COAST, TOWN & COUNTRY
The Best New Voices in Irish Writing SAT U RDAY 25T H & SU N DAY 26T H J U LY AT M A L I N H OT EL, M A L I N ADMISSION €10 PER EVENT | €30 FOR ALL EVENTS
Irish writing has undergone a huge shift in the last five years. Emerging from post-boom Ireland is a new generation of writers, seeking to make sense of our changed land. Through short stories, novels, humour and surrealness, they inhabit big cities, rural towns and anonymous coastlines. For this literary weekend on the Wild Atlantic Way, curated by Sinéad Gleeson, we’re joined by some of this new generation, including Kevin Barry, Belinda McKeon, Sara Baume, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Gavin Corbett and Lisa McInerney.
Saturday 25th July NUALA NÍ CHONCHÚIR WRITING SEMINAR
KEVIN BARRY
This seminar will zone in on the important elements in fiction writing; using quotes, exercises and examples, Nuala will show participants how to be mindful in their writing, from start to finish, exploring early decisions in fiction writing: the importance of a strong title and a good opening; explore apt language use, story/plot and the creation of believable dialogue. The class will examine character under the following headings: motivation, conflict, profiles and naming. This class is suitable for the first-time writer as well as those who have been writing for a while. Participants will receive a handout.
Kevin Barry’s novel City of Bohane (2011) won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He has published two short story collections: There Are Little Kingdoms (2007), which won the Rooney Prize for Literature and Dark Lies the Island (2012) and his work has appeared in The New Yorker and Granta. His stage plays have been performed in Ireland and the US, and his radio dramas have been broadcast by RTE and the BBC. His second novel Beatlebone is about John Lennon’s 1978 visit to Ireland and will be published this autumn. Chaired by: Derek O’Connor
2PM – ADMISSION €10
4PM – ADMISSION €10
Sunday 26th July BELINDA MCKEON AND SARA BAUME
LISA MCINERNEY AND GAVIN CORBETT
Two of the most intriguing new voices in Irish Fiction will discuss their publishing stories, and their work. Belinda McKeon is the author of two novels, Solace, which won the Faber Prize and was named Irish Book of the Year 2011, and Tender, which has just been published by Picador. She is originally from Longford and has lived in New York for the past ten years. Sara Baume won the Davy Byrne’s Short Story Award and Hennessy Literary Award for her short stories. Her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither, was published by Tramp Press and will be published in the UK by William Heinemann in October. Chaired by: Derek O’Connor
Writing humour, telling strange stories and modern Ireland turned upsidedown; these writers shake up old story forms with satire in the post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. Gavin Corbett was born in Co Galway and raised in Dublin, where he still lives. His novels include Innocence (2003) and This Is the Way (2013), which won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year award. His anarchic third novel – Green Glowing Skull - about three Irish Tenors was published in May by Fourth Estate. Lisa McInerney’s short stories have appeared in the Faber anthology Town & Country and her debut novel The Glorious Heresies was published in April. Chaired by: Sinéad Gleeson
2PM – ADMISSION €10
4PM – ADMISSION €10