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The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon is the national agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland.
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The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 19 The Amusements with Aingela Flannery
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 19 The Amusements with Aingela Flannery by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon
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Oct 25, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 21 - 'My Father's House' by Joseph O'Connor
The October Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Joseph O'Connor about his novel 'My Father's House'.
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Sep 27, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 20: 'Dance Move' by Wendy Erskine
The September Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Wendy Erskine about her short story collection 'Dance Move'.
The Guardian writes of Wendy Erskine’s collection of stories: ‘She identifies what is most fruitful about her characters’ predicaments – the emotional core, the most resonant ironies – and traces with rapt and infectious attention their doomed if valiant attempts to shimmy away from the real.’ The stories, the Dublin Review of Books writes, ‘are gloriously offbeat tales of people who live on the flip side and are out of step with those around them.’
Wendy Erskine’s two prize-winning short story collections, Sweet Home and Dance Move, are published by The Stinging Fly Press and Picador. Other fiction has been published by, among others, Rough Trade Book and The Tangerine Press. She recently edited Well I Just Kind of Like It, an anthology about the home and art, produced by Paper Visual Art. In 2022 she was a Seamus Heaney Fellow at Queen’s University. She is a full-time secondary school teacher.
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Aug 30, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 19: 'White City' by Kevin Power
“Ben, the protagonist of White City,
is, John Self writes in the Guardian,
the ‘son of a disgraced Dublin
banker, languishing in rehab and
writing an account of his wrong
turns as therapy.’ As Ben gets
involved in a dodgy property deal
in Serbia, Power creates a world
of Irish people on the make with
the hapless Ben at its centre.
Ben, the Irish Times writes, ‘is
Power’s unforgettable creation.”
— Colm Tóibín
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Jul 26, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 18: 'Nothing Special' by Nicole Flattery
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 18: 'Nothing Special' by Nicole Flattery by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon
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Jul 12, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 17: ‘The Singularities’ by John Banville
“In this brilliant and dreamy
novel, John Banville gives life to
the many characters who have
peopled his fiction over fifty years.
He allows them to meet each
other, revisit old scenes not as
ghosts or as revenants but as
fictional protagonists with their
own precise memories, their
own pressing desires. There
are some resonant evocations
of place but all is bathed in a
sense of pure aftermath.”
— Colm Tóibín
John Banville is a novelist, screenwriter,
playwright and book reviewer. He worked
in journalism for many years, and was
literary editor at The Irish Times from 1988
to 2000. He is a regular contributor to
The New York Review of Books, and
other journals
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Jun 28, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 16: 'Iron Annie' by Luke Cassidy
June Art of Reading which is ‘Iron Annie’ by Luke Cassidy recorded with a live audience in Letterkenny library
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May 25, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 15: 'Haven' By Emma Donoghue
Join Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with Emma Donoghue on her fourteenth novel Haven
“Haven, Emma Donoghue’s
fourteenth novel, is set on Skellig
Michael in the year 600 when
three Irishmen decide to establish
a monastery on this extraordinary
piece of bare rock. The Chicago
Review of Books has written:
‘In classic Donoghue narrative
style, it all unfolds in a confined
space under cramped conditions
... convincingly conveyed by
Donoghue’s raw descriptions
and her exceptional skill with
emotionally authentic dialogue.”
— Colm Tóibín
Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is
an award-winning writer living in Canada.
Her latest novel Haven, is about the
monks who landed on Skellig Michael in
the seventh century. She was nominated
for an Academy Award and a Bafta for
her adaptation of her Booker-shortlisted
international bestseller Room, and her
theatrical adaptation with songs by
Cora Bissett and Kathryn Joseph (which
premiered at the Abbey) will open on
Broadway this April. She co-wrote the
2022 film of her novel The Wonder, Netflix
UK’s first feature shot in Ireland.
Some of her other novels are The
Pull of the Stars, Akin, Frog Music,
The Sealed Letter, Life Mask and
Slammerkin, as well as The Lotterys
Plus One and The Lotterys More
or Less for younger readers.
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Mar 29, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 14: 'Trouble' by Philip Ó Ceallaigh
The March Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Philip Ó Ceallaigh about his book 'Trouble'.
