Monday, 2nd July at 8pm

The Literature Sector is facing enormous change and enormous uncertainty at this time. If the whole sector does not rise to this challenge, we may find that the infrastructure and conditions that nurtured the art in the past have been seriously eroded. The Literature Sector includes writers, readers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, administrators whose organisations deliver vital services, everyone who has a stake in this complex process of delivering the written word, with its inter-related, inter-dependent factors.

This is a caucus-style meeting with an open agenda, and has been called by Jack Harte, Chairman of the Irish Writers' Centre, and member of the Steering Committee of the National Campaign for the Arts, whose discussion document, Towards a National Strategy on Literature, was circulated to politicians before the last election, and is worth reading before the meeting. It is envisaged that such Caucus meetings will be called at regular intervals, convened and hosted by other organisations and in countrywide locations, in order to hone a comprehensive approach to the problems that face the sector.

Items for discussion will be prepared beforehand, but items of importance to anyone in the audience can be raised from the floor.

Louise O'Reilly, National Coordinator of the National Campaign for the Arts, will attend and give a resume of the active campaign being conducted on behalf of the whole Arts community. It is essential that the Literature Sector becomes more involved in the National Campaign, and we will have some discussion on this too.

To Read Towards a National Strategy on Literature click here.