dc irishwritersfestival

spit on me dickie!

schedule

march 11th - 8.00pm @ the goethe institutnick laird and glenn patterson in conversation with chris agee

march 12th - 7.00pm @ the arts club of washington christine dwyer hickey

march 13th - 4.00pm @ busboys and poetsclaire kilroy

march 13th - 8.00pm @ the goethe institut screening of the yellow bittern

march 14th - 4.00pm @ busboys and poets chris agee

march 14th - 5.30pm @ busboys and poets philip o ceallaigh

march 15th - 6.30pm @ busboys and poetsgerard donovan

venues

goethe institut 812 7th street nw washington, dc 20001

the arts club of washington2017 i street nw washington, dc 20006

busboys and poets1025 5th street nw washington dc 20009

all events are FREE. no reservations. additional info at solasnua.org

chris agee

chris agee was born in 1956 in san francisco and grew up in massachusetts, new york and rhode island. he attended harvard university and since 1979 has lived in ireland. he is the author of three books of poems, in the new hampshire woods (the dedalus press, 1992), first light (the dedalus press, 2003) and next to nothing (salt, 2009), as well as the editor of scar on the stone: contemporary poetry from bosnia (bloodaxe, 1998, poetry so-ciety recommendation), unfinished ireland: essays on hubert butler (irish pages, 2003) and the new north: contemporary poetry from northern ireland (wake forest university press, 2008). he is cur-rently completing a collection of essays, journey to bosnia. he reviews regularly for the irish times and is the editor of irish pages, a journal of contempo-rary writing based at the linen hall library, belfast. he holds dual irish and american citizenship, and spends part of each year at his house near du-brovnik, in croatia.

gerard donovan

gerard donovan was born in ireland and lived for ten years in a converted railway station on eastern long island, new york. his first novel, ‘schopenhau-er’s telescope’ was longlisted for the booker prize. his latest novel ‘julius winsome’ was called ‘a great literary achievment’ by die zeit, germany’s national weekly. the new yorker commented ‘donovan...delivers with devastating force.’ donovan is now a reader in english at the university of plymouth in england.

christine dwyer hickey

christine dwyer hickey is an award winning novelist and short-story writer. she is the author of the dublin trilogy; three novels – the dancer, the gambler and the gatemaker which span the story of a dublin family from 1913 to 1956. her novel tatty was short-listed for irish book of the year in 2005 and was also long-listed for the orange prize. her latest novel, last train from liguria, is set in 1930’s fascist italy and dublin in the 1990’s and was published in june 2009 by atlantic books (uk). she is a member of aosdana.

claire kilroy

claire kilroy is the author of three novels which loosely form a trilogy about the obsessions and exhilarations of art. her debut, all summer, a literary thriller about a stolen painting, was awarded the 2004 rooney prize for irish literature. her second novel, tenderwire, a love story between a violinist and a masterpiece violin, was published to great acclaim in 2006, and was short-listed for the 2007 irish novel of the year as well as the kerry group irish fiction award. her latest novel, all names have been changed, set in 1980s dublin and centring around a great irish writer and his trinity writ-ing class, was published in 2009. educated at trinity college, she lives in dublin.

nick laird

born in county tyrone, northern ireland in 1975, nick laird has received many awards for his fiction and poetry, including the rooney prize for irish literature, the ireland chair of poetry award, the betty trask prize, the somerset maugham award and the geof-frey faber memorial prize. his poetry collections are to a fault (2005) and on purpose (2008), (published in the us by norton) and his novels are utterly mon-key (2005) and glover’ s mistake (2009) (published in the us by viking penguin).

glenn patterson

glenn patterson was born, and lives, in belfast. he is the author of seven novels: burning your own (1988), fat lad (1992), black night at big thunder mountain (1995), the international (1999), number 5 (2003), that which was (2004), and the third party (2007). his non-fiction works are lapsed protestant (2006), and once upon a hill: love in troubled times (2009). he was awarded a lannan literary fellowship in 2008.

philip o ceallaigh

author of 2 collections of short stories, notes from a turkish whorehouse (penguin 2006), winner of the rooney prize for irish literature and glen-dimplex fiction award that year and the pleasant light of day (penguin, 2009). both collections nominated for the frank o’connor int short story award - world’s richest prize for a short story collection. lives in bucharest, romania.

plus! the american premiere of

the yellow bittern

the yellow bittern, a new feature documentary from alan gilsenan, is a revealing and surprising portrait of the last surviving member of the clancy brothers and tommy makem, and the man that bob dylan called “just the best ballad singer i’d ever heard in my whole life”.

this intimate, confessional and highly cinematic fi lm charts the remarkable rise to fame of these devil-may-care irish singers, from their small-town beginnings in county tipperary in ireland to the folk hey-day of greenwich village in the sixties where they absorbed black musical infl uences, played for jfk and out-sold the beatles. the clancy brothers and tommy makem would go on to infl uence a host of popular artists from bob dylan and pete seeger to the pogues, and become a powerful iconic presence on the irish cultural map.

solas nua (which means new light in irish) is a 501(c)3 non-profi t and the only contemporary irish arts organization in the united states. based in washington, dc our mission is to bring the bestnew artistic talent from ireland to audiences in america. we achieve this through unique programming which includes a full theatre season, visual arts exhibitions, literary events including the dc irish writers festival, irish book day, and the capital irish fi lm festival.