I’ll be chairing 3 events at the Cork International Short Story Festival. This will be my third year in a row taking part in the festival and I love it. Like…really love it. It’s run by Pat Cotter – a poet, literary programmer, short story powerhouse and an utter gentleman, for whom my respect and affection grows each year. I love the city too. I’ve also been back there for the World Book Festival the last couple of years – with a scoot down to West Cork Fetsival this year too.

This year I’m looking catch up with Lucy Caldwell. I’ve interviewed Lucy Caldwell a number of times in print, she has interviewed me, I’ve read with her and sat on a panel together but this will be the first time I’ve interviewed Lucy in public. I’ll be meeting Gerard Woodward, Alan Heathcock, Sinead Gleeson, Claire-Louise Bennett and David Parks for the first time.

Here are the events I’ll be chairing in order.

1. Readings by Gerard Woodward & Alan Heathcock

8th September at 8.30pm Firkin Crane Theatre, Shandon Admission: €5

Gerard Woodward is the author of a number of novels, including Vanishing and an acclaimed trilogy comprising August (shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread First Novel Award), I’ll Go to Bed at Noon (shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize) and A Curious Earth. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Alan Heathcock’s fiction has been published in many of America’s top journals. His stories have won the National Magazine Award in fiction, and have been selected for inclusion in The Best American Mystery Stories anthology. Volt (Graywolf Press), a collection of stories, was a Best Book 2011 selection from numerous newspapers and magazines.

2. Sinéad Gleeson & Claire-Louise Bennett

9th September at 7pm
Firkin Crane Theatre, Shandon
Admission: €5

Sinéad Gleeson is a writer, editor, freelance broadcaster and journalist. An essay, ‘Hair’, was published in Banshee, and Granta published an essay online, ‘Blue Hills and Chalk Bones’. ‘Fathoms’, a 500-word flash fiction story was highly commended at the Dromineer Literary Festival and Sinéad was also shortlisted for the 2016 Fish Memoir Prize.

Claire-Louise Bennett’s short fiction and essays have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Penny Dreadful, The Moth, Colony, The Irish Times, The White Review and gorse. She was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize. Pond (Stinging Fly Press) is her first collection of stories.

3. Readings by Lucy Caldwell & David Park

9th September at 8.30pm Firkin Crane Theatre, Shandon Admission: €5

Lucy Caldwell has won multiple awards including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her most recent novel, All the Beggars Riding, was chosen for Belfast’s One City One Book campaign in 2013 and shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year. Her short story collection, Multitudes, was published this year.

David Park’s books include The Light of Amsterdam and The Poets’ Wives, among others. He has won the Authors’ Club First Novel Award, the Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize and the University of Ulster’s McCrea Literary Award, three times. His short story collection, Gods and Angels, was published this year by Bloomsbury.

Plenty of other events including John Boyne, Mary Morrissy, Donal Ryan, Joanna Walsh and Neil Jordan. Check it out here

Hope to see some of you there.