Welcome to the West Cork Literary Festival podcast, your chance to listen back to some of our events from the 2024 festival in our new podcast series.
Now an annual highlight in the Irish literary calendar, the West Cork Literary Festival is a week-long celebration of writing and reading for people of all ages and we support writers at all stages of their careers. From its humble beginnings as a series of casual poetry readings and fringe events around the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, it has expanded into a varied and extensive programme of readings, talks, workshops and family events growing more adventurous and imaginative with each year. The festival has an excellent national and international reputation and we are delighted to bring the finest Irish and international literary figures to West Cork every July - making exceptional talent accessible to local, regional and national audiences.
Mark your calendars and join us in West Cork from 11-18 July 2025. Our 2025 line-up will be released in late March/early April and you can sign up for our newsletter to hear about it first.
Support West Cork Literary Festival
Become a Friend of West Cork Literary Festival to enjoy priority booking for our highly sought-after festival tickets
Visit our festival bookshop Bantry Bookshop
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to the West Cork Literary Festival podcast, your chance to listen back to some of our events from the 2024 festival in our new podcast series.
Now an annual highlight in the Irish literary calendar, the West Cork Literary Festival is a week-long celebration of writing and reading for people of all ages and we support writers at all stages of their careers. From its humble beginnings as a series of casual poetry readings and fringe events around the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, it has expanded into a varied and extensive programme of readings, talks, workshops and family events growing more adventurous and imaginative with each year. The festival has an excellent national and international reputation and we are delighted to bring the finest Irish and international literary figures to West Cork every July - making exceptional talent accessible to local, regional and national audiences.
Mark your calendars and join us in West Cork from 11-18 July 2025. Our 2025 line-up will be released in late March/early April and you can sign up for our newsletter to hear about it first.
Support West Cork Literary Festival
Become a Friend of West Cork Literary Festival to enjoy priority booking for our highly sought-after festival tickets
Visit our festival bookshop Bantry Bookshop
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2024 saw the publication of two highly anticipated debut novels by acclaimed Irish writers. Hagstone is the debut novel from award-winning essayist and editor of short story anthologies, Sinéad Gleeson, and Breakdown is written by Cathy Sweeney, an author best-known for her short stories. This podcast was recorded at West Cork Literary Festival on 18 July 2024 and Sinéad and Cathy were in conversation with fellow author Colin Barrett.
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Sinéad Gleeson’s essay collection Constellations: Reflections from Life was published by Picador in 2019 and won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at 2019 Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Literary Award for Emerging Writer. It was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Michael Deon Prize. She is editor of The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers (named for a line from Maeve Brennan, which includes a story by Brennan), The Glass Shore: Short Stories by Women Writers from the North of Ireland and The Art of Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories. Sinéad also collaborates with artist and musicians, with commissions from The Wellcome Collection, BBC, Frieze and various galleries. In 2022, with Kim Gordon, she co-edited This Woman’s Work: Essays in Music, published by White Rabbit Books. Hagstone is her first novel and it is published by 4th Estate in April 2024.
Cathy Sweeney lives in Dublin. She studied at Trinity College and taught English at secondary level for many years before turning to writing. Her work has been published in various magazines and journals. Her collection of short stories Modern Times was published by The Stinging Fly in 2020 and her debut novel Breakdown was published by W&N in January 2024.
Mark your calendars and join us in West Cork from 11-18 July 2025. Our 2025 line-up will be released in late March/early April and you can sign up for our newsletter to hear about it first.
Support West Cork Literary Festival
Become a Friend of West Cork Literary Festival to enjoy priority booking for our highly sought-after festival tickets. In particular, you will be supporting our free events for children and our outreach programmes to allow the festival to be accessible to everyone.
Visit our festival bookshop Bantry Bookshop
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.