FICTION AT THE FRIARY AND ON CAMPUS

The featured author on campus is Eimear Ryan, who reads in the Boole Library. Eimear is from Tipperary, lives in Cork City and works at UCC. Her writing has appeared in Winter Papers, Granta.com, The Dublin Review, gorse, The Stinging Fly and the anthologies Town & Country (Faber) and The Long Gaze Back(New Island). She is co-editor of the literary journal Banshee. She has won a Hennessy First Fiction Award. Her debut novel, Holding Her Breath, will be published in June 2021.

The guest author at Fiction at the Friary is crime writer Andrea Carter. Andrea grew up in Laois and studied law at Trinity College Dublin, before moving to the Inishowen peninsula in Co. Donegal where she ran the most northerly solicitors’ practice in the country. In 2006 she returned to Dublin to work as a barrister before turning to write crime novels. She is the author of the Inishowen Mysteries, most recently The Well of Ice and Murder at Greysbridge. Her books are published by Little, Brown in the UK, Goldmann Verlag in Germany, Oceanview in the US and will shortly be adapted for television.

The open mic readers are Susan Lanigan, Mona Lynch and Elaine Desmond.

This programme features Danielle McLaughlin on campus, in the Observatory. Danielle is the author of the short story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets. She was UCC Writer-in-Residence from 2018 to 2019. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker,  Irish Times,  The Stinging Fly and various anthologies. She has won the Windham Campbell Prize, the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Competition, the Willesden Short Story Prize, the Merriman Short Story Competition and the Dromineer Literary Festival short story competition. Her debut novel, The Art of Falling, will be published in January 2021.

The guest author at Fiction at the Friary is Neil Hegarty. Neil was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. His debut novel, Inch Levels, published in 2016, was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award. Here he reads from his most recent novel, The Jewel, published in 2019. Other books by Neil include: Frost, The Life That Was (WH Allen), the authorised biography of Sir David Frost. He also writes essays and short stories.

The open mic readers are Niamh Bagnell, John Mee and Lourdes Mackey.

This programme features Madeleine D’Arcy on campus, in the old College Bar before it was converted into a sensory-sensitive space for autistic college students. Madeleine holds an MA in Creative Writing from UCC. Her début short story collection, Waiting For The Bullet won the Edge Hill Readers’ Choice Prize 2015. In 2010 she received a Hennessy Literary Award for First Fiction and the overall Hennessy Literary Award for New Irish Writer. Here she reads from her latest work, Feeling Savage, a novel set mainly in Cork and London in the 1980’s. Her second collection of short stories, Liberty Terrace, is scheduled for publication in 2021.

The guest author at Fiction at the Friary is Elizabeth Reapy, an Irish writer who was UNESCO City of Literature Writer-in-Residence in Dublin from 2017 to 2018. She was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2017 and in 2016 she won Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year at the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards for her debut novel Red Dirt. She reads from her second novel, Skin, published in 2019.

The open mic readers are Deirdre Kingston and Kevin Power.

This programme features Sarah Harte on campus, in the Aula Maxima. Sarah holds a BCL in Law and French from UCC. In 2019, she won the Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award. Sarah is also the author of two commercially successful novels, The Better Half and Thick and Thin, published respectively in 2011 and 2013 by Penguin Ireland. She is currently finishing her first collection of short stories and working on a novel.

The guest author at Fiction at the Friary is Dr Eibhear Walshe, Director of Creative Writing in the School of English at UCC.  His novels include The Diary of Mary Travers, published in 2014, The Trumpet Shall Sound, published in 2019, and The Last Day in Bowen’s Court, published in 2020. Here he reads from The Trumpet Shall Sound, which was inspired by the life of Handel.

The Open Mic readers are Mary Rose McCarthy and Kate Barry.

