Bray Literary Festival 2020

is made possible through the generous

support of our sponsors.

THURSDAY 17th SEPT, 20:00, €12/10

MERMAID ARTS CENTRE, BRAY

Bray Literary Festival 2020, in association with

Dublin One City One Book, is delighted to present

an evening of readings and discussions.

Join award-winning authors Christine Dwyer Hickey (Tatty,

The Narrow Land) and Billy O’Callaghan (My Coney Island

Baby, The Boatman) for a lively evening in conversation

with Dermot Bolger (The Journey Home, Tanglewood).

Filmed in front of a live audience in the Mermaid on Sept

17th, this event will be broadcast on Sunday 27th at 20:00

FRIDAY 18th SEPT, 19.30 CUTLTURE NIGHT

Bray Literary Festival, in association with Culture Night

Wicklow, present an evening of poetry, stories and song.

Popular Dublin-based poets Anne Tannam, Mark Ward, Fióna Bolger and Grace Wilentz will mount a lively verse round-robin, while music will be provided by feisty singer/songwriter BeRn. We’ll also hear the winning poems and stories from our Bray Literary Festival competitions, along with readings from the Glencree Fighting Words groups. The shortlisted authors of BLF Poetry & Flash Fiction Contests 2020 will read their works prior to the announcement of this year’s winners and runners-up.

Fighting Words provides free tutoring and mentoring

in creative writing and related arts to as many

children, young adults and adults with special needs as

we can reach. Our programmes and workshops are delivered mainly by volunteer writing

tutors. A selection of young readers will read their work at tonight’s event.

http://www.fightingwords.ie/

Friday 25th Sept, 19:30

Join us for the launch of The Music of What Happens (New Island, 2020), an anthology of poetry and prose from more than fifty of

Ireland’s leading writers in aid of Purple House.

The evening will feature an introduction by Purple House founder and director Veronica O’Leary and by anthology editor Tanya Farrelly, with music from local harpist (tba) and readings by: Adam Wyeth; David Butler; Katie Donovan; Mia Gallagher;

Nessa O’Mahony; Lisa Harding; Catherine Ann Cullen; John O’Donnell; and Maurice Devitt.

WRITING HOME ANTHOLOGY

Saturday Sept 26th, 11:30-12:30

Viviana Fiorentino was born in Italy. She lives in

Belfast, teaching Italian Literature and language. In

2019, a selection of poems was published by Dedalus

Press for the anthology Writing Home: the ‘New Irish’

Poets. She published a poetry collection in Italy

(Controluna) and a novel (Transeuropa Publishing

House). In January 2020, she obtained a SIAP to write

a collection of poems on migration.

Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan is a Dublin-based arts

manager and writer from India. She has been

featured on the Moth and Mortified podcasts, with

work aired on NPR and Irish radio. Chandrika was

selected for the Irish writers Centre XBorders

programmes in 2018 and 2020. Her poetry is included

in Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets from Dedalus

Press.

Nidhi Zak/Aria is a poet, pacifist and fabulist. Her

work appears, or is forthcoming, in Banshee, Poetry

Ireland Review, Rattle, The Stinging Fly and Winter

Papers, among others. She is currently co-editing a

commemorative anthology with the Irish Chair of

Poetry, celebrating creative relationships between

established and emerging poets. Her first book of

poetry is forthcoming in Autumn, 2021.

Bray Literary Lecture

Saturday 27th Sept, 13:00-14:00

“THE DREAM THAT WAKES YOU UP”

In this talk, award-winning novelist Paul Lynch will explore the

many guises of the path to creativity.

Paul Lynch is the author of four novels: Red Sky

at Night; Black Snow; Grace and Beyond the

Sea. He has won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of

the Year and France’s booksellers’ prize, Prix

Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel. He has been

shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in the UK,

the William Saroyan International Prize in the

US and France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger,

Prix Littérature-Monde, and the Jean Monnet

Prize for European Literature. Born in Limerick

in 1977, he grew up in Donegal and lives in

Dublin with his wife and two children.

[Photo by Ulf Andersen.]

The Stinging Fly has been working to develop, publish

and promote the very best in new Irish and

International writing since 1997.

SINGING IN THE WILD DARK

Saturday Sept 26th, 14:30-15:30

Jessica Traynor is a poet, dramaturg and creative

writing teacher. Her debut collection, Liffey Swim

(Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the

Strong/Shine Award. Her second collection is The

Quick, an Irish Times poetry choice 2019. Awards

include the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary, the

Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year, and the

2011 Listowel Poetry Prize. She is the 2020 Writer

in Residence in Carlow.

