The John Hewitt International Summer School – now in its 38th year – will take place from Monday 28 July to Saturday 2 August at the Marketplace Theatre Armagh.
The week-long programme of events features celebrated speakers, writers and performers across literature, poetry, art, drama, music, and politics.
Among the artists and speakers appearing at this year’s Summer School are Sir Ian Rankin and Jane Casey – two giants of crime fiction. Award-winning Belfast writer Wendy Erskine with her debut novel “The Benefactors”.
Acclaimed screenwriter Daragh Carville will be coming over to host a screen-writing masterclass. Irish author Donal Ryan will be talking about his 2025 Orwell Prize Winning novel “Heart Be At Peace”.
Multi-award-winning journalist and fellow Orwell Prize recipient Sally Hayden will be in town to discuss her debut book “MyFourth Time, We Drowned”.
Veteran screen and stage actor Frankie McCafferty brings his blistering new one man show Lisdoon Nirvana to the stage – a funny and poignant semi-autobiographical performance based on his own experiences of travelling to the “Irish Glastonbury” – The Lisdoonvarna Festival in 1983.
Bewley Café Theatre presents the hotly acclaimed “Grace” From James Joyce’s “Dubliners”, performed by stand up comedian/ actor Terry O’Neill.
The theme of this year’s John Hewitt Summer School is: “Our country also: difference and belonging”
John Hewitt recognised that “our country” belonged to successive waves of migrants: not only his historical “Kelt, Briton, Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Scot,” but those forced to find new lives in our time by a century’s wars and the collapse of an empire whose wealth was built on exploitation of the “colonies” that many of today’s immigrants once knew as “home.” Not a question of who belongs “here,” but of who “here” belongs to.
The John Hewitt Summer School is curated and produced annually by the John Hewitt Society, dedicated to promoting Literature, Culture and the Arts inspired by the ideas and ideals of the Belfast poet, curator, critic and political thinker John Hewitt (1907 – 1957).
Other events include JHISS25 opening talk, entitled “Northern Ireland is Finished?” which will be delivered by Professor Peter Shirlow, Blair Chair and Head of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool and pioneering anti-racist campaigner Takura Donald Makoni on “Integration Integration Integration”.
Professor Jennifer Todd asks “When Does Identity Change Matter?” and Dr Frank Ferguson gives the annual John Hewitt Talk: “The Thistles and The Sheeves”: The Significance of Roberta Hewitt”.
Other celebrated authors featured this year include David Park in conversation with Hugh Odling-Smee, Cauvery Madhavan in conversation with Maureen Boyle and Tessa Hadley in Conversation with Bernie McGill.
In our Dazzling Debuts event: Garrett Carr and Roisín O’Donnell will be in conversation with Jan Carson and we celebrate the book launch of Doreen McBride’s “The A-Z of Curious Northern Ireland”.
In association with Irish PEN/ PEN na hÉreann, The John Hewitt Summer School presents “Looking at Women, Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary” written by the late Ukrainian novelist and activist Victoria Amelina with Guest Speaker: Yaryna Grusha.
The strong poetry programme lineup includes Kathleen McCracken, Milena Williamson, Dane Holt and Mai Ishikawa,Hannah Copley and Gustav Parker Hibbett, Vona Groarke, Polina Cosgrave and Kelly Michels.
Our event “A Tribute to Michael” celebrates the life and work of the great and much missed Michael Longley featuring a talk “‘Beautiful Things are Difficult’: Michael Longley as master craftsman” by Dr Florence Impens and a reading of Michael Longley poems by Gail McConnell.
A bumper programme of evening entertainment at the Summer School includes an open mic special celebrating the verse of the late, great Paul Durcan, a panel discussion “Our Country Also: Difference and Belonging” with Lata Sharma, DavidAdams, Aleksandra Łojek and Malachi O’Doherty (Host).
There is a very special panel event Beyond Traditional Routes: Independent Publishing, the Summer School Connection and the John Hewitt Legacy with Jane Buckley, Angeline King, James Simpson and Sue Divin (Host) – bringing together writers whose stories intersect at the John Hewitt International Summer School.
And we invite you to join folk singers Jane Cassidy and Maurice Leyden as they celebrate the life of Mary Ann McCracken in story and song.
The John Hewitt Summer School also boasts an array of excellent Creative Writing Classes (three of which are supported by The Open University) helping to develop new generations of aspiring writers, some of whom will give readings during a showcase event at the end of the Summer School.
Full details of the programme are available online at johnhewittsociety.org or at, visitarmagh.com/marketplacetheatre.
Tickets can be purchased from the Market Place Theatre box office on 0330 056 1025, by email, in person or online at the above websites.
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