Fiction on the Rails Madeleine D’Arcy, Laura McKenna and Danielle McLaughlin

In Partnership with Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail

All aboard the Dublin Book Festival book train from Cork to Dublin! Cork Stories (Doire Press), edited by Madeleine D’Arcy and Laura McKenna, is a collection of short fiction set throughout Cork by writers who live or have lived there. Join the editors, and contributor Danielle McLaughlin, for this unique reading and writing train journey. Enjoy readings from Cork Stories by your hosts, some silent reading of your own choice, then follow the prompts to write your own story!

Participants should bring a book of their own choosing for the silent reading part of the event, a notebook, a pen and their imaginations!

This event will take place on the 10.25am Cork – Heuston Train on Saturday 9th November in a reserved carriage. The ticket will also include free entry to the Dublin City Libraries Readers’ Day event at the Festival Hub in The Printworks, Dublin Castle (2.30pm – 5.10pm). The ticket includes a return journey from Heuston – Cork on the 7pm train, Saturday 9th November (no event). This is an 18+ event (under 18s can be booked in if travelling with an adult).

Madeleine D’Arcy is a fiction writer based in Cork City. Her début short story collection, Waiting for the Bullet (Doire Press, 2014), was awarded the Edge Hill Readers’ Choice Prize (UK). Her second collection, Liberty Terrace (Doire Press, 2021), won a FAPA President’s Prize (US) and was chosen as Cork’s One City, One Book 2023. Literary awards include the Hennessy Award for First Fiction and the overall Hennessy Award for New Irish Writer. Madeleine’s work has also been translated into Turkish, Serbian, French and German. She has been granted residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Heinrich Böll Cottage and Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. Madeleine co-curated Fiction at the Friary with Danielle McLaughlin from 2017 – 2022. She also co-edited the anthology Cork Stories (Doire Press, 2024) with Laura McKenna. She gratefully acknowledges support from the Arts Council of Ireland, Cork City Council and Culture Ireland.

Laura McKenna writes poetry and fiction. Her debut novel, Words to Shape My Name (New Island, 2021) was a winner at the 2020 Novel Fair, and shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award. Laura has a PhD in creative writing from UCC. She is the recipient of Tyrone Guthrie, Cork County Council, John Montague Mentorship and Arts Council bursaries. Twice nominated for a Hennessy Literary Award, Laura was chosen for the 2021 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. Her short fiction has been published in Banshee, Southword, and in the Litro Anthology of New Fiction. She co-edited Cork Stories anthology with Madeleine D’Arcy (Doire Press, 2024) and is currently working on her second novel and a poetry collection. Laura teaches Medical Humanities in University College Cork.

Danielle McLaughlin’s short story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets was published in 2015 by The Stinging Fly Press. In 2019, she was a Windham-Campbell Prize recipient, and won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. Her first novel, The Art of Falling, was published in 2021 by John Murray and was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2022. In 2023 she was a recipient of a Markievicz Award.