Eleanor Hooker has published two poetry

collections, A Tug of Blue and The Shadow

Owner's Companion (Dedalus Press). Her

collection Mending the Light is due for

publication in 2021. She is working on a novel.

Eleanor holds an MPhil (Distinction) in Creative

Writing from Trinity College, Dublin. She is a

Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. She is a

helm and Press Officer for Lough Derg RNLI.

www.eleanorhooker.com

Leeanne Quinn was born and grew up in Louth. Her debut collection of poetry, Before You, was published by Dedalus Press, 2012. Her second collection, Some Lives, will be published by Dedalus, 2020. Her poems have been widely published in journals and anthologised in Windharp and The Forward Book of Poetry 2013, among others. She holds a PhD in American Literature from Trinity College Dublin. She lives in Munich, Germany.

http://www.eleanorhooker.com/

NORTHERN VOICES

Saturday Sept 26th, 16:00-17:00

Rosemary Jenkinson is a playwright and short

story writer from Belfast. She was 2017 Artist-in-

Residence at the Lyric Theatre and received a

Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts

Council of Northern Ireland, 2019. She was a

recent WriterInTheirResidence with Irish Writers

Centre. Her previous short story collections are

Contemporary Problems Nos. 53 & 54 (Lagan

Press), Aphrodite’s Kiss (Whittrick Press) and

Catholic Boy (Doire Press). Lifestyle Choice 10mg

was published by Doire Press in March, 2020.

Jan Carson’s published work includes a novel,

Malcolm Orange Disappears and short story

collection, Children’s Children, (Liberties Press), and

a micro-fiction collection, Postcard Stories (Emma

Press). Her novel The Fire Starters (Doubleday) won

the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019.

Malachi O’Doherty is a Belfast author. He has nine

published books, mostly non-fiction. His first novel,

Terry Brankin Has a Gun, was released by Merrion

this year. His non-fiction work centres largely on

the Northern Ireland Troubles. His response to

cultural change in Northern Ireland, Fifty Years On,

has been published in paperback by Atlantic.

Malachi lived in India for four years as the disciple

of a Hindu Swami and is working on a memoir of

that experience.

LITERARY SALON

Saturday Sept 26th 17:15-18:30

Co-founder of the Irish Writers’ Co-operative and founder of CUIRT, Fred

Johnston has published three collections of short stories, four novels, and

nine collections of poetry, the most recent Rogue States (Salmon, 2019)

Michael Farry’s latest poetry collection, Troubles (2020), is published by

Revival Press. Previous collections are Asking for Directions (Doghouse

Books, 2012) and The Age of Glass (Revival, 2017). He is a founder member

of Boyne Writers Group.

Jessamine O’Connor lives on the Sligo Roscommon border. She was a

winner of the Poetry Ireland Butlers Café Competition, the iYeats Poetry

Competition, the Francis Ledwidge Award. Her collection, Silver Spoon, is

published by Salmon Poetry, 2020.

John McAuliffe’s fifth book of poetry, The Kabul Olympics (Gallery Press)

has just been published. He works as Professor of Poetry at the University

of Manchester and writes a regular column on poetry for The Irish Times.

ÚnaNíCheallaigh’s poetry has been published in The Irish Times, The North, The Stony Thursday Book, Orbis, Poetry Salzburg and the anthology Washing Windows, (Arlen House). Salamander Crossing was published by Lapwing in 2011. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from UCC.

Olivia Fitzsimons is an IWC Novel Fair winner, 2020. She was an IWC/Cill

Rialaig Writers Residency Recipient in 2019. She featured in the Fiction at

the Friary New Writer Showcase at Cork Short story Festival, 2018, and is

currently working on her debut novel.

‘RODDY & PAUL’ A Northside/Southside Face-Off

Saturday Sept 26th, 20:00

Roddy Doyle has written twelve novels,

including THE SNAPPER, PADDY CLARKE HA HA

HA, THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO DOORS,

SMILE and LOVE, which will be published in

October. He has written two short story

collections, a memoir of his parents, RORY

AND ITA, and he co-wrote THE SECOND HALF

with Roy Keane. He has also written eight

books for children. His most recent screenplay

is ROSIE, directed by Paddy Breathnach. He

lives and works in Dublin

Paul Howard is a multi-award-winning

journalist, author, playwright, comedian and

screenwriter. He is best known as the creator of

Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, a fictional rugby jock

whose exploits have been the subject of 20

satirical novels that have sold more than one

million copies and won three Irish Book

Awards. The latest in the series, 'Braywatch',

will be published in September 2020. He is also

the author of four hugely successful Ross

O’Carroll-Kelly plays, which enjoyed long, sell-

out runs and remounts in Dublin, Cork and

Limerick. He lives in Avoca, County Wicklow.