“Philip Ó Ceallaigh is a brilliant, uncompromising and ambitious writer who has long been resident in Bucharest. Of his collection of stories ‘Trouble’, the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote: ‘Ó Ceallaigh writes with such immediacy, such confessional intensity, that when the narrator leans in close and says, “Look — there lies trouble,” it is impossible to look away.” - Colm Tóibín
Philip Ó Ceallaigh has published over fifty short stories, most of them gathered in his three collections. The most recent is Trouble, from the Stinging Fly Press. He has been described by John Banville as “a master” of the short story form and named by Rob Doyle as his “favourite living writer of short stories”. His work has appeared in Granta, The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Irish Times and has been translated into over a dozen languages. He was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for his first book, Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse. He is also an essayist and critic with a particular interest in Jewish-European history, and his translation of Mihail Sebastian’s interwar novel For Two Thousand Years was published by Penguin Classics. He lives in Bucharest, Romania.
Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/
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Feb 23, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 13: 'Trespasses' by Louise Kennedy
The February Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Louise Kennedy about her book 'Trespasses'.
The unforgettable protagonist of Louise Kennedy’s ‘Trespasses’ is 24-year-old Cushla Lavery, a Catholic schoolteacher living in 1975 in a small town outside Belfast. The novel narrates the story of her love affair with an older, married, Protestant barrister with the same wit and eye for detail as are on display in her book of stories ‘The End of the World is a Cul de Sac.’ - Colm Tóibín
Louise Kennedy grew up in Holywood, Co. Down. Her short story collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac (Bloomsbury 2021) won the John McGahern Prize. Her debut novel, Trespasses (Bloomsbury 2022) won Eason’s Novel of the Year at An Post Irish Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. Before she started writing, she spent nearly thirty years working as a chef. She lives in Sligo.
Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/
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Jan 26, 2023
The Art of Reading Book Club | Episode 12: 'A Girl is a Half-formed Thing' by Eimear McBride
The January Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Eimear McBride about her book A Girl is a Half-formed Thing.
In describing his idea for the Art of Reading Book Club series Colm Tóibín said: “Our experience of reading became more intense and more essential during the lockdown. Although reading is mainly done in silence and when alone, it includes a sense of community, an idea of sharing. Readers want to talk about the books they like, to think about the internal workings of a novel or a story, and exchange ideas on books, all to enrich the experience of reading. Reading, as much as writing, is an art. It requires a creative response to the text. No books matters unless someone is reading it. The purpose of the Art of Reading Book Club is to deepen the idea of a community of readers and to recognize the vitality and excitement in the act of reading and thinking about books.”
Eimear McBride is the author of three novels: ‘Strange Hotel’, ‘The Lesser Bohemians’ and ‘A Girl is a Half-formed Thing’. She held the inaugural Creative Fellowship at the Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading which resulted in the performance work ‘Mouthpieces’ - later broadcast by RTE Radio. Her first full length non-fiction work ‘Something Out of Place: Women & Disgust’ was published in 2021, while her first foray into film writing and direction ‘A Very Short Film About Longing,’ produced by DMC and BBC Film, has recently been completed. She is the recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Goldsmiths Prize, James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, Desmond Eliot Prize and the Kerry Prize. She grew up in the west of Ireland and now lives in London.
Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/
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Dec 28, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club | Episode 11: Blank Pages and Other Stories by Bernard MacLaverty
The December Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Bernard MacLaverty about his book, Blank Pages and Other Stories.
The Laureate says “MacLaverty offers a masterclass in how to create character, how to build scenes by accretion of detail, how to work with implication and suggestion, how to write indirectly and manages to create more energy and more expression by working in muted colours and plain textures.”
Bernard MacLaverty was born in Belfast (14.9.42) and lived there until 1975 when he moved to Scotland with his wife, Madeline, and four children. He has been a Medical Laboratory Technician, a mature student, a teacher of English and occasionally a Writer-in-Residence (Universities of Aberdeen, Augsburg, Liverpool John Moore’s and Iowa State). After living for a time in Edinburgh and the Isle of Islay he now lives in Glasgow. He is a member of Aosdána. He has published five novels and six collections of short…
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Dec 20, 2022
Laureate for Irish Fiction Annual Lecture 2022
Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín delivered his first annual lecture on 6th November 2022 in Town Hall Theatre Galway. For those unable to join us at the event, we are delighted to be able to share a recording of this extraordinary evening.
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Nov 30, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 10: 'The Last September' by Elizabeth Bowen
The November Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with writer Tom McCarthy about Elizabeth Bowen’s novel The Last September.
