Two powerful female voices explore what it means to be a woman midway between life and death, midway between joy and despair, midway between who you were and who you could be.
Two powerful female voices explore what it means to be a woman in the between spaces – between life and death, between joy and despair, between who you were and who you could be. In their newest novels, Velia Vidal and Cathy Sweeney have rendered unflinching portraits of women who decide to abandon societal expectations in pursuit of their own versions of peace.
In Vidal’s Tidal Waters, Vel returns home to Chocó, her homeland, and the place where the Pacific meets the Caribbean. Here, she not only reconnects with the place she grew up, but with herself as she carves out a new space for self-discovery, love, and community.
In Sweeney’s Breakdown, an ordinary middle-class woman wakes up in her ordinary suburban Dublin home and, without giving it too much thought, she walks out the door and never comes back. Leaving behind a husband and two teenage children, she faces up to the feelings she’s been ignoring for far too long.
Both celebrations of transformation and gripping portrayals of personal reckoning, these two authors are unafraid to delve into the murky spaces that exist between what’s expected and what’s desired as they tease apart the threads of womanhood, family, belonging, and identity.
Cathy Sweeney’s work has been published in various magazines and journals. Her first collection of short stories, Modern Times, was published in 2020. Breakdown is her first debut novel.
Velia Vidal appeared on the BBC 100 Women 2022 list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world. She is a columnist at Cambio magazine and is the co-author of Oír somos río and its bilingual German-Spanish edition. She is the founder and director of the Motete Educational and Cultural Corporation and the Chocó Reading and Writing Festival (FLECHO).
This event will be moderated by Henrietta McKervey, author, literary programmer and culture reviewer.
Presented in partnership with the Embassy of Colombia Dublin.