{"id":320441,"date":"2025-10-21T05:56:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/320441\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T05:56:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:56:16","slug":"authors-take-centre-stage-at-libraries-across-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/320441\/","title":{"rendered":"Authors take centre stage at libraries across Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aimee Bellin Belfast,<\/p>\n

Mike McBridein Londonderry and<\/p>\n

Niall GlynnBBC News NI, in Newtownards<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Author Wendy Erskine said the library was an integral part of her week when writing her book<\/p>\n

Libraries across Northern Ireland welcomed local authors on Monday as Book Week NI got under way, marking the start of a week-long celebration of reading and the event’s 10th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Authors Wendy Erskine and Garrett Carr visited Belfast Central Library, while Brian McGilloway hosted a workshop in Londonderry and Stuart Neville appeared at Newtownards Library – all sharing insights into their work and discussing why Book Week NI remains such an important part of the literary calendar.<\/p>\n

Running from 20 to 26 October, Book Week NI has become a key event in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n

It aims to inspire people to pick up a book, discover new authors and share the magic of reading.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

People gathered at Belfast Central Library for the first day of Book Week <\/p>\n

Wendy Erskine primarily works as an English teacher but got into writing novels in 2015 after penning a couple of short stories and doing a six-month fiction workshop in Dublin.<\/p>\n

She said the library was an integral part of her week, adding: “You can become so submerged in your life and the things you’re compelled to do. <\/p>\n

“It’s just really important to remember that there’s books out there, there’s libraries out there”.<\/p>\n

Erskine’s novel The Benefactors is set in Belfast and she said it was essential to have representation of its people. <\/p>\n

\"Jane<\/p>\n

Jane McComb and Graham Mounsey were among the crowd at Belfast Central Library <\/p>\n

“I read Wendy’s book a couple of months back and I thought it was fantastic,” said Jane McComb, who attended the event.<\/p>\n

“It is one of those books that really resonates. She’s very entertaining.”<\/p>\n

Graham Mounsey, who also attended the event, said her use of people’s ordinary lives in east Belfast “weave together very interesting stories”.<\/p>\n

\"Garett<\/p>\n

Garett Carr’s new book is called The Boy from the Sea<\/p>\n

Author Garrett Carr said he did not study English but always read a lot.<\/p>\n

“I started becoming envious of the power of books so I just wanted to get in on the action as well,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said events like Book Week created a community of like-minded people.<\/p>\n

“It takes something that’s quite a solitary activity and puts community on it which is nice, “he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s another way to connect with people around us apart from through the format of literature itself”.<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/p>\n

Crime author Brian McGilloway said libraries “opened a cultural door” for him growing up in Londonderry <\/p>\n

Speaking at Derry Central Library, Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling crime author and Derry native Brian McGilloway said his love of reading started at a very young age.<\/p>\n

“When I was seven or eight, Santa brought me a book called John Diamond by Leon Garfield, which was a children’s crime novel set in Victorian London,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Then, when I was a teenager, I read The Outsiders by SE Hinton, which was a novel about two gangs in America in the 1950s – and she wrote it when she was just 16.<\/p>\n

“It was an absolutely great book, and it was also great encouragement for a young person to hear about a 16-year-old writing a book and it being published.”<\/p>\n

McGilloway said those books he read growing up helped shape the author he is today. <\/p>\n

“Your own writing is a product of everything you’ve ever read,” he said.<\/p>\n

‘Reading should never be a chore’<\/p>\n

McGilloway said libraries were “vital community hubs” and he had great memories of going to his local library as a young child.<\/p>\n

“There’s that famous quote that ‘a room without books is like a body without a soul’ and the same can be said for towns or cities without libraries,” he said.<\/p>\n

McGilloway, who worked as a teacher in Londonderry for many years, said it was vitally important to encourage young people to get off their mobile phone screens and visit libraries to develop a love of books and reading.<\/p>\n

“Reading should never be a chore; it should be a way to take time for yourself and slow things down,” he added.<\/p>\n

\"Stuart<\/p>\n

Stuart Neville hopes events like the one in Newtownards can inspire new writers<\/p>\n

Armagh-born Stuart Neville, author of 11 novels including The Twelve, Those We Left Behind and House of Ashes, said libraries have played a vital role in his writing career.<\/p>\n

“Libraries are very important to me and a big part of the reason I’m a writer,” he said. <\/p>\n

He hopes events like Monday’s can inspire new writers.<\/p>\n

“Most libraries have creative writing groups, and they often turn out for author events,” he said. <\/p>\n

“You meet aspiring writers who ask for advice – whether I can give them any is another matter.”<\/p>\n

While Neville’s recent novels are set in America, most of his earlier work takes place in and around Belfast – a setting that, he said, has proved popular with US readers.<\/p>\n

“Here it’s a bit different – there’s sometimes resistance to local fiction, but I think that’s started to break down,” he added.<\/p>\n

\"Myfanwy<\/p>\n

Myfanwy Thomas runs a crime reading group in Donaghadee Library<\/p>\n

Myfanwy Thomas runs a crime reading group in Donaghadee Library, which is currently covering one of Neville’s novels.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to come and see if we could ask him some questions – like why he wrote the book we’re reading, House of Ashes,” she said. <\/p>\n

“We wanted to get a bit more insight into how authors come up with their ideas.”<\/p>\n

She said holding such events in libraries “brings people in and makes it more of a community event”.<\/p>\n

“It’s also good for authors because it gives them a chance to talk about their work and promote themselves,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It inspires people – it shows that anyone can give writing a go if they want.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aimee Bellin Belfast, Mike McBridein Londonderry and Niall GlynnBBC News NI, in Newtownards BBC Author Wendy Erskine said…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":320442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-320441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115410619095211720","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}