The Arts Council Podcast

The May Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Megan Nolan about her novel 'Ordinary Human Failings'. "Megan Nolan’s novel tells the story of the Green family who move from Ireland to London in the early 1990s. 'Where Nolan really excels is in the delineation of complex, sometimes contradictory interior states, the water we all swim in and call "reality",' writes The Financial Times." - Colm Tóibín Megan Nolan was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland and is currently based in London. Her essays and reviews have been published by The New York Times, White Review, The Guardian and Frieze amongst others. Her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2021 and was the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her second novel, Ordinary Human Failings, was published in 2023 and is shortlisted for the inaugural Nero Book Awards, for fiction and longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The April Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Deirdre Madden about her novel ‘Molly Fox’s Birthday’. “It is the height of summer, and celebrated actor Molly Fox has loaned her house in Dublin to a friend while she is away performing in New York. Set over a single midsummer’s day, Molly Fox’s Birthday is a mischievous, insightful novel about a turning point - a moment when past and future suddenly appear in a new light. – Colm Tóibín Deirdre Madden is a novelist. She has published eight novels for adults, including Authenticity, Molly Fox’s Birthday, and most recently Time Present and Time Past. She has won many awards for her work, including The Rooney Prize, The Hennessy Award, and The Somerset Maugham Award. For the first of her three novels for children, she won the Eilis Dillon Award. All her work is published by Faber and Faber and has been widely anthologised. Her novels have also been translated into several languages, including French, Italian and German. She studied English at Trinity College Dublin and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. In 1997 she was Writer Fellow at Trinity, and since 2004 she has been teaching Creative Writing to undergraduates and on the MPhil programme in the Oscar Wilde Centre. She is a member of Aosdána Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The March Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Paul Murray about his novel ‘The Bee Sting’ “Paul Murray’s novel is narrated by four members of the Barnes family, Dickie who runs a car showroom, his wife Imelda, and their children Cassie and PJ. The Guardian has written that Murray ‘is brilliant on fathers and sons, sibling rivalry, grief, selfsabotage and self-denial, as well as the terrible weakness humans have for magical thinking…’” — Colm Tóibín Paul Murray was born in Dublin and is the author of four acclaimed novels. An Evening of Long Goodbyes (2003) was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award. Skippy Dies (2010) was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa Book. The Mark and the Void (2015) won the Bollinger Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The Bee Sting, published in 2023, won the An Post Irish Book of the Year (2023) and the Nero Book Award (2024). It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Kirkus Prize and the Writers’ Prize (2024). It was one of the Top Ten Best Books of 2023 in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and named a Best Book of the Year by The Irish Times, The New Yorker, Time, The Independent, and others. Paul’s stories and journalism have appeared in New York Magazine, Granta, The Guardian, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The February Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Kevin Curran about his novel ‘Youth’ “Kevin Curran’s novel deals with the lives of four teenagers in Balbriggan, Ireland’s most diverse town. When the protagonists intersect, the connections they make will change the course of their lives. ‘Irish-English has always been wild,’ Roddy Doyle has written in The Irish Times. ‘Youth, at its liveliest, seems to be telling us that we’re only starting.’” — Colm Tóibín Kevin Curran is from Balbriggan and has been a secondary-school teacher in his hometown for over a decade. Youth, his third novel, was published to critical acclaim in 2023. His first novel, Beatsploitation (2013), brought him national attention due to his depiction of Ireland’s new multicultural landscape. He has also published a second novel, Citizens (2016), and numerous short stories in major anthologies and literary journals such as The Stinging Fly. His fiction largely concentrates on working class life in the Dublin suburbs. He has also written non-fiction for The Guardian and The Observer. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The January Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Claire Kilroy about her novel ‘Soldier Sailor’ “Claire Kilroy’s first novel in more than a decade deals with the early days and nights of motherhood. ‘Soldier Sailor is a resonant and important book,’ Sarah Gilmartin has written in The Irish Times, ‘vital in all senses of the word, a flare sent up from the shores of early motherhood, a lesson in surviving the wilderness.’” — Colm Tóibín Claire Kilroy is the author of five novels, All Summer (Faber, 2003), Tenderwire (Faber, 2006), All Names Have Been Changed (Faber, 2009), and The Devil I Know (Faber, 2012). In 2023, after an eleven year silence, her fifth novel, Soldier Sailor, about the early years of motherhood, was published to universal acclaim. It was named a Best Book by The Sunday Times, The Irish Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, The Irish Independent and The Independent. Kilroy won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2004 and has been shortlisted many times for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and the Irish Book Awards. She studied at Trinity College and lives in Dublin. