Youth-run literature festival returns to Waterford
The Lit aims to promote Waterford City's young people as world-class creators. Photo: H.K. Stewart
Teenage readers and writers from across the country are expected to flock to Waterford for Europe’s first youth-run literary festival, The Lit.
The programme contains a diverse range of events from workshops with nationally-acclaimed writers like Adiba Jaigirdar ('The Henna Wars', TIME magazine's top 100 YA books to read of all time) and Meg Grehan ('The Brightest Star', 'Baby Teeth'), poets including Molly Twomey ('Raised by Vultures', 'Chic to be Sad'), filmmakers Cara Loftus (DIFF Discovery Awardee, 'Spilt Milk') and 'Momo Willet', songwriter Tadhg Williams and a discussion with 'Skullduggery Pleasant' author Derek Landy.
These events will take place in Waterford Gallery of Art, GOMA Waterford, Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford Libraries, and Theatre Royal Waterford.
There will also be meet-and-greets in collaboration with new festival partners Dubray Books, as well as open mics, a living poetry wall, a Clinic Leabhair session with Children’s Books Ireland, and opportunities for young creatives to come together and meet one another.
Led by young adults in Waterford Youth Arts, The Lit started as an idea in 2016, as Europe’s first youth-run literature festival during a weekend creative writing class for 14 to 19-year-olds. Since then, the festival has the same mission: to promote Waterford City and its young people as world-class creators and consumers of literature.
Bee Tobin, a content creator and one of the organisers of the festival, said: “Being in the Lit to me means opportunities of a lifetime. It's meeting and learning from incredible people that I've looked up to for years. It's discovering new passions and nurturing old ones."
"It's a community of people who will root for you and want you to live those dreams. The Lit to me is a chance to create and spread art, literature and skills that last a lifetime," said Bee.
The programme now boasts over 50 young people having gone through its festival-building, Co-Organisers Programme, and nearly 100 artists highlighted during the festival’s eight years of operation.
The Irish language officer of the festival Polly Devlin said: "Is maith liom a bheith páirteach sa Lit mar mbraitheann mé cumhachtach agus muiníneach i mo chuid roghanna. Táim tar éis d'fhoghlaim conas mo thuairim a chuir in iúil, imeachtaí a eagrú agus conas spraoi a bheith agam nuair atá mé ag obair. Táim tnúth leis an féile a tosnú agus táim ag tnúth as féile a thabhairt go dtí daoine óga a bhfuil eagraithe ag daoine óga.”
The full programme of events is available now at www.thelit.org