The Laureate says “This is another novel set during the Irish War of Independence. Just as Martina Devlin’s book is about solitude and introspection, this centres on a house party, scenes filled with chatter and strange silences, things unmentioned and unmentionable. And in the background are the insurgents, the sense of impending doom.”
Thomas McCarthy was born in Co. Waterford in 1954 and educated at the local Convent of Mercy and at University College Cork. He was a Fellow of the International Writing Programme at the University of Iowa in 1978/79. He worked for many years at Cork City Libraries, mainly working in the Lending Section of Cork Central Library before he withdrew to write fulltime in 2014. He has won many awards for his poetry, including The Patrick Kavanagh Award, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize, the O’Shaughnessy Priz…
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Nov 1, 2022
The Curiosity Series: Episode 6 - Michael O'Loughlin, Rosaleen McDonagh and Annemarie Ní Churreáin
Warning: This episode contains mild swearing.
The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council’s 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins.
In each episode, you’ll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other’s work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art.
In our final episode of the series, Maeve is joined by three writers from three different generations: poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin, playwright Rosaleen McDonagh and poet, translator, and critic Michael O’Loughlin as they explore the themes that have shaped each others artistic work and lives.
Annemarie, Rosaleen and Michael speak to Maeve about insider/outsider perspectives in their artistic practice and about stepping into their own creative power,…
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Oct 26, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 9: Edith by Martina Devlin
The October Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with writer Martina Devlin about her book Edith.
The Laureate says “Edith is an engrossing and sensitive portrait of the writer Edith Somerville during the War of Independence when her writing partner Violet Ross is dead and her own career as a writer not flourishing. It is a portrait of a sensitive, solitary figure in a time of turmoil, of a woman striking out as an artist in a time when there were many barriers”.
Martina Devlin has written 11 books, including the novels About Sisterland and The House Where It Happened, and the short story collection Truth & Dare. Her latest book Edith: A Novel – about the writer Edith Somerville – will be published by the Lilliput Press in May. Prizes include the Royal Society of Literature’s V.S. Pritchett Prize and a Hennessy Literary Award. She writes a weekly current affairs column for the Irish Independent and has been named National Newspapers of Ireland commentator…
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Oct 16, 2022
The Curiosity Series with Maeve Higgins: Episode 5 - John McLachlan and Brian Leyden
The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council’s 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins.
In each episode, you’ll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other’s work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art.
In the penultimate episode of The Curiosity Series, Maeve Higgins speaks with writer Brian Leyden and composer John McLachlan about the writer Leland Bardwell (1922-2016) and the centenary celebrations of her birth taking place this year. John and Brian speak to Maeve about uncovering new manuscripts and organising Leland’s incredible creative output in a new website dedicated to her work, as well as preparing for new and upcoming publications in 2022, including My Name Suspended in the Air: Leland…
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Oct 2, 2022
The Curiosity Series with Maeve Higgins: Episode 4 - Jane O'Leary and Gwen O'Dowd
The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council’s 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins.
In each episode, you’ll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other’s work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art.
In episode four, composer Jane O’Leary and painter Gwen O’Dowd join Maeve to delve deeper into the inspirations and motivations behind their art.
Both Jane and Gwen have found artistic inspiration in the power and beauty of the sea, and in this episode they speak to Maeve about how that inspiration has taken shape in their work and how it has brought them together for artistic collaborations at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast.
In a lively and perceptive conversation, Jane and Gwen disc…
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Sep 28, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 8: The Ante Room by Kate O'Brien
The September Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with writer Una Mannion about The Ante-Room by Kate O'Brien.
The Laureate says “This novel is written with great intensity, being set over a time period of three days in which the focus is on the entire life of a single family, all the secrets and treacheries coming into the open. Time and character are dealt with in this book with sharp insight, masterful precision.”
Kate O’Brien was born in 1897 in Limerick. A graduate of UCD, she was an internationally acclaimed fiction writer. In her early career she worked as a journalist and found initial literary success as a playwright. She also wrote short fiction, literary essay, literary criticism and travel writing. Her first novel, Without My Cloak (1931), won the Hawthornden and the James Tait Black Memorial prizes. She wrote nine novels in total, including Mary Lavelle (1936) and The Land of Spices (1941), both of which were banned in Ireland.
Her novels were v…
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Sep 18, 2022
The Curiosity Series with Maeve Higgins: Episode 3 - Roger Doyle and Trevor Knight
The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council’s 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins.
