The ILFD podcast is back! For our final episode of 2023, as many of us head home for the winter holidays, we're listening back to Kirsty Bell discuss her book 'The Undercurrents', an exploration of the city she calls home -- Berlin. __ Kirsty Bell’s 'The Undercurrents' is a story of Berlin, fusing memoir and criticism through a succession of lives and experiences grounded in one historic building by the Landwehr Canal. Both a cultural history of Berlin, and a portrait of artists that have inhabited this beguiling city, Bell’s poetic work, reveals layers of history and the centrality of landsca ..read more

The ILFD podcast is back! In case you missed it, this year's Booker Prize winner is Irish author Paul Lynch — we thought there would be no better time to listen back to his 2013 visit to the festival. ___ Dublin Writers Festival brings together two emerging Irish novelists whose distinctive prose style and strong sense of place has marked them out as writers to watch. 'John the Revelator', Peter Murphy’s “remarkable debut” (The Observer) about the frustrations of a provincial adolescence, was met with instant acclaim and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Kerry Group Fiction A ..read more

The ILFD podcast is back! On Monday 20 November, we celebrated World Children's Day, so today we're listening back to an event with one of our favourite children's authors — Eoin Colfer. From the 2023 edition of the festival. ___ Whether he’s cloud gazing or saving the world, author Eoin Colfer has so many stories up his sleeve, it’s a wonder they don’t all fall out! Expect stellar storytelling and endless jokes as we get inside the mind of the mastermind behind the criminal escapades of Artemis Fowl, the heartwarming story of Starr in Little Big Sister, and so much more. ___ Eoin Colfer is a ..read more

The ILFD podcast is back! Award-winning writer Neil Gaiman celebrates his birthday later this week, so let's listen back to his last visit to ILFD in 2018. ___ What doesn’t Neil Gaiman write? One of the greatest living storytellers, he is the author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and movies, including The Sandman comic book series, Stardust, American Gods, and Coraline. Among many, many awards, he has won both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals. Described by the Guardian as a ‘a thesaurus of myth’, his book Norse Mythology is a suspenseful and dazzling retel ..read more

Nominated by Helsinki City Library, Finland The 2022 DUBLIN Literary Award longlist of 79 books has been painstakingly narrowed down to a shortlist of just 6 titles; this exclusive limited podcast series, hosted by Jessica Traynor and Séan Hewitt, is designed to give you access to the authors and translators behind the books. In this episode, Jessica and Seán discuss ‘The Death of Vivek Oji’, nominated by Helsinki City Library, Finland. Their conversation about The Death of Vivek Oji is followed by a conversation with Dr Ebun Joseph, race relations consultant and Director of the Institute of A ..read more

The 2022 DUBLIN Literary Award longlist of 79 books has been painstakingly narrowed down to a shortlist of just 6 titles; this exclusive limited podcast series, hosted by Jessica Traynor and Séan Hewitt, is designed to give you access to the authors and translators behind the books. In this episode, Jessica and Seán discuss ‘The Art of Falling’, nominated by Cork City Libraries, Ireland. Their conversation is followed by an interview with the author, Danielle McLaughlin. A short story and fiction writer, Danielle’s work has been published in the New Yorker, Irish Times, the Stinging Fly, and v ..read more

Best-selling author Caroline O’Donoghue talks YA, feminism, and weaving the intriguing, mystical thread of tarot into a teenager’s world in her writing, with StoryMachine curator Janet Smyth. Caroline O’Donoghue’s YA debut was described as ‘Stranger Things meets Sabrina The Teenage Witch’. All Our Hidden Gifts is the story of Irish teenager Maeve Chambers, who has been lonely since falling out with best friend Lily. When she finds a tarot deck, Maeve discovers her gift for magic. Things are looking up – until she discovers a strange card in the deck that definitely shouldn’t be there. And two ..read more

Who, why, what and how awards work? What makes for the very best writing for children and young people? Dr Pádraic Whyte and MPhil students in Children’s Literature at Trinity College Dublin discuss the major prizes for writing for children, and the books and writers who receive them. How do prizes and awards reflect publishing and writing trends or societal influences? The conversation follows the announcement of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards on 25th May. Pádraic is associate professor of English and the current director of the Children’s Literature MPhil programme at the School of ..read more

Exploring the Urban Jungle: the City in Children’s Writing Join Dr Pádraic Whyte and MPhil students in Children’s Literature at Trinity College Dublin on a walk through cities, both real and imagined, in this wide-ranging and informative exploration of the relationship between children’s writing and the city. Explore recurring themes, motifs and narratives within different genres for children and young adults over the last two centuries. Pádraic is associate professor of English and the current director of the Children’s Literature MPhil programme at the School of English, TCD. He is co-editor ..read more

Lisa Marie Griffith explores the history of Dublin Book Clubs and asks: if reading is a solitary pursuit, why do so many of us love book clubs? The size and type of book clubs in Dublin knows no boundaries! During lockdown, book clubs became an important space for people to come together to recreate sociability, to share ideas, and to support each other. Dublin has had a lively book club scene since the late eighteenth century, and this podcast tracks their emergence, evolution and diversity. Featured hosts include Tired Mammy Book Club (@tiredmammybookclub) and Black Queer Book Club (@black.q ..read more