Books are my business: Dublin Unesco City of Literature director Anne-Marie Kelly

Irish Examiner

12-07-2025

Anne-Marie Kelly is director of Dublin Unesco City of Literature.
How did you become a librarian?
I was a big reader, but there weren't many books in my house growing up in the 1970s and '80s, like most people of that generation.
When I was about seven or eight, my dad took me down to the local library in Malahide; it was closed at the time for renovations, and there was a mobile library service instead, in a van beside the tennis club.
I could not believe that a truck had books on it.
I used to go in to the library after school, I would run up the stairs to see if I could get a Nancy Drew or Enid Blyton.
When I left school, I didn't know what I wanted to do and I fell into the library service. I realised I liked it, especially dealing with the public.
I worked in the busiest library in the country, the Central Library in the Ilac Centre in Dublin; I was sent there as a relief library assistant to sign up people when it opened to the public 40 years ago.
In 2021, I was assigned to my current role. I had previously worked as a library manager assigned to the development section of the city libraries, with responsibility for programming events.
I had experience of working with many partners, practical skills, in terms of understanding budgets and processes, and also an understanding of the cultural impact our services have on the local community, as readers, but also as users of public library spaces.
What does your current role involve?
I help to promote Dublin as a city of literature, support the literary community, and strengthen links between the partners. I also represent the city on the Unesco Creative Cities Network.
The office celebrates our great writing traditions and heritage, but also brings the talents of writers to the readers as well.
I'm well placed within the libraries, but I also have a city-wide bird's eye view of what's happening in other organisations, such as Poetry Ireland, the Irish Writers' Centre, the Museum of Irish Literature, and the National Library, which we involve in initiatives like the One Dublin One Book programme.
Another one of my briefs is overseeing the Dublin International Literary Award.
There is a lot of time involved in terms of events, organising programming, venues, capacity, ticketing, and so on. We try to identify themes that will make a programme interesting and attract an audience.
We will select a book for One Dublin One Book during the summer, so I will always find time for reading, on the bus or train, on the way to work or going home.
Today, we were linking in with the deputy lord mayor of Lyons in France, which is another Unesco City of Literature team.
We are always looking at potential contacts and how those can benefit our own literary community.
We also use our online platforms to promote what is available to our own writers and poets internationally, in terms of residencies and so on.
What do you like most about what you do?
Giving opportunities to writers. At the end of the summer, I will be contacting someone about being selected as the One Dublin One Book author next year.
That is something that comes out of the blue for them and I love to see their reaction.
What do you like least about it?
What can be quite frustrating is when you get a programme together, people have booked in for events and they don't show up.
It has made me more aware that when I book something, I will email if I can't make it.
Three desert island books
My favourite book of all time is a tiny paperback by Carson McCullers called The Member of the Wedding. It took her six years to write and there isn't a word out of place.
It is set in the Deep South in the 1940s, and the main character is a young girl, who sees her older brother getting married and thinks that she can go off and live with him and his new wife.
It is sweet, but also very knowing, capturing the turbulence of neither being an adult or a child.
The next one would be Walk the Blue Fields, the collection of short stories by Claire Keegan, which are jewels of writing. I cannot believe her talent.
The third one would be Solar Bones by Mike McCormack, another writer that I really love. The character is talking about his own life from the other side of the grave, and it's just wonderful, really original.
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