The Culture File Debate: Wingéd Muses John Banville, Orit Gat, Sara Baume and Paddy Woodworth in conversation with Luke Clancy
In Partnership with RTÉ lyric fm's Culture File
Join broadcaster Luke Clancy for a live recording of RTÉ lyric fm’s The Culture File Debate, as our writers’ panel champions the birds that set their quills aflutter. For the program, writers John Banville, Orit Gat, Sara Baume, and Paddy Woodworth will help us discover how birds—from the resilient pigeon to the enchanted crane—glide through their work.
John Banville, the author of seventeen novels, has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He lives in Dublin.
Sara Baume is the author of three novels, the most recent of which, Seven Steeples, was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and one book of non-fiction, handiwork, which was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. In 2023 she was named one of Granta magazine’s ‘Best Young British Novelists.’ She is based in West Cork where she works also as a visual artist.
Orit Gat is a writer and art critic living in London. Her work on contemporary art, culture and sports has appeared in numerous magazines, including The White Review, frieze and Jacobin. She is currently working on her first book, a memoir about watching football from afar, titled If Anything Happens, which explores questions of immigration, money, belonging, love and loss.
Paddy Woodworth (Bray, 1951) is an author, journalist, lecturer and tour guide. He contributes regularly to The Irish Times on environmental issues, and broadcasts ‘The Naturalist’s Bookshelf’ on Culture File for RTE lyric fm on his favourite nature books. He has published two acclaimed books on the Basque Country. In 2013, he published a study of ecological restoration projects worldwide, and in Ireland, Our Once and Future Planet: Restoring the World in the Climate Change Century (U of Chicago Press). A BioScience reviewer wrote: “Highly readable. This book will bring the concept and application of ecological restoration to a broader audience and will help inspire a new generation of restoration practitioners and researchers”. It includes a chapter on the migration of his favourite bird, the crane. He partners Muhammad Achour on Sanctuary in Nature & Heritage, a project that introduces asylum seekers, refugees and migrants to Irish natural and cultural heritage sites, and offers them opportunities to discuss their own heritages with Irish people.
Luke Clancy runs the independent audio production company, Soundsdoable. Work includes: Soundstories, Words on A Wire, Worksongs, The Five Stages, By The Book, The Wine Geese, Hidden Trees, Designing Ireland, Belfast Songlines, Paradise Blues, Skelligs Calling (with Kevin Brew and Chris Watson) and Lighthouse Stories (with Kevin Brew and Chris Watson). Luke presents the daily RTÉ lyric fm programme, Culture File and its sister program, The Culture File Weekly. His dramas, In Praise of Darkness and The Vision Service were produced by RTÉ Radio 1.