Events
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Ireland is a magic realist country, rich in standing stones and megalithic forts, ancient abbeys and crumbling churches. Everybody knows someone who has seen a faerie or a ghost, even if they haven't seen one themselves. Join us at 3:30 PM, Fri. Sept 29 or the LIVE! kickoff of the Fall 2023 sequence of Inside the Writers House, when Writers House instructor Alex Dawson talks with acclaimed Irish author Deirdre Sullivan, Irish Children's Laureate Patricia Forde, and Man Booker Prize longlisted author Sam Thompson, all over from the Emerald Island, about the ways in which legends and landscape influence their work.
Plus talking foxes, a witch who turns kids into swans, and what if the world only knew five hundred words? Books on sale at the event.
Recently named the Children's Laureate of Ireland, PATRICIA FORDE lives in Galway, where she writes for all ages in Irish and in English. She has published more than 20 titles, including her award-winning first novel, The Wordsmith (The List in the US), which Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) called "the fantasy book of the year." In another life, she was the artistic director of Galway’s famous International Arts Festival. .
DEIRDRE SULLIVAN has written seven acclaimed books for young adults, including Savage Her Reply and Tangleweed and Brine, a collection of feminist retellings of classic fairytales which won the Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Award in 2018 (and Young Adult Book of the Year in 2017). She lives in Galway.
SAM THOMPSON's debut, Communion Town, was longlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize. His third book Wolfstongue was chosen as a 2023 Outstanding International Book by the US Board on Books for Young People, and the Times called it the "best animal adventure since Watership Down." Wolfstongue's new sequel, The Fox’s Tower, was recently longlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award. Piers Torday, author of the Last Wild trilogy called him "a visionary genius." He grew up in the south of England, but now lives in Belfast, where he teaches creative writing at Queen’s University.