DBF After Dark Festival Club: Echoes on the Page Anna Carey, Brendan Mac Evilly and Maggie Armstrong in conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea

Immerse yourself in an evening of artforms at our DBF After Dark Festival Club, where we’ll be exploring books inspired by music, art and film. Anna Carey’s Our Song (Hachette) is a story of second chances, and following dreams. Brendan Mac Evilly’s novel Deep Burn (Marrowbone Books) explores the seductive and devastating power of art, fame, and obsession. Maggie Armstrong is a contributor to In the good seats (PVA), a vibrant collection of essays celebrating love of film and cinema. The authors join culture critic Tony Clayton-Lea in conversation. 

Please note this is an 18+ event.

© Frank Smith

Maggie Armstrong’s debut, Old Romantics, was published last year by Tramp Press and Biblioasis. It has been shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and for the Kate O’Brien Award. Her fiction, essays and journalism have appeared in the Dublin Review, Stinging Fly, Banshee, and the Irish Times. She lives in Dublin. 

© Bríd O’Donovan

Anna Carey is an Irish Book Award-winning novelist, journalist, editor and scriptwriter who spent her teens and twenties playing in bands. She is the author of seven acclaimed novels for young adults. Her debut novel The Real Rebecca won the Senior Children’s Book of the Year prize at the 2011 Irish Book Awards and The Boldness of Betty was shortlisted for the same award in 2020. Her drama podcast The Famine Monologues was released by RTÉ in 2021 and her play The Making of Mollie was staged in 2024 at the Ark Children’s Cultural Centre. Our Song is her first book for adults.

© Birgit Jung

Brendan Mac Evilly is the author of At Swim: A Book About the Sea, and his debut novel, Deep Burn, published this year. His fiction and non-fiction has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Channel, the Honest Ulsterman, the Guardian, the Irish Times, and Sunday Times. He is director and co-editor of Holy Show, an annual arts journal and production company. He is the 2024/25 Emerging Curator in Development at Kilkenny Arts Office. Brendan was born and lives in Dublin. 

Tony Clayton-Lea is an Irish-based freelance journalist/writer/editor who writes on music, arts, and pop culture for a variety of publications, but mostly for The Irish Times, specifically its Arts pages and its weekly culture magazine, The Ticket. Tony also contributes to the arts pages ofThe Irish Post.