Poetry in the Glens...

Guests will include Independent literary critic and BBC Radio 4 panellist John Walsh, author of several novels and a memoir of his London-Irish childhood, Glenarm-based and internationally-exhibited painter Hector McDonnell and Cushendall-born poet Anne-Marie Fyfe, all discussing "Great Northern Fictions" a popular strand of the annual Glens events programme which has avid readers catching up on panellists’ chosen books in advance of the event, in a Northern "Big Read".

Titles up for the Great Northern title this year include Eoin McNamee's The Blue Tango, Heaven Lies About Us by Eugene McCabe (who read at last year's Hewitt Summer School in Armagh) and the unique new novel by Ciaran Carson, The Pen Friend.

Frank Ormsby, who visited a few years back to read from The Collected John Hewitt (which he co-edited with Michael Longley) and who has recently launched a new poetry collection of his own, will read alongside Eliot-prize shortlisted poet Sinad Morrissey, who'll also take part in the Great Northern debate. Actor Ciaran Hinds, makes a welcome return to the Glens where he has longstanding links. He'll be talking about the actor's life with London-based drama-critic C.L. Dallat.

The year's theme, "Back to Uncertainty: Considering Other Possibilities" draws on a line from Glens’ poet John Hewitt whose forward-looking political thought always advocated seeing the other side's viewpoint.