WEXFORD AUTHOR Eoin Colfer has taken on a prestigious new role after he was announced as the third Laureate na nÓg by Minister Fergus O’Dowd at the Arts Council.
Laureate na nÓg is an initiative of the Arts Council with the support of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, Children’s Books Ireland, Poetry Ireland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Eoin Colfer’s first book ‘Benny and Omar’, published in 1998 was a best-seller and set him on his way to stardom which came in 2001 when the first Artemis Fowl book was published and became a New York Times Bestseller. He has a host of other kids’ novels to his name as well as adult fiction.
Last year, the first Artemis Fowl book was picked up by the Weinstein brothers in Hollywood and a film adaptation of his books is currently in the works.
Speaking about his appointment as Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer said: “I feel incredibly honoured and incredibly petrified to be taking on the Laureate mantle after Niamh [Sharkey] and Siobhán [Parkinson]. I feel I am representing my family and my county and indeed all book people in Ireland which is not something I mean to take lightly.
[Full story in this week’s Echo]