In each episode, you’ll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other’s work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art.
Episode three sees Maeve Higgins follow the musical journeys of composers and friends Roger Doyle and Trevor Knight. Roger and Trevor came to their artistic practice through different routes in the 1980s: Trevor learning his craft with pop music group Auto Da Fé while Roger trained as a composer at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and later at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht. Since then they have worked together on various music projects over the years, which have encompassed their shared artist…
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Sep 4, 2022
The Curiosity Series with Maeve Higgins: Episode 2 - Mia Gallagher and Cindy Cummings
The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council’s 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins.
In each episode, you’ll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other’s work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art.
In episode two of The Curiosity Series, host Maeve Higgins speaks to writer Mia Gallagher and dance artist Cindy Cummings about the nature of artistic collaboration. Both Mia and Cindy are committed to working collaboratively with other artists across disciplines in their own respective artistic practices and have done so for the past number of years.
They delve into changes in collaborative practice in Ireland, the challenge of facing failure and mistakes when making art, and how to navigate fear an…
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Aug 24, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 7: The Barracks by John McGahern
The August Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with Professor Frank Shovlin about The Barracks by John McGahern.
“This bleak, unrelenting novel portrays a woman in the Irish midlands who has married a policeman and become a surrogate mother to his children in the time after his first wife’s death. Elizabeth, too, is facing her own death. Her character is drawn with great sympathy. The most intimate moments are handled with piercing sensitivity and truthfulness.” Colm Tóibín
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and raised in Leitrim and Roscommon. A graduate of UCD, he worked as a primary school teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. He is the author of six novels and four collections of short stories. His novels included The Barracks (1963); The Dark (1965); The Leavetaking (1975), The Pornographer (1980), Amongst Women (1990) and That They May Face the Rising Sun (200…
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Aug 21, 2022
The Curiosity Series with Maeve Higgins: Episode 1 - Geraldine O'Reilly and Mary O'Donnell
The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council’s 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins.
In each episode, you’ll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other’s work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art.
In episode one of The Curiosity Series, host Maeve Higgins is joined by visual artist and printmaker Geraldine O’Reilly and writer Mary O’Donnell. They talk about Unlegendary Heroes, a work by Geraldine O’Reilly based on a collection of poetry of the same name by Mary O'Donnell, currently being exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition.
Geraldine and Mary speak to Maeve about the elusive nature of creative inspiration, about working together on Unlegendary Heroes and about the…
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Jul 29, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 6: Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
The July Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Naoise Dolan about her novel Exciting Times.
“This novel is a tour-de-force work about exile and the world of expats in Hong Kong. Seeking accommodation, looking for love, teaching English as a foreign language, dealing with foreigners, being Irish, calling home, are all dramatized with wit and emotional accuracy and a refusal to settle for easy narrative solutions.” Colm Tóibín, Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.
Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/
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Jun 29, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 5: In the Middle of the Fields by Mary Lavin
The June Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Sinéad Gleeson and writer and granddaughter of Mary Lavin, Alice Ryan, to discuss Lavin's short story, In the Middle of the Fields, from the collection of the same name.
Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/
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May 25, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 4: Homesickness by Colin Barrett
The May Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with Colin Barrett on his short story collection 'Homesickness'
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Apr 27, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 3: The Pages by Hugo Hamilton
This is an ingeniously told story, narrated by an actual book, a novel by the Austrian writer Joseph Roth, offering an account of its picaresque travels to America and back to Europe, while in the background we learn of the life of Joseph Roth himself and the dark times he lived in.” Colm Tóibín, Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024
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Mar 31, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 2: Esther Waters by George Moore
The March Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with Adrian Frazier about the novel Esther Waters by George Moore.
‘In this novel, Moore works like a nineteenth century French painter in drawing a portrait of a spirited young women of reduced circumstances facing her destiny in an unforgiving world.’ Colm Tóibín
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Feb 24, 2022
The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Welcome to The Art of Reading, a monthly book club hosted by Colm Tóibín, the Laureate for Irish Fiction, and shared on the last Thursday of every month.
The first Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with Claire Keegan about her latest work ‘Small Things Like These’.
