I got lots of reading in during maternity leave, thanks to a lot of night feeds and discovering how useful a backlit iPad is as a Kindle!
And I’m looking forward to meeting some authors (and you, I hope!) at exciting events over the next few months.
Next month I’m at the West Cork Literary Festival where I’ll be interviewing:
- Mary Robinson on her campaigning series of stories of real people fighting climate change Climate Justice
- Sarah Breen & Emer McLysaght about the upcoming third book in their warm, fun Aisling series #OMGWACA
- Catherine Kirwan & Catherine Ryan Howard about their page-turning Cork-located thrillers
- Joseph O’Connor & Paraic O’Donnell about their new historical novels set in Victorian London
In October, I’m looking forward to the Waterford Writers’ Weekend, where I’ll be interviewing :
- Jan Carson
- Wendy Erskine
- Shannon Yii
They have all contributed to the anthology Belfast Stories published by Doire Press. I’ve just started reading this and it’s wonderful. Whimsical and dark and so varied. I want to go to Belfast now to see how it colours my perspective. Also, where is the Cork edition please?!
One City, One Book
I’ve also just been asked to host an event for the One City, One Book programme for Cork this year and I am super excited. The books featured in previous years are Frank O’Connor’s An Only Child, Billy O’Callaghan’s The thing you lose the things you leave behind and Gold boy emerald girl by Yiyun Li, and this year’s choice is fantastic. It’s a thriller but it’s also a bit of a love letter to Cork.