BRAVE NEW WORDS

Sunday Sept 27th, 11:30-12:30

Pat O’Connor won the Sean O’Faolain International

Short Story Prize, the Glimmertrain Best Start short

story prize (joint), and was shortlisted for the

Francis McManus, Fish, Hennessy, Sean O’Faolain.

His stories are published widely and have been

broadcast on RTE. His radio play This Time It’s

Different was broadcast on 95FM in 2014. His short

story collection People In My Brain was published

by Limerick Writers’ Centre in 2019.

Alice Lyons is a recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh

Award for Poetry (2002) and the inaugural Ireland

Chair of Poetry Bursary awarded by Nuala ní

Dhomhnaill (2004). Her co-directed poetry film, The

Polish Language, was nominated for an IFTA (2010).

Her novel, Oona, was published by Lilliput in April.

From the USA, she has lived 20+ years in the west of

Ireland. She lectures in writing and literature at the

Yeats Academy of Art, Design & Architecture, IT Sligo.

Marianne Lee grew up in Tullamore, Offaly, and lives in

Dublin with her husband. She has a degree in Visual

Communications from the National College of Art and

Design and an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity

College, Dublin. Marianne works as a designer and

copywriter and has published a selection of poetry and

self-recorded an album of music. A Quiet Tide is her first

novel. @ThisMarianneLee mariannelee.ie

DOIRE PRESS 10th Anniversary

Sunday Sept 27th, 13:00-14:00

Linda McKenna was brought up in Kinsealy, County Dublin and lives in Downpatrick. In 2018 she won the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing and the Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition. Her work has also been shortlisted for the 2017 Eyewear Twelve Poems for Christmas competition. In the Museum of Misremembered Things, published by Doire Press, is her debut collection.

Aoife Reilly grew up in Laois and lives in Galway. In 2018 she participated in an international artist-in-residency programme at Officina Stamperia del Notaio, Sicily. She has been shortlisted in many competitions including the Doolin Writer’s Competition and Over the Edge New Writer of the Year (2015 & 2018). Her pamphlet Lilac and Gooseberries was published by Lapwing Press, 2017. Revolutions of Humming Things . is her debut collection.

John Walsh was born in Derry and lived in Germany for sixteen years before settling in Connemara in 1989. He has published three volumes of poetry, most recently, Chopping Wood with T.S. Eliot (Salmon Poetry, 2010). In 2012 he published Border Lines, his debut short-story collection, awarded a publication grant by Galway County Council. He has read at events throughout Ireland, Europe and the States. He is co-director of Doire Press.

ARLEN HOUSE : HER OTHER LANGUAGE

Sunday Sept 27th, 14:30-15:30

Siobhán Campbell’s fourth collection is Heat Signature - ‘a poet who is

invested in words as a powerful social currency.’ (Compass). Previous

books include Cross-Talk (Seren) and The Permanent Wave (Blackstaff).

Siobhan has won the Oxford Brookes International prize as well as

awards in the Troubadour and National Poetry Competitions. She co-

convenes the MA in Creative Writing at The Open University.

Ruth Carr edited The Female Line, Northern Irish Women Writers

(NIWRM, Belfast, 1985). Her poetry collections are: There is a

House and The Airing Cupboard (Summer Palace Press, 1999 & 2008) and

most recently, Feather and Bone (Arlen House, 2018). She has co-curated

the Of Mouth reading series with Natasha Cuddington (below), and

together they co-edited Her Other Language: Northern Irish Women

Writers Address Domestic Violence and Abuse (Arlen House, 2020).

Natasha Cuddington’s translations, essays and reviews have appeared

in When the Neva Rushes Backwards (Lagan: 2014), Cyphers, Poetry

Ireland, Modern Poetry in Translation, Metamorphoses and Irish

Pages. In 2017, she received the Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary. Her

debut collection Each of us (our chronic alphabets) was published by

Arlen House in 2018. With Ruth Carr (above), she co-curated Belfast’s

Of Mouth reading series. Together they co-edited Her Other Language

(see above).

Jo Egan is a playwright and director is the Artistic Director of MACHA

Productions. In 2013 she co-wrote and directed Crimea Square with

Shankill residents. Sweeties premiered at GOH, Belfast (2014).

