Rachel English & Sinéad Gleeson

Readings by two acclaimed writers whose most recent books consider the value of art in personal and societal terms.

Female characters attempting to honour their artistic callings in the face of ordinary and extraordinary challenges are central to the latest books by Rachael English and Sinead Gleeson. In the unputdownable and brilliantly crafted Whatever Happened to Birdy Troy? (Hachete), Rachael English charts the fate of a high spirited Limerick band whose enigmatic footnote in the annals of Irish rocks music attains an unexpected longevity long after fate has torn them apart. In Hagstone (4th Estate), Sinead Gleeson's hotly anticipated debut novel, ecology, art, ritual, landscape, and a search for connection in extremis are fused in a lyrical and panoramic story that tests the values of solitude and community, digs deep for a viewpoint to balance the confusion of contemporary life, and finds in the roar of the ocean a basis of hope. This reading event will include a Q&A, with audience participation encouraged.

More about Rachael English

Rachael English is the author of seven novels. Her most recent, Whatever Happened to Birdy Troy? (Hachete), tells the story of an all-woman rock band in 1980s Ireland. Widely translated, her other novels include the number one bestsellers The Letter Home and The American Girl. Originally from Shannon in County Clare, she studied Communications at DCU before starting work as a journalist with Clare FM in Ennis. She has worked for RTE for thirty years, covering a great range of national and international stories. Since 2010, she has presented Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1.

More about Sinéad Gleeson

Sinéad Gleeson’s essay collection Constellations: Reflections from Life won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Literary Award for Emerging Writer. She is the editor of four anthologies, including The Art of the Glimpse and the award-winning The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers. She has undertaken a number of major multi-disciplinary collaborations with visual artists

and musicians, including commissions from The Wellcome Collection, BBC and Frieze. In 2021, she worked with composer Stephen Shannon and the artist Aideen Barry on By Slight Ligaments (Limerick City Gallery) and with Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon on The Map / We Are The Map (Rua Red). She is co-editor with Kim Gordon of This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music. Her debut novel, Hagstone, was published in 2024 by 4th Estate.

Listowel Writer's Week: where readers celebrate, and writers find their flow

Listowel Writer's Week is Ireland's oldest literary festival, and one of its most prestigious. Famously hospitable, the beautiful North Kerry town of Listowel is internationally renowned as a wellspring of literary inspiration and heritage. The 2024 Listowel Writer's Week Festival programme, exploring the theme Mother Nature, has been curated by the poet Martin Dyar.

See writersweek.ie for more details and the full 2024 festival programme

Disclaimer. Please be aware that many events at Listowel Writer's Week will be recorded and photographed for promotional and archival purposes. Your presence constitutes consent to be filmed and photographed. Thank you.