By Laura O’Neill

The Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre in Limavady will host The John Steinbeck Festival 2024 during the month of February.

The music, film and literature event centres around John Steinbeck, a Nobel and Pulitzer prizewinning American author. Steinbeck who has been described as one of Americas most significant twentieth century writer has a deep connection with the Limavady area.

Dougie Bartlett the festival founder and previous history teacher explains the festival’s origins,

“It began in 2019 based on an article I read about the connection between Ballykelly and Steinbeck. The more I looked into it, the more important it actually was. Steinbecks grandfather was born there in 1830 and emigrated to California in 1846.

“Steinbeck initially wrote his novel East of Eden as a family history and the central character Samual Hamilton was his maternal grandfather.

“He absolutely admired him, and he acknowledges this as being the creative side of his family.

“His grandfather would have told all the myths and legends from here in Limavady. He was a blacksmith apprentice so would have picked up plenty of yarns and stories.”

The festival has grown each year and Mr Bartlett talks about some of the events organised to cater for all ages,

“We have the primary school book cover competition, secondary school programme based on ‘Of Mice and Men’ which is studied for GCSE, and a senior citizens American themed music event called ‘The Swingtime Starlets’ produced in collaboration with Live Music Now NI.”

One of the highlights include the Greer Ellison Illustrated talk, a progressive young Northern Irish producer and scriptwriter who has achieved significant success.

There is also the popular photography Dust Bowl competition. The exhibition is named after the 1930’s period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged agriculture and is the basis for Steinbecks Pulitzer Prize novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Mr Barlett said the calibre of work received ‘is the highest standard this year of any year’ and ‘has come in from across the world.’

There is plenty to look forward to and the full programme of dates, events and booking details can be found at www.roevalleyarts.com