We teased the 12th annual Kildare Readers Festival over the past weekend with a preview of the live events that will be in Riverbank Arts Centre. The committee have put together a stellar line up for you, with a mixture of limited live, in-person events and live online events with bigger capacity. The live and online portion of the events will include authors such as bestselling debut Louise Nealon and One Book One Year sensation Ronan Hession, online writing workshops, award presentations and events celebrating non-fiction publishing including the breathtaking Old Ireland in Colour 2 and the raw and brave Unsettled by Rosaleen McDonagh. Below is a preview of the first third of these events, including authors of fiction and poetry.
Sophie White in conversation with Margaret Scott,
October 4th at 8pm on Zoom
Sophie White, author of recently published Corpsing, is a writer and podcaster. Her first three books, Recipes for a Nervous Breakdown (Gill 2016), Filter This (Hachette, 2019) and Unfiltered (Hachette, 2020) have been bestsellers and award nominees.
Sophie will be interviewed by Margaret Scott, the Kildare-based author of two bestselling novels – Between You and Me, and The Fallout.
Booking Through Eventbrite.
Mantles: Heritage, Place and Collaboration
October 5th at 2pm on Zoom
Facilitated by Clodagh Doyle (Keeper, Irish Folklife Division, National Museum of Ireland), artist Margo McNulty and writer Shauna Gilligan will revisit their work on Bridget in the light of what the other has created – thereby having art and writing re-ignite and complete the process.
Viewers will gain a unique insight into the creation of McNulty’s images and Gilligan’s writing as well as a chance to discuss their process of collaboration and their extensive research for Mantles, funded by Creative Ireland (Kildare and Roscommon County Councils).
This one-hour session will be recorded live at the Riverbank Theatre, Newbridge as part of the 2021 Kildare Readers Festival. The pre-recording of this discussion will be available exclusive to those booked in through Eventbrite.
States of Flux – Ways of Writing Poetry,
October 6th at 8pm on Eventbrite Live VIA Vimeo
Join Ellen Dillon, Kit Fryatt and Dimitra Xidous as they each present one of their recent poems and discuss inspirations, raw material and references, drafts and rewrites, practical and publication concerns, its place within their overall work and interests, and other elements framing their compositional decisions. Linked by fresh and innovative approaches to making poetry, and by operating in modes of linguistic, cultural, formal, and other states of flux, these three poets promise to provoke rich cross-commentary towards elucidating and demystifying aspects of contemporary poetic practice.
Devised, programmed and hosted by Christodoulos Makris. The pre-recording of this discussion will be available exclusive to those booked in through Eventbrite.
Deirdre O’Sullivan in conversation with Moïra Fowley,
October 7th at 8pm on Zoom
Join author Deirdre Sullivan on Zoom as she discusses her new collection of short stories I Want To Know That I Will be Okay with fellow author Moïra Fowley. In this dark, glittering collection of short stories, Deirdre Sullivan explores the trauma and power that reside in women’s bodies. With empathy and invention, Sullivan effortlessly blends genres in stories that are by turns strange and exquisite.
Deirdre Sullivan is a writer and teacher from Galway. She has written seven acclaimed books for young adults, including  Savage Her Reply (Little Island 2020), Perfectly Preventable Deaths (Hot Key Books 2019), and Tangleweed and Brine (Little Island 2017). She is a recipient of the CBI Book of the Year Award and An Post Irish Book Award for YA. Her short fiction has appeared in Banshee and The Dublin Review. I Want to Know That I Will Be Okay is her first book for adults.
Moïra Fowley is the author of three critically acclaimed YA novels – The Accident Season (2015), Spellbook of the Lost and Found (2017), and All the Bad Apples (2019) – and a part time witch. She is half-French and half-Irish and lives in Dublin where she writes queer magic realism, reads tarot cards and raises witch babies.
Booking through Eventbrite.
Kildare Debuts: Louise Nealon and FÃona Scarlett in conversation
with Eoghan Smith, October 8th at 8pm on Zoom
2021 saw the publication of the debut novels of two Kildare-based authors, Snowflake by Louise Nealon and Boys Don’t Cry by FÃona Scarlett to much critical acclaim. They will be interviewed by writer, critic and academic Eoghan Smith.
There will be a preview of more of these live online events over the next few days, so stay tuned for that!
Keep an eye on our social media and the website for more events while tickets for the above events will be through Eventbrite.
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