Each month our Laureate will discuss a novel by an Irish writer, highlighting outstanding Irish writing and celebrating the reader and book clubs. The selected titles will include new work by contemporary Irish writers as well as novels from the past that the Laureate wishes to bring to a new generation of readers. To see the list of Colm’s selected books for 2022 and to read ahead, download the Art of Reading book club pamphlet from the webpage here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/
Readers, book lovers and book clubs everywhere are invited to join in the Art of Reading with the Laureate, to read these outstanding…
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Sep 8, 2021
Sebastian Barry, Laureate for Irish Fiction, Final Lecture 2021
Sebastian Barry gives his final lecture as Laureate for Irish Fiction. Introduction by Arts Council Chair, Kevin Rafter.
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Feb 17, 2021
Sebastian Barry, "Still Life, with Donal" (Laureate For Irish Fiction Annual Lecture 2019)
In late 1994 Donal McCann undertook to play the lead in The Steward of Christendom. The second Laureate lecture, called Still Life, with Donal is Sebastian Barry's account of the extraordinary experience of working with such a unique, challenging and veritably nuclear actor and human being.
Barry's first Laureate for Irish Fiction Lecture The Lives of Saints was delivered in Dublin in autumn 2018. It reflected on the people and writers who supported him along his writing journey, including his aunt Annie, Val Mulkerns, Benedict Kiely, Michael Hartnett, Leland Bardwell, Tom Murphy and Harold Pinter.
Sebastian Barry is the second Laureate for Irish Fiction and was awarded the honour by the Arts Council in early 2018. The Laureate for Irish Fiction promotes Irish literature nationally and internationally and encourage the public to engage with high quality Irish fiction. The Laureate for Irish Fiction has been developed by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and is supported by Uni…
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Feb 17, 2021
Sebastian Barry, "The Lives Of The Saints" (Laureate For Irish Fiction Annual Lecture 2018)
On 9 September at the Gate Theatre Dublin, Laureate for Irish Fiction Sebastian Barry delivered his first annual lecture entitled The Lives of the Saints.
Speaking about the lecture, Sebastian Barry said, “In forty years of writing and living, inevitably and often by mere accident, a writer encounters other writers. This lecture is an account of some of the singular individuals met in this way over the years, many no longer with us, but who hold strong places in memory, and constitute a kind of private reference for how to endure as a writer and indeed how to write.”
Sebastian Barry is the second Laureate for Irish Fiction and was awarded the honour by the Arts Council in early 2018. The Laureate for Irish Fiction promotes Irish literature nationally and internationally and encourage the public to engage with high quality Irish fiction. The Laureate for Irish Fiction has been developed by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and is supported by University College Dublin (UCD)…
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Feb 17, 2021
Anne Enright, "Maeve Brennan Goes Mad In America" (Laureate For Irish Fiction Annual Lecture 2016)
Anne Enright delivered her first US lecture as Laureate for Irish Fiction at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House as part of the Laureate programme in April 2016.
Speaking prior to the lecture, Enright said, “When I flew to New York in February 2000 I thought my life could not get better: I was pregnant, I was bringing the proofs for my first New Yorker story in my bag, and I met Seamus Heaney on the plane. The next day I went to the offices of the magazine and paused in the ladies room to remember Maeve Brennan, and to consider the rumour that she lived for a while in the washroom of the old offices on West 43rd St. I have always been interested in what drives a writer mad. It was natural for me to think about Brennan while I was living in the city this year. I wanted to put her on the streets of New York, to write about place - but of course I wrote about madness instead. What is the difference between imagination and psychosis? And what made it impossible for Maeve Brennan,…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 19. Eimear McBride
In this series, the Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry sits down with some of his favourite writers to ask: What the Hell/Heaven Are We Doing?
His on-going conversation about the mysteries of writing and the intricacies of the craft continues this week with award-winning Irish novelist Eimear McBride.
In this conversation, Eimear and Sebastian discuss the limits of language, what "home" feels like, misogyny, chaos and much more.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council in partnership with University College Dublin and New York University.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 18. Kevin Barry
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking big questions about the nature of writing itself.
Kevin is a multiple award-winning writer whose most recent book, Night Boat to Tangier, was published in 2019. Here, he sits down with Sebastian via video chat to puzzle out some of the deeper questions about the art of writing, including the influence of early family life on one's writing, lyricism in prose, and how and why a writer should have a good self-care routine.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 17. Danielle McLaughlin
Award-winning short story author Danielle McLaughlin is Sebastian Barry's guest this week on What the Hell/Heaven Are We Doing?
This video series features the Laureate for Irish Fiction in conversation with a selection of fellow writers as they probe the mysteries of the writing craft and ask: What is writing? What is its purpose beyond pragmatic notions of academia and journalism?
