WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020 6:30PM

Online event.

THE WORD, a reading series hosted by Sligo Library Service and the Writing + Literature BA course at IT Sligo, returns this year with one of Ireland’s greatest living writers, CLAIRE KEEGAN.

Claire Keegan’s debut collection of stories, Antarctica, was a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. The Observer called these stories: ‘Among the finest recently written in English’. It was also awarded the William Trevor Prize, judged by William Trevor.

In 2007, her second collection, Walk the Blue Fields, was published to huge critical acclaim and went on to win The Edge Hill Prize for the strongest collection published in The British Isles. The prize was adjudicated by Hilary Mantel.

Foster (2010) won The Davy Byrnes Award, then the world’s richest prize for a story. It judged by Richard Ford: “Keegan is a rarity-someone I will always want to read’.”

Keegan’s stories are published in English by Faber & Faber, have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, Best American Stories, won numerous awards – and are translated into 17 languages. She is internationally renowned as a teacher of creative writing.

‘The best stories here are so textured and moving, so universal but utterly distinctive, that it’s easy to imagine readers savouring them many years from now and to imagine critics, far in the future, deploying lofty new terms to explain what it is that makes Keegan’s fiction work’ –The New York Times (Walk the Blue Fields review)

The readings will be interwoven with music and song by Collette Sheerin.

There will be a discussion following the reading facilitated by writer/artist and IT Sligo Lecturer, Alice Lyons. The popular open mic session will follow the post-reading interview.

Open Mic

The Open Mic will be Limited to five attendees of the ZOOM event, with three minutes per person. If you are interested in performing in the Open Mic, you must request interest when booking your ticket, though this does not guarantee you will be reading. The first five people who express an interest, will be notified in advance of the event.

This event will be Streamed on Facebook on the night.

The Word is a collaboration between Sligo Central Library and the BA in Writing & Literature at IT Sligo. There is no charge for this event.

sligolib@sligococo.ie/ 0719111675