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A brilliant range of new books by Irish authors live onstage at International Literature Festival Dublin

From 19-29 May

After two years of online events, ILFDublin is delighted to once again welcome authors from around the world to gather in person in Dublin city for this 11-day celebration of writing and literature.
At the festival’s new home – a literary village in Merrion Square – a fantastic array of Irish writers with newly published books will be discussing their latest work from 19-29 May. This is the perfect opportunity to reconnect with your favourite authors at in-person events and get books signed onsite. Headline Irish authors include Louise O’Neill, Emilie Pine, Sinéad Gleeson, Colm Tóibín, Ardal O’Hanlon, Sally Hayden, Adrian Duncan, and Sara Baume.

LOUISE O’NEILL (IDOL) – Light and Dark: Cecelia Ahern & Louise O’Neill – Thurs 19 May, 8pm

Join us for a conversation between two of Ireland’s most exciting and most cherished authors at this one-off, opening night event.

Cecelia’s Freckles is the story of one young woman’s quest for connection in the midst of a lonely life. Louise’s IDOL is an intense and unrelenting interrogation of the world of online influencers, and of the constantly blurring boundaries between the real and the virtual. Both novels are concerned with the search for the self in a chaotic world that seems to demand more and more while giving less and less. Both offer their readers vivid and authentic characters whose stories will resonate long after the last page.
The event will be chaired by writer and broadcaster Louise McSharry.

EMILIE PINE (Ruth & Pen) – Our Place in the World: Emilie Pine – Sun 22 May, 6pm

Award-winning writer Emilie Pine tackles the human heart and its myriad complexities in her debut novel, Ruth & Pen. Join us for a very special event with Emilie in conversation with journalist and author, Patrick Freyne.

Emilie Pine is no stranger to creative intimacy. Her personal Notes to Self – voted Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards – was actually a literary call to generations of Irish women to step into conversations about grief, bodily autonomy, and identity. Now, with her first foray into fiction, she presents her readers with a day in the life of Ruth and Pen, two women struggling to survive in a world that seems to demand their surrender. During a single day in Dublin in 2019, Ruth and Pen will witness the extraordinary in the ordinary. Tickets: €12 / €10 (€8 online)

SINÉAD GLEESON – This Woman’s Work: Sinéad Gleeson, Margo Jefferson & Zakia Sewell – Tues 24 May, 8pm

Sinéad Gleeson’s life has been shaped by music, across multiple contexts – and she has always been interested in how women have been forced to fight for their place within the music industry. Co-edited with Kim Gordon, This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music, features essays by contributors as diverse as Anne Enright, Jenn Pelly, Fatima Bhutto, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Zakia Sewell, to name but a few. Evoking the power of the seminal Kate Bush hit, the collection challenges the discourse of sexism in the canons of music, literature and film by hitting back with visceral prose and piercing insight. Joining Sinéad on stage to discuss their musical inspiration are Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Margo Jefferson and London-based writer and DJ Zakia Sewell. Tickets: €12 / €10 (€8 online)

COLM TÓIBÍN (Vinegar Hill) – Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Colm Tóibín & Padraig Regan – Wed 25 May, 8pm

As part of the special partnership between Bealtaine Festival and ILFDublin, celebrate the influence writers have on each other across generations with a conversation between the two poetic writers renowned for their narrative lyricism. Colm Tóibín and poet Padraig Regan will read from their own and each other’s poetry, while reflecting on the creative process.

Tóibín, the new Laureate for Fiction and winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize for The Magician, breaks fresh ground with his debut poetry collection, Vinegar Hill. The collection’s lyric and narrative poems traverse physical locales and emotional landscapes, from Enniscorthy to Budapest to Los Angeles. Padraig Regan was awarded the Clarissa Luard Award in 2021, having been nominated by Tóibín. Some Integrity is their debut collection. Regan has said that Tóibín’s work has “made it easier for younger queer writers like myself to find their place within Irish literary traditions.” Tickets: €12 / €10 (€8 online).

ARDAL O’HANLON (Brouhaha) – A Real Brouhaha: Ardal O’Hanlon – Fri 27 May, 8pm

Join us for an evening with Ardal O’Hanlon in conversation with fellow writer and comedian, Colm O’Regan. Bleak, crude, and wonderfully funny, Ardal O’Hanlon is clearly having fun with his second novel, Brouhaha, a blackly comic mystery about a small town in Ireland losing the head, literally. Dove Connelly is dead – and that’s just the beginning. His best friend Sharkey is looking into the shadows of Tullyvanna, the fictional small town that could be anywhere in Ireland, and what he might find is anyone’s guess. Because if there’s one thing small Irish towns are good at, it’s keeping secrets. Tickets: €14 / €12 (€8 online)

SALLY HAYDEN (My Fourth Time, We Drowned) – Shame on Us: Sally Hayden – Sat 28 May, 6pm

Journalist and photographer Sally Hayden compels us to look when we would rather turn away.

One of the essential truths of life is that the world is made from stories. Every single one of us has a story to tell but it’s often only the lucky and the powerful who can shout loud enough to be heard. In her work as the Africa correspondent for the Irish Times, journalist Sally Hayden has heard more stories of suffering, trauma, and exploitation than most of us can imagine. In her compassionate, essential, visceral account of the migrant crisis across North Africa, she gives voice to the individuals the world has turned its back on and asks us all to bear witness, and to take collective responsibility. Tickets: €10 / €8

ADRIAN DUNCAN & SARA BAUME (The Geometer Lobachevsky; Seven Steeples) – Reading Landscapes: Adrian Duncan & Sara Baume – Sat 28 May, 7pm

Two Irish writers with a flair for the visual and a talent for expressing the unspeakable look deep into landscape in their latest novels.

Adrian Duncan and Sara Baume are both writing about escape – either imposed or chosen – and the landscapes that human beings sometimes disappear into. In Adrian’s The Geometer Lobachevsky, published March 2022, Nikolai Lobachevsky finds himself flees a death sentence from Leningrad, his only salvation a small island on the Shannon estuary. Seven Steeples, published April 2022, sees Bell and Sigh, Sara’s newest protagonists, struggling to create a world of their own in the remoteness of the south-west of Ireland. Join these writers for a powerful conversation on the ways we live in the world – and what the world demands of us for that privilege. Tickets: €12 / 10

After two years of online events and reading at home, ILFDublin is delighted to once again invite audiences from across the city to meet their favourite authors at in-person events. For 11 days, Dublin’s iconic Merrion Square Park will play host to authors, artists, performers, and storytellers from around the world as ILFDublin celebrates 25 Years of Stories.

Tickets are on sale now via ilfdublin.com or email boxoffice@ilfdublin.com