The Art of the Short Story Mary Morrissy and Mary O'Donnell in conversation with Niall MacMonagle

In Partnership with dlr Libraries

As short stories continue to captivate, join us to delve into two striking collections by award-winning novelists. Mary Morrissy’s Twenty-Twenty Vision (The Lilliput Press) is a collection of stories exploring hindsight, honesty and late middle-age regret, with empathy and wry humour. Mary O’Donnell’s Walking Ghosts (Mercier Press) takes us from urban encounters to sun-drenched beaches and beyond, capturing the secret sorrows and resilient hopes of characters caught between who they were and who they might become. Join the authors in conversation with writer and critic Niall MacMonagle.

This event takes place in the Project Room, Level 3, dlr LexIcon

Mary Morrissy is an award-winning Irish novelist (The Hennessy Award, Lannan Foundation Award) and short story writer, the author of four novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender, The Rising of Bella Casey and Penelope Unbound, as well as three collections of short stories, A Lazy Eye, Prosperity Drive, and her latest, Twenty-Twenty Vision. She has 20 years’ experience of teaching creative writing at university level in the US and Ireland. Until May 2020, she was the associate director of creative writing at University College Cork.

Mary O’Donnell is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and poet. She has published the novels The Light Makers, Virgin and the Boy, The Elysium Testament and Where They Lie, as well as three short story collections, Strong Pagans, Storm over Belfast and Empire. She has also published nine poetry collections. Her fiction and poetry are translated to Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, and Italian. A member of Aosdána, she is a creative writing teacher, journalist, and literary mentor. She was born in Monaghan and now lives in Kildare.

Niall MacMonagle, writer and critic, has edited several anthologies including the Lifelines series, TEXT: A Transition Year English Reader, the Poetry Now Leaving Certificate textbooks, Windharp, Poems of Ireland since 1916 and Paul Durcan 80 at 80. He writes a weekly art column for the Sunday Independent and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by UCD for services to literature.