In this conversation Danielle and Sebastian discuss obsession, anxiety, the lost knowledge of the Irish language, and more.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 16. Nicole Flattery
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry's compelling series, What the Hell/Heaven Are We Doing? continues this week with a discussion about the nature of writing and the intricacies of the craft with prize-winning author Nicole Flattery.
Sebastian and Nicole discuss topics as wide-ranging as inclusivity in the publishing industry, Irish storytelling vs. Irish silence, and learning how to understand oneself through the act of writing.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 15. Thomas Kilroy 2
Welcome back to What the Hell/Heaven Are We Doing?, the series where the Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, asks big questions of fellow writers about the nature of their shared craft.
What is the purpose of writing? Find out what author Tom Kilroy thinks in this episode.
Thomas Kilroy was born in Callan, Co Kilkenny in 1934. He served as play editor at the Abbey in 1977 and was appointed Director of Field Day Theatre Company in 1988. Kilroy was Professor of English at UCG and has published a number of academic essays and studies. In 1989, he resigned his professorship, to concentrate fully on writing. His many awards include the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Heinemann Award for Literature, the AIB Literary Prize and an Irish PEN Award. Thomas Kilroy is a member of the Royal Society of Literature, the Irish Academy of Letters and Aosdána. He was honoured with a special Lifetime Achievement Award at the ESB/Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2004. He lives in County Mayo.
The Lau…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 14. Colm Tóibín
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking big questions about the nature of writing itself.
What is its purpose? What should we make of its mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. He is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed and prolific writers. He has worked as a journalist, critic, essayist, academic and novelist. He established his journalism credentials in the 1980s as editor of the groundbreaking Magill magazine. He is the author of eight novels, several essay and short story collections, poetry, multiple non-fiction works, and plays.
Tóibín published his first novel, The South, in 1990, before following it up with The Heather Blazing (1992), The Story of the Night (1996), and The Blackwater Lightship (1999). His fifth novel, The Master…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 13. Claire - Louise Bennett
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire and went on to study Literature and Drama at the University of Roehampton in London, before settling in Galway. She has had her essays and short fiction published in a number of publications including The Irish Times, The White Review, The Penny Dreadful and Gorse. In 2013, she was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize. With Pond, she presents her first collection of short stories. She has also received bursaries from the Irish Arts Council and Galway City Council. Her debut book, Pond, a collection of short stories, was published by The Stinging Fly (Ireland) and Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) in 2015, and was publishe…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 12. Louise O'Neill
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing?
What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism?
In the latest conversation, he speaks with Louise O’Neill.
Louise O’Neill was born in West Cork, where she lives and works. Her first novel, Only Ever Yours, was published in 2014 is a satire about society's obsession with how women look and behave. It won several awards including the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 2014. Her second novel, Asking For it (2015) is a heart-breaking account of a rape and its aftermath in a close-knit Irish community. It was voted Book of the Year at the Irish Books Awards 2015 and spent 52 weeks in the Irish top 10 bestseller list. O’ Neill’s first novel for adults, Almost Love, was published in March 2018. The Surface Breaks, her feminist re-imagining of The Little Mermaid, followed in May 2018.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 11. Yan Ge
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Yan Ge was born in Sichuan in the People’s Republic of China, and currently lives in Dublin. She is the author of thirteen books, including six novels. She has received numerous awards, including the Maodun Literature Prize (Best Young Writer). She was named by People’s Literature magazine as one of twenty future literature masters in China. Her work has been translated into English, French and German, among other languages. The English translation of her latest novel The Chilli Bean Paste Clan was published in 2018 (Balestier Press) and won a PEN Translates award. Another novel, The Strange Beasts of China, is coming out in 2020 (Tilted Axis Press). She was on the jud…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 10. Liz Nugent
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Liz Nugent was born in Dublin, where she lives and works. Before becoming a full-time writer she worked in Irish film, theatre and television. In 2006, her first short story for adults, Alice, was shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story Prize. Her three novels - Unravelling Oliver, Lying in Wait and Skin Deep have each been Number One bestsellers in Ireland and have won four Irish Book Awards. Her work has been translated into seven languages. Skin Deep has also been long listed for the International Dublin Literature Prize 2020. Liz has been awarded numerous bursaries and residencies including the Ireland Funds Monaco bursary and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre.
