Wednesday, October 16th

Who Ever Heard of an Irish Jew?

2.30pm, Cork City Library | Free, unticketed

Cork actor Jack Healy performs the short story Who Ever Heard of an Irish Jew? by David Marcus. 

David Marcus was Ireland’s most important and influential literary editor of the twentieth century. Born into Cork’s small Jewish community in 1924, his remarkable career spanned sixty years and saw him work with countless writers of note from Edith Somerville and Liam O’Flaherty to Claire Keegan and Kevin Barry. While perhaps best remembered for editing the ‘New Irish Writing’ page in The Irish Press between 1968 and 1986, Marcus was also a translator, a novelist and the editor of numerous trailblazing anthologies.

Jack Healy has worked in theatre for over thirty years, mainly as an actor and playwright. He has written scripts for the Everyman Palace, and RTÉ Radio. Most recently, under commission from Cork County Council, he wrote a stage adaptation of the novel, Glenanaar by Cannon Sheehan to celebrate the centenary of his death.

Launch of David Marcus: Editing Ireland

4.00pm, Cork City Library | Free, unticketed

Published to mark his centenary year, this miscellany – which includes poems, fiction, memoir and essays – celebrates this brilliant, self-effacing man, whose legacy and influence continue to shape our culture today.

Mary Leland is a Cork-born journalist. She has published two novels, The Killeen (1985) and Approaching Priests (1991) and a book of short stories, The Little Galloway Girls (1986/87).

Mary Morrissy is the author of four novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender, The Rising of Bella Casey and Penelope Unbound, as well as two collections of short stories, A Lazy Eye and Prosperity Drive.

Preorder David Marcus: Editing Ireland (The Stinging Fly Press).

(Moderator) Declan Meade is founding editor of The Stinging Fly magazine, which he established in Dublin in 1997. Under The Stinging Fly Press imprint, he has edited and published short-story collections by writers such as Colin Barrett, Kevin Barry, Claire-Louise Bennett, Wendy Erskine, Nicole Flattery and Danielle McLaughlin.

Mary O’Donnell & Lucy Sweeney Byrne

7.30pm, Cork Arts Theatre | €5 tickets here

Mary O’Donnell’s work includes eight poetry collections, four novels and three short story collections. Massacre of the Birds (Salmon Poetry) appeared in 2020 and has been translated and published in Brazil by Arte y Letras. Her short stories in the collection Empire were published in 2018 (Arlen House). In 2023 she received an Irish Book Award in the Poem of the Year category for her political poem ‘Vectors in Kabul’. Her translated short stories will be available in Argentina in 2024. A chapbook of poems, Outsiders, Always was published by Southword Editions, Cork in 2023. She is a member of Ireland’s affiliation of artists, Aosdána.

Buy Empire (Arlen House) and visit the author's website.

“Mary O’Donnell has long been one of Ireland’s best writers. In the historical fictions in Empire she once again dazzles with her trademark intelligence, her precise, gorgeous prose and the empathy she employs in everything she writes.” — Nuala O’Connor

Lucy Sweeney Byrne has written two collections of short fiction, Paris Syndrome (2019) and Let’s Dance (2024), both published with Banshee Press. She is from Co. Wicklow, Ireland.

Preorder Let's Dance (Banshee Press).

“[W]hat Sweeney Byrne does so skillfully is lure us into her world with entrancing narratives –somewhat similar to highway hypnosis – and then jolt us awake with sudden punches of sharp wit, gritty realism, and gorgeous linguistic play.” — Hayley Car

(Moderator) Laura Cassidy is a writer from Co. Kildare, living in Cork city. She is a founding editor of the literary journal and small press Banshee, where she worked for a decade in the roles of publisher and editor. Laura is a recipient of the Cecil Day Lewis Literary Bursary award.

Camilla Grudova

9.00pm, Cork Arts Theatre | €5 tickets here

Camilla Grudova is the author of the critically acclaimed The Doll’s Alphabet, Children of Paradise which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, and The Coiled Serpent which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. In 2023 she was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. She is the 2024 recipient of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellowship. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Buy The Coiled Serpent (Atlantic Books).

“Grudova has an instinct for queasily precise imagery that few can rival – skylights emerge from the “beefy red brick” of a building “like blisters on roasted flesh”, elephant foetuses in jars are “wrinkled old raincoats”. There’s a glorious excess and tactility to her writing.” — AK Blakemore

(Moderator) Danny Denton is a writer from Cork. He is the author of the novels The Earlie King & the Kid In Yellow and All Along The Echo. He lectures on writing at University College Cork and is a contributing editor to The Stinging Fly.

Image credits: Jack Healy photographed by John Minihan