/2008

To coincide with St David’s Day celebrations (1st March), the Arts Council welcomes the Welsh Academi to Belfast, the leading agency promoting literature and authors from Wales. This is the first time the Academi has hosted its three day conference outside Wales and the ‘Belfast Meets Wales’ event will be held at the Wellington Park Hotel.

From Friday 29th February to Sunday 2nd March, the conference will host an array of events exploring contemporary issues within the Welsh and Northern Irish cultures including poetry, prose, theatre, politics, language and broadcasting.

Pictured is: Novelist Glenn Patterson and critic and writer Patricia Craig,
two of the many speakers contributing to ‘Belfast Meets Wales’, the Welsh
Academi’s three day literary conference taking place for the first time outside
Wales and facilitated by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Welcoming the Welsh contingency to Belfast; Damian Smyth, Arts Development Officer (Literature and Language Arts), Arts Council of Northern Ireland and speaker at the Academi’s Literary Conference said, “The role of the Arts Council in the development and promotion of literature has obvious parallels with that of the Welsh Academi. Artists continue to make a major contribution to Northern Ireland’s changing society and the conference in Belfast will showcase how literature as an art has helped chart the region’s past and positive future.”

Conference speakers include esteemed poets Ciaran Carson, Gwyneth Lewis and Gwyn Thomas; popular and controversial playwrights Gary Mitchell, Ian Rowlands and Martin Lynch; and new stimulating novelists Lucy Caldwell, Glenn Patterson and Catrin Dafydd.

Peter Finch, Chief Executive, Welsh Literary Academi comments, “Writing is as central to the culture of Northern Ireland as it is to Wales. A meeting of the two will be a first for both countries. Academi is looking forward to an invigorating, fulfilling and enormously enjoyable cultural weekend.”

• To book a place at the conference or for more information contact Academi on: 029 2047 2266 or email post@academi.org.

• You can download the conference brochure and registration form from the Academi website: www.academi.org.