The La…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 09. Gavin Corbett
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Gavin Corbett was born in Co. Galway and grew up in Dublin, where he studied History at Trinity College. He has written three novels: Innocence (2003); This is the Way (2013), which won the 2013 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year award and was shortlisted for the Encore Prize, and most recently Green Glowing Skull (2015), ‘in which heads explode, people return from the dead, fish talk, pantomime cows are severed in two, and in which the reader will encounter page after page of unforgettable prose’, according to The Guardian. He has been Arts Council writer-in-residence at both Trinity College Dublin and UCD, and currently teaches on the Creative Writing programme at U…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 08. Roddy Doyle
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council in partnership with University College Dublin and New York University.
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin, where he works and lives. He is one of Ireland's most successful and prolific writers. His first three novels, the Barrystown Trilogy - The Commitments (1987), The Snapper (1990), and The Van (1991), narrate the adventures of the Rabbitte family, residents of a poor housing estate in north Dublin. He won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (1996) is the tragic story of Paula Spencer. Doyle revisits Spencer's life in his 2006 novel Paul…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 07. Claire Kilroy
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Claire Kilroy was born in Dublin, where she lives and works. She has written four novels, All Summer, Tenderwire, All Names Have Been Changed and The Devil I Know, which was described by The Guardian as “a satiric danse macabre of brio and linguistic virtuosity,” and by the New York Times as “savagely comic... and great fun.” Claire has been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year three times, and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2004.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council in partnership with University College Dublin and New York University.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 06. Rob Doyle
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Rob Doyle was born in Dublin. His widely acclaimed first novel, Here Are the Young Men, was published in 2014. It was chosen as a book of the year by the Irish Times, Independent, Sunday Times and Sunday Business Post. His second book This is the Ritual was published in January 2016 and was a book of the year in the New Statesman, Sunday Times and Irish Times. His fiction, essays, and criticism have been published in many newspapers and journals. He is editor of the Dalkey Archive’s anthology, The Other Irish Tradition and editor and co-author of In This Skull Hotel Where I Never Sleep. Rob currently lives in Berlin.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of t…
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 05. Paul Lynch
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Paul Lynch was born in Limerick and grew up in Co Donegal. His debut novel Red Sky in Morning was published to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 2013. He has since published two novels The Black Snow in 2014 and Grace in 2017. He has won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and the French booksellers' prize Prix Libr'à Nous for Best Foreign Novel. Paul lives and works in Dublin.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council in partnership with University College Dublin and New York University.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 04. Mia Gallagher
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Mia Gallagher was born in Dublin, where she lives and works. Her debut novel, HellFire, received the Irish Tatler Women of the Year Literature Award in 2007, while her award-winning short fiction has been widely published and anthologised. Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland is her second novel and Shift is her first short-story collection. Mia has
received several Literature Bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland and has enjoyed the role of writer-in-residence in many different environments, both at home and abroad.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council in partnership with University College Dublin and New York University.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 03. Melatu Uche Okorie
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Melatu Uche Okorie was born in Nigeria and moved to Ireland in 2006. It was during her eight and a half years living in the direct provision system that she began to write. This Hostel Life is her first book and she’s had works published in numerous anthologies. In 2009, she won the Metro Éireann Writing Award for her story Gathering Thoughts. Melatu is currently studying for a PhD in Education at Trinity College, Dublin. She lives in North Dublin.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council in partnership with University College Dublin and New York University.
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Feb 16, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 02. Sara Baume
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
Sara Baume was born in Yorkshire. She won the 2014 Davy Byrne’s Short Story Award, and in 2015, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Rooney Prize for Literature and an Irish Book Award for Best Newcomer. Her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Warwick Prize for Writing, the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Kate O’Brien Award.
Her short fiction and criticism have been published in anthologies, newspapers and journals such as the Irish Times, the Guardian, St…
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Feb 11, 2021
What The Hell/Heaven Are We Doing - 01. John Boyne
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland.
John Boyne was born in Dublin where he lives and works. He has published eleven novels for adults, five for young readers and a collection of short stories. Perhaps best known for his 2006 multi-award-winning book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which was a New York Times no.1 Bestseller, John has been a judge on many Irish and International literary award panels. He has won three Irish Book Awards and a number of international literary awards including the Que Leer Award for Novel of the Year in Spain and the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize in Germany. He was inducted into the Hennessy Literary ‘Hall of Fame’ in 2012.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts…
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