Madame Geneva, Lyric, Belfast (2017) combined themes of gin,

capitalism and Magdalen Laundries in London in 1758. In 2018, Jo

was Derry Playhouse International Theatre Artist-in-Residence

where she wrote and directed The Crack in Everything. Her play,

Body Politics, was to open in The MAC March 2020. She holds an

MFA in Playwriting (TCD, Lir Academy).

Clare Gallagher is a poet and fiction writer from Derry. She featured in

February’s New Irish Writing in The Irish Times and received the Seamus

Heaney Award for New Irish Writing 2020.

LIT FIX

Sunday Sept 27th, 16:00-17:00

Henrietta McKervey has published four novels. A

Talented Man (2020), a psychological suspense set in

1938 about a disillusioned author and master forger

who discovers an unknown sequel to Bram Stoker’s

classic Dracula; Violet Hill (2018); The Heart of

Everything (2016); and What Becomes Of Us (2015).

She has a Hennessy First Fiction Award and won the

inaugural UCD Maeve Binchy Travel Award. Born in

Belfast, she lives in Dublin.

Alan McMonagle has written for radio and published

two collections of short stories (Psychotic Episodes,

Arlen House, 2013 and Liar, Liar, Wordonthestreet,

2008). Ithaca, his first novel, was published by

Picador in 2017 as part of a two-book deal. His

second novel, Laura Cassidy’s Walk of Fame, was

published in March, 2020. He lives in Galway.

Neil Hegarty grew up in Derry. His novels include The

Jewel and Inch Levels, which was shortlisted for the

Kerry Group Novel of the Year award in 2017. Neil’s

non-fiction titles include Frost: That Was the Life That

Was, a biography of David Frost; and The Story of

Ireland, which accompanies the BBC television history

of Ireland. He is a regular literary reviewer for the

Irish Times. Neil lives in Dublin.

SHORT STORY PANEL

Sunday Sept 27th, 17:30-18:30

Mary Morrissy is the author of three novels,

Mother of Pearl, The Pretender and The Rising of

Bella Casey, and two collections of stories, A

Lazy Eye, and most recently, Prosperity Drive.

Her work has won her the Hennessy Prize and a

Lannan Foundation Award. She has just

completed a speculative novel about Nora

Barnacle. She is Associate Director of Creative

Writing at University College Cork and a member

of Aosdána.

Madeleine D’Arcy’s début short story collection,

Waiting for the Bullet (Doire Press, 2014), won the

Edge Hill Readers’ Choice Prize 2015 (UK). In 2010

she received the Hennessey Literary Award for First

Fiction and New Irish Writer. Her second short story

collection is forthcoming in 2021. She holds an MA

in Creative Writing from UCC and recently

completed a novel. With Danielle McLaughlin, she

co-hosts Fiction at the Friary in Cork city.

Tadhg Coakley’s novel in stories, The First Sunday in

September, was published in 2018. Donal Ryan

described it as ‘vibrant and authentic, brimming with

intensity and desire’. Coakley’s second book,

Whatever It Takes is a crime novel set in Cork city and

was published in July, 2020. His short stories, articles,

sports writing and essays are widely published. He is

a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at UCC.

www.tadhgcoakley.com

http://www.tadhgcoakley.com/

SUNDAY 27th SEPT, 20:00

BLF 2020 Closing Event

Bray Literary Festival 2020, in association with

One City One Book, is delighted to present an

evening of readings and discussions.

Join award-winning authors Christine Dwyer Hickey (Tatty,

The Narrow Land) and Billy O’Callaghan (My Coney Island

Baby, The Boatman) for a lively evening in conversation

with Dermot Bolger (The Journey Home, Tanglewood).

Filmed in front of a live audience in the Mermaid on Sept

17th, this event will be broadcast on Sunday 27th at 20:00

Christine Dwyer Hickey & Billy O’Callaghan 20:00

Culture Night: ‘Four Poets Walk into a Bar’ 19:30

Purple House Anthology launch 19:30

Writing Home Anthology 11:30

Stinging Fly Lecture – Paul Lynch 13:00

Singing in the Wild Dark 14:30

Northern Voices 16:00

Literary Salon 17:30

Roddy & Paul 20:00

Brave New Words 11:30

Doire Press 10th 13:00

Her Other Language 14:30

Lit Fix 16:00

Short Story Panel 17:30

Christine Dwyer Hickey & Billy O’Callaghan 20:00