DBF After Dark

You spin me round (PVA) is an illuminating collection of essays, a mixtape that takes elements of music – songs, performances, albums, gigs – as points of departure. Some of today’s finest writers reflect on what music has meant to them at different moments in their lives. Immerse yourself in an evening of conversation and […]

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Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi and Páraic Kerrigan join writer Aoife Martin in conversation about their writing, and the challenges and obstacles faced by writers from minority groups when writing and publishing with mainstream press. Enyi-Amadi, a commissioned poet on the Poetry as Commemoration project, is also a published writer, editor, arts facilitator, and cultural consultant. Kerrigan’s Reeling […]

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In Dear Orson Welles & Other Essays (The Irish Pages Press), acclaimed director and writer Mark Cousins reflects on his prolific career in filmmaking, meditating on the philosophers, writers, actors and films that have influenced him. The essays are in conversation with iconic artistic figures including Orson Welles and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Join Mark in […]

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Seán Ó Riada (1931-’71), amongst his achievements, is credited as having revived Irish music, both drawing from tradition and through great innovation, along with his band Ceoltóirí Chualann. In Ceoltóirí Chualann: The Band that Changed the Course of Irish Music (Mercier Press), composer, musician, choir director and broadcaster Peadar Ó Riada charts the band’s history, […]

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Two historical fictions shining a light on two captivating women. Martina Devlin’s Charlotte (The Lilliput Press) is a story of Charlotte Brontë’s short but pivotal time in Ireland as never before told, bound by passion and obsession, friendship and loss, loyalty and deception. Nuala O’Connor’s Seaborne (New Island) is an intimate and thrilling portrayal of […]

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Presented in association with Dublin Book Festival, Introductions | Céadlínte is a Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann  showcase of 16 of the most exciting new poets writing in English and Irish on the island of Ireland today. The poets were selected by Stephen Sexton and Aifric MacAodha. We’ll have a musical guest along on the night. Introductions […]

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What story would you tell people if asked to deliver your best? What yarn or anecdote from your own life are you certain would captivate an audience? Join Holy Show’s Brendan MacEvilly and Peter McNamara as they invite three writers to tell their greatest true story in roughly 5 minutes (one they’d probably never commit […]

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Arts journalist Pat Carty is joined by some of Ireland’s most exciting emerging authors. Anna Fitzgerald’s Girl in the Making (Sandycove) is a deeply moving story capturing the dreams and terrors of girlhood in a difficult world. Alan Murrin’s The Coast Road (Bloomsbury) is a brilliantly observed novel about a closed rural community and the […]

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Join us for a series of readings from the Festival’s Foundation writers, a programme led by the Irish Writers Centre. Come along and discover some incredible new voices in Ireland’s literary scene! The six emerging writers who will take to the stage are Aoife Horan, Declan Jones, Clíona Malin, Catriona Murphy, Ifunanya Ogochukwu and Khaled […]

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Your Own Dark Shadow: A Selection of Lost Irish Horror Stories (Tramp Press) is the latest in the press’s popular and influential Recovered Voices series. Monsters, killers and unquiet spirits stalk these stories, drawn from the places where folklore, the Gothic and modern fiction intertwine. Join writer, and the book’s editor, Jack Fennell to celebrate […]

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The Last Disco (Eriu) by Sean Murray, Christine Bohan, and Nicky Ryan is the harrowing story of the 1981 Stardust nightclub fire that claimed the lives of 48 young people. Meticulously researched and citing startling evidence brought forward at the recent inquests, this poignant book honours the memories of those who were lost, while shedding […]

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This year, to mark the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is proud to dedicate our Dublin Book Festival event to our first Honorary Member, Kurdish poet İlhan Sami Çomak, one of Turkey’s longest-serving political prisoners. Joining us will be: Paula Meehan, poet; Caroline Stockford, PEN Norway, İlhan’s friend and translator; Ipek […]

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