DBF at Cheltenham Literature Festival

Dublin Book Festival are thrilled to announce we will be partnering with Cheltenham Literature Festival this year to bring a little bit of Dublin to the Cotswolds. “Roddy Doyle’s Next Generation of Irish Writers” will take place on Wednesday 12th October at Cheltenham Literature Festival and will highlight some of the most exciting emerging Irish writers.  

Roddy Doyle, one of our most popular and acclaimed voices, will host a panel of exciting new Irish writers including Suad Aldarra, Niall Bourke and Aingeala Flannery. Suad Aldarra is the author of a powerful memoir about her ten-year search for belonging after leaving Syria I Don’t Want to Talk about Home (Penguin); poet and author of the novel Line (Tramp Press) described as ‘A Grapes of Wrath for the [digital] age’ Niall Bourke, and Aingeala Flannery, whose novel The Amusements (Penguin) is a luminous story of small-town communities and roads not taken.

Cheltenham Literature Festival takes place on 7th – 16th October 2022. Cheltenham was the world’s first literature Festival, leading the way in celebrating the written and spoken word, presenting the best new voices in fiction and poetry alongside literary greats and high-profile speakers. The impressive 10 day programme is a mixture of ticketed events, free family activities and events and fringe events scattered throughout the regency town. 

“Roddy Doyle’s Next Generation of Irish Writers” event has been made possible with the support of Culture Ireland funding. 

Full Cheltenham Literature Festival programme is available HERE 

“Roddy Doyle’s Next Generation of Irish Writers” event has been made possible with the support of Culture Ireland funding and development work from Publishing Ireland.

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of eleven acclaimed novels including The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van, Smile and Love, two collections of short stories, and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Aingeala Flannery is an award-winning broadcaster and journalist. She has completed an MFA in Creative Writing at University College Dublin. Her short story ‘Visiting Hours‘ was the winner of the 2019 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Competition. In 2020, she was awarded a literary bursary by the Arts Council of Ireland, and her work has appeared in The Bath Anthology and been broadcast on RTÉ Radio One. She lives in Dublin. The Amusements is her first book.

Suad Aldarra is a writer and data scientist based in Dublin. She was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Syrian parents. In 2003 she moved back to her family home in Syria to study software engineering. After fleeing the war in 2012 she lived in Egypt and the US, before eventually settling in Ireland. In 2021, Suad was awarded the Art Councils of Ireland English Literature bursary. I Don’t Want to Talk About Home is her debut memoir.

Niall Bourke is a writer and a teacher. His work has been published widely in magazines and journals in Ireland and the UK, and his poems and stories have been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Costa Short Story Award and the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award. He lives in South London with his partner, his daughter, his son and his cat.