Our four Irish house guests, who are spending May 2024 at the LCB, present their work and at the same time Ireland’s impressive literary diversity.
At first glance, Sheila Armstrong’s cleverly constructed debut novel “Falling Animals” (Bloomsbury, 2023) deals with the mystery of a nameless stranger who washes up dead on the north-west coast of Ireland. Armstrong’s real interest, however, is in the lives of the people she has encountered.
Questions of origin and identity also play a role in the poems of Jessica Traynor, whose poetry collection “Pit Lullabies” (Bloodaxe, 2022) was a sensation in Ireland. Her intimate, sometimes bitingly funny poems document both the joyful and dark moments of young parenthood.
The poetic short films by spoken word artist and activist Ciara Ní É are characterised by their English-Irish bilingualism and proudly feminist poetry.
The work of singer-songwriter Megan Nic Ruairí, who will provide the evening’s musical accompaniment, is also characterised by her Irish heritage. Her debut EP “Made Of Sin” (2024) testifies to her special talent for combining tradition and zeitgeist.