Thursday 25 July | 1.30pm | £10

Fiction

Elaine Feeney is a multi-award-winning novelist and poet from the West of Ireland. Her latest novel, How to Build a Boat, a vibrant, moving story about a remarkable boy and his dream, was shortlisted in 2023 for Best Novel of the Year at The Irish Book Awards and longlisted for the Booker Prize. Written with tenderness and love, it’s about love, family and connection, the power of imagination, and how our greatest adventures never happen alone. Her 2020 novel, As You Were, won the Kate O’Brien Award, the McKitterick Prize and the Dalkey Festival Emerging Writer Award. Her fourth book of poetry, All the Good Things You Deserve, a powerful, personal, fierce collection about women’s battles lives, bodies, battles and triumphs, has just been published by Harvill Secker and Vintage.

“(Elaine) Feeney is one of those rare authors who can perform linguistic acrobatics while her characters tenderly break your heart.” Edel Coffey

James Conor Patterson is the author of the poetry collection bandit country, nominated for the 2022 TS Eliot Prize. He edited the anthology, The New Frontier: Reflections from the Irish Border (2021). jamesconorpatterson.com/