2 minutes with…

In his stirring new book Future Wild, nature writer and ecologist Richard Nairn takes us on a journey across Ireland to meet the dedicated individuals fighting to restore the country’s vanishing wilderness. Speaking from his decades of experience in conservation, Nairn shares both sobering truths about habitat loss and inspiring stories of successful restoration […]

2 minutes with… Richard Nairn

Published on 1 November 2024.

Next up in our ‘2 minutes with’ series, we’re delighted to have the chance to chat with internationally acclaimed director and writer, Mark Cousins, ahead of his event with us to discuss his brand new book, Dear Orson Welles & Other Essays; a book which reflects on his prolific career in filmmaking, meditating on […]

2 minutes with… Mark Cousins

Published on 30 October 2024.

Through sharp and funny linked stories, in Old Romantics we follow the life of Margaret as she shows us love at its messiest and most real. The characters lie to themselves and others as they stumble from teenage crushes to the complications of parenthood, making for a read that’s impossible to put down. In […]

2 minutes with… Maggie Armstrong

Published on 25 October 2024.

At Dublin Book Festival, we love to celebrate new voices, emerging writers and debut novelists. Girl in the Making is the story of Jean Kennedy, a gentle, perceptive girl growing up in suburban Dublin in the 1970s and ’80s. This deeply moving story captures the dreams and terrors of girlhood in a difficult world, all […]

2 minutes with… Anna Fitzgerald

Published on 9 October 2024.

Wild-Looking But Fine: Abbey Theatre Actresses of the 1930s traces the lives of Aideen O’Connor and Ria Mooney; from their debuts on the Abbey stage to performing in New York in 1937, and the lives they made for themselves after that tour. Illustrated with captivating original black and white images from the period, the […]

2 minutes with… Ciara O’Dowd

Published on 3 October 2024.

Happy Dublin Book Festival Week! For our final 2 Minutes with Interview of the #DBF23 series we are excited to talk with Dermot Meleady about the relationship between history and media, and how that has changed since 1914. Dermot will be participating in the Shifting Sentiment: Media Influence on Public Opinion event on Sunday […]

2 minutes with… Dermot Meleady

Published on 7 November 2023.

Ahead of the Meet the Publishers event on Saturday November 11th at The Printworks, we got in touch with Aoife K. Walsh, the commissioning editor of New Island Books, to talk about her 3 Top Tips for submitting to publishers. With New Island, Aoife publishes literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry, memoir, biography and more. […]

2 minutes with… Aoife K. Walsh

Published on 3 November 2023.

If you feel overwhelmed by the environmental and sustainability debate, you’re not alone. We recently reached out to Michael Kelly ahead of his event Climate Action: Joining the Fight, part of the Dublin Book Festival Science Week programme, to talk about his experience growing and working in Ireland, and his Grow It Yourself initiative. […]

2 minutes with… Michael Kelly

Published on 1 November 2023.

For this ‘2 minutes with’, we are delighted to have guest blogger Zack, aged 16, putting some questions to Grace and Amy from Paper Lanterns ahead of their online writing workshop for teenagers as part of the #DBF23 programme. *** Paper Lanterns is a teen and young adult literary journal founded in 2020. Grace […]

2 minutes with… Paper Lanterns

Published on 31 October 2023.

The Dublin Book Festival is fast approaching and as a part of our History Programme we are very excited to have the chance to have a chat with Hazel Gaynor about all things historical fiction and her brand new novel, The Last Lifeboat. Hazel is an award-winning, New York Times, USA Today, and Irish […]

2 minutes with… Hazel Gaynor

Published on 26 October 2023.

When artist, photographer and author Gwen Wilkinson embarked on a journey along Ireland’s waterways in a self–built canoe, the book that followed was not only a meditation on her connection with the nature she passed, but also a reflection on the histories of the people and wildlife whose places and spaces she passed along […]

2 minutes with… Gwen Wilkinson

Published on 24 October 2023.

This year at the Dublin Book Festival we are thrilled to yet again be hosting another event with some of Ireland’s most exciting emerging writers. We had the great opportunity to speak with one of these amazing writers, Aoife Fitzpatrick about her debut novel The Red Bird Sings (Virago). Aoife Fitzpatrick is a native […]

2 minutes with… Aoife Fitzpatrick

Published on 19 October 2023.