Dublin Review Conversations: The Essay Clinic Sam Bungey, Brenda Romero and Jessica Traynor in conversation with Brendan Barrington

The Dublin Review asked three brilliant contributors – Sam Bungey, Brenda Romero and Jessica Traynor – to choose an essay they especially love from the journal’s nearly twenty-four years of publishing. In this year’s Dublin Review Conversations event, the three will talk about what they love about these essays, how they relate to their own work, and what they tell us about the art and craft of essay writing. The chosen essays will be available to read at thedublinreview.com.

Sam Bungey is a British writer, journalist and podcaster. With his partner Jennifer Forde, he produced and hosted the Audible Original Series, West Cork. Sam’s journalism has appeared in the Sunday Business Post, The Guardian, The Daily Beast and elsewhere. He started his career in Dublin with a national monthly magazine, Mongrel, and later launched the narrative journalism site, The Racket. He was staff reporter at the Vineyard Gazette in Massachusetts and was deputy editor of Australian news site, The Global Mail. 

Brenda Romero is an award-winning game designer and artist whose work has appeared in The Dublin Review, TOLKA, and The Stinging Fly. In addition, she has co-authored three books on game design with Ian Schreiber.  Romero is CEO and co-founder of Romero Games, based in Galway. In 2017, she was awarded a BAFTA in recognition of her creative contribution to the games industry.

© Ruth Medjber

Jessica Traynor is a poet, critic, editor and essayist. Her third poetry collection Pit Lullabies was published in 2022. Her next collection New Arcana will be published by Bloodaxe Books in 2025. Jessica’s essays and articles have appeared in The Dublin Review, The Guardian, The Irish Times, The Dial, The Stinging Fly, Tolka, and Running feet, sharp noses from PVA. She is the 2024 recipient of the Tundish Award from Field Day for contributions to the arts in Ireland and the 2023 recipient of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry.

Brendan Barrington is editor of The Dublin Review and an editor at Sandycove, an imprint of Penguin Random House.