This programme features Catherine Kirwan on campus. Catherine studied Law at UCC and is a practicing solicitor. Her debut crime novel, Darkest Truth, was published in 2019. Here she reads inside An Bothán, a replica of a mud cabin which stood near the clock tower of the main quadrangle in UCC from May 2018 until May 2020. This type of dwelling was categorised in the census of 1841 as 'a single room cabin built of organic material' and reflected the horrible and all too common living conditions in which Irish people lived, suffered, and died during the Famine.

The guest author at Fiction at the Friary is Anne Griffin, whose debut novel, When All Is Said, was a number 1 Irish bestseller and won the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award at An Post Irish Book Awards 2019. Anne also won the John McGahern Award for Literature. When All Is Said has been published in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and will publish in sixteen foreign languages.

The Open Mic readers are Noelle Kelly-Trindles and Brian Keane.

This programme features William Wall on campus, reading in the Glucksman Gallery. William Wall is a multi-award-winning poet, novelist and short story writer. In 2017, he became the first European writer to win the Drue Heinz Prize for Literature. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from UCC, the first doctorate of its kind ever awarded in Ireland. His published works include No Paradiso, This is the Country (listed for the Booker Prize), The Map of Tenderness, Minding Children, Grace’s Day, Hearing Voices, Seeing Things, Suzy, Suzy and The Islands.

The Guest Author at Fiction at the Friary is Elizabeth Rose Murray, originally from the UK, now living in West Cork. Elizabeth writes novels for children and young adults as well as short fiction and personal essays.  Her books include The Book of Learning – Nine Lives Trilogy 1, The Book of Shadows – Nine Lives Trilogy 2, The Book of Revenge – Nine Lives Trilogy 3 (2018) and Caramel Hearts (2016).

The Open Mic readers are Deirdre Crowley and Mary O’Connell.

This programme features Tadhg Coakley on campus, at the Mardyke Sports Ground. Tadhg completed an MA in Creative Writing at UCC in 2015. His first book, The Last Sunday in September, a novel in stories, was published in 2018. His crime novel, Whatever It Takes, was published in 2020 and chosen as the 2020 Cork One City One Book. He has also ghost-written a sporting memoir, Everything, The Autobiography of Denis Coughlan.

The guest author at Fiction at the Friary is Ethel Rohan, an award-winning novelist and short story writer. Raised in Ireland, she lives in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Irish Times, The Lonely Crowd, Banshee Lit, The Stinging Fly, and elsewhere. Her debut novel The Weight of Him, was published in 2017. Her third short story collection, In the Event of Contact, won the Dzanc Prize in 2020 and is scheduled for publication in 2021.

The Open Mic readers are Fiona Whyte and Lisa Sedgewick.

This programme features Mary Morrissy on campus, in the Cavanagh Pharmacy Building. FormerlyAssociate Director in the School of English at UCC, Mary is an award-winning Irish novelist and short story writer. She is the author of three novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender and The Rising of Bella Casey, and two collections of short stories, A Lazy Eye and Prosperity Drive. Here, she reads from her latest work, a speculative novel about Nora Barnacle.

The guest author at Fiction at the Friary is John O’Donnell, award-winning poet and fiction writer. He reads from his debut short story collection, Almost the Same Blue, published by Doire Press in 2019.

The Open Mic reader is Donal Moloney.

This programme features Conal Creedon on Campus in the O’Rahilly Building. Conal is an internationally renowned Cork novelist, short story writer, playwright and broadcaster. He was writer in residence at UCC from 2016 to 2017. In 2018 he was appointed Adjunct Professor. His most recent novel is Begotten, Not Made(2018).

Niamh Boyce is the featured guest author at Fiction at the Friary. Niamh won the 2012 Hennessy New Writer of the Year Award and Emerging Poetry Award. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2013 for her debut novel The Herbalist. Here she reads from her second novel Her Kind, which tells the story of Ireland’s first witchcraft trial.

The Open Mic readers are Conor McManus, Oonagh Montague and Laura McKenna.