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The December Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Mike McCormack about his novel 'This Plague of Souls'. “In the Irish Times preview of the best novels forthcoming in 2023, Martin Doyle writes: ‘The prospect of a new novel [by Mike McCormack] is one to savour. Part roman noir, part metaphysical thriller, This Plague of Souls deals with how we might mend the world – and is the story of a man who would let the world go to hell if he could keep his family together.” — Colm Tóibín Mike McCormack comes from the west of Ireland and is the author of two collections of short stories Getting it in the Head and Forensic Songs, and three novels Crowe’s Requiem, Notes from a Coma and Solar Bones. In 1996 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature and Getting it in the Head was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In 2006 Notes from a Coma was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award. In 2016 Solar Bones was awarded the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bord Gais Energy Irish Novel of the Year and Book of the Year; it was also long-listed for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. In 2018 it was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award. He is a member of Aosdána. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-

On 3 November at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace Bellaghy, Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín delivered his second annual lecture entitled A Dream on Wings: Poetry and the Underworld. It featured poetry readings by Cathy Belton and musical performance by Martin Hayes. Colm Tóibín’s lecture charts poetry written about the underworld and traces a line going from Ovid through to contemporary poets including Seamus Heaney and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Colm Tóibín is the third Laureate for Irish Fiction and was awarded the honour by the Arts Council in early 2022. The Laureate for Irish Fiction promotes Irish literature nationally and internationally and encourages the public to engage with high quality Irish Fiction. The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council. More details about Colm Tóibín’s public programme as Laureate can be found here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

The November Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Aingeala Flannery about her book 'The Amusements'. “Aingeala Flannery’s first collection of linked stories is set in the seaside town of Tramore. ‘The people in this book are not real but the town of Tramore is,’ Flannery has written. ‘It took up residence in my imagination when I was a child and has refused to leave.’ RTE has written that ‘The Amusements’ ‘weaves a gorgeous, empathetic story of a teenager yearning for freedom.” — Colm Tóibín Aingeala Flannery’s first collection of linked stories is set in the seaside town of Tramore. ‘The people in this book are not real but the town of Tramore is,’ Flannery has written. ‘It took up residence in my imagination when I was a child and has refused to leave.’ RTE has written that ‘The Amusements’ ‘weaves a gorgeous, empathetic story of a teenager yearning for freedom. Aingeala Flannery was born in Waterford. She's an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and writer. Her short story Visiting Hours won the 2019 Harper’s Bazaar short story competition, and she has twice been a finalist in the RTÉ short story competition, first in 2018, and again in 2022 for her story Scrappage. Aingeala was awarded a Literature Bursary by the Arts Council of Ireland in 2020 and 2021. Her debut novel The Amusements was published by Penguin Sandycove in June 2022, and was shortlisted for The Irish Book Awards. Aingeala holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UCD. She lives in Dublin and is working on her second novel. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The October Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Joseph O’Connor about his novel ‘My Father’s House’ “My Father’s House is set in Nazi occupied Rome in the middle of the Second World War. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty who, using the Vatican as his headquarters, sets about smuggling thousands of Jews and Allied prisoners out of Italy to safety. The Financial Times writes that ‘the diverse ventriloquism of O’Connor’s novel evokes a city in peril with wonderful vitality.” — Colm Tóibín Joseph O’Connor’s fiction is published in 40 languages. Star of the Sea has sold more than a million copies. Shadowplay won the An Post Irish Novel of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Costa. Other books include Cowboys and Indians (Whitbread Prize shortlist), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book 2011), The Thrill of it All, two short story collections, several stage plays and film scripts and six nonfiction volumes. His CD The Drivetime Diaries reached number one in the Irish charts. In 2011, he was elected to Aosdána. Awards include the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, the 2022 American Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award and the Bram Stoker Gold Medal for Cultural Achievement. His novel, My Father’s House, was published in January 2023. He is Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing at UL. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The September Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Wendy Erskine about her short story collection 'Dance Move'. “The Guardian writes of Wendy Erskine’s collection of stories: ‘She identifies what is most fruitful about her characters’ predicaments – the emotional core, the most resonant ironies – and traces with rapt and infectious attention their doomed if valiant attempts to shimmy away from the real.’ The stories, the Dublin Review of Books writes, ‘are gloriously offbeat tales of people who live on the flip side and are out of step with those around them.” — Colm Tóibín Wendy Erskine’s two prize-winning short story collections, Sweet Home and Dance Move, are published by The Stinging Fly Press and Picador. Other fiction has been published by, among others, Rough Trade Book and The Tangerine Press. She recently edited Well I Just Kind of Like It, an anthology about the home and art, produced by Paper Visual Art. In 2022 she was a Seamus Heaney Fellow at Queen’s University. She is a full-time secondary school teacher. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The August Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Kevin Power about his novel ‘White City’ “Ben, the protagonist of White City, is, John Self writes in the Guardian, the ‘son of a disgraced Dublin banker, languishing in rehab and writing an account of his wrong turns as therapy.’ As Ben gets involved in a dodgy property deal in Serbia, Power creates a world of Irish people on the make with the hapless Ben at its centre. Ben, the Irish Times writes, ‘is Power’s unforgettable creation.” — Colm Tóibín Kevin Power is the author of two novels, Bad Day in Blackrock (2008) and White City (2021). He is the winner of the 2009 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, and many other places. He teaches in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The July Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Nicole Flattery about her short story collection ‘Nothing Special’ “Nothing Special is set at a very particular New York moment. It is 1966. Mae, the protagonist, lands a job as typist for the artist Andy Warhol who is embarking on an unconventional novel by taping the conversations of his associates and friend. Mae moves on the edges of Warhol’s world, attending the counterculture parties. The novel dramatizes her coming of-age in Warhol’s New York.” — Colm Tóibín Nicole Flattery’s story collection Show Them A Good Time was published by The Stinging Fly in Ireland and Bloomsbury in the UK in 2019. Her novel Nothing Special is forthcoming in 2023. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the London Review of Books and Sight & Sound Magazine. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The April Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer John Banville about his novel ‘The Singularities’ “In this brilliant and dreamy novel, John Banville gives life to the many characters who have peopled his fiction over fifty years. He allows them to meet each other, revisit old scenes not as ghosts or as revenants but as fictional protagonists with their own precise memories, their own pressing desires. There are some resonant evocations of place but all is bathed in a sense of pure aftermath.” — Colm Tóibín John Banville is a novelist, screenwriter, playwright and book reviewer. He worked in journalism for many years, and was literary editor at The Irish Times from 1988 to 2000. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, and other journals. His novels include The Book of Evidence, The Sea, and, most recently, The Singularities. Among the awards he has received are the Man Booker Prize, the Austrian State Prize for Literature, the Kafka Prize, Irish PEN Award and the Prince of Asturias Award. He has written a number of crime novels, including Snow, and, most recently, April in Spain. He was born in Wexford, and lives in Dublin. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The June Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Luke Cassidy about his novel ‘Iron Annie. “Iron Annie is written with astonishing energy and verve. It is set in the criminal underworld of Dundalk, but more important, it is written in a tone that is intriguing and unforgettable. It uses a living and contemporary language distilled by Cassidy into a radically original style, a style that establishes him, with this debut book, as one of the most exciting writers in Ireland now.” — Colm Tóibín Luke Cassidy is a writer and theatremaker from Dundalk. His debut novel Iron Annie was published by Bloomsbury Books in September 2021, and shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2022. He toured a theatre adaptation of Iron Annie to theatres around Ireland in 2021 & 2022, and is currently developing new work for the stage. His second novel, Tooth & Nail, will be published in early 2024, also by Bloomsbury Books. He is published in North America by Vintage/Anchor Books. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The May Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Emma Donoghue about her novel ‘Haven’ “Haven, Emma Donoghue’s fourteenth novel, is set on Skellig Michael in the year 600 when three Irishmen decide to establish a monastery on this extraordinary piece of bare rock. The Chicago Review of Books has written: ‘In classic Donoghue narrative style, it all unfolds in a confined space under cramped conditions ... convincingly conveyed by Donoghue’s raw descriptions and her exceptional skill with emotionally authentic dialogue.” — Colm Tóibín Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an award-winning writer living in Canada. Her latest novel Haven, is about the monks who landed on Skellig Michael in the seventh century. She was nominated for an Academy Award and a Bafta for her adaptation of her Booker-shortlisted international bestseller Room, and her theatrical adaptation with songs by Cora Bissett and Kathryn Joseph (which premiered at the Abbey) will open on Broadway this April. She co-wrote the 2022 film of her novel The Wonder, Netflix UK’s first feature shot in Ireland. Some of her other novels are The Pull of the Stars, Akin, Frog Music, The Sealed Letter, Life Mask and Slammerkin, as well as The Lotterys Plus One and The Lotterys More or Less for younger readers. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/