UCC's School of English and Digital Humanities presents two of Ireland's most acclaimed writers in conversation

Join us in The Creative Zone, Boole Library, UCC, for a special literary evening featuring acclaimed Irish writers Sara Baume and Caitríona Lally in conversation with Eimear Ryan.

Presented by the UCC School of English & Digital Humanities and UCC Library, this event brings together two of Ireland's most distinctive contemporary voices for an engaging discussion on writing, creativity, and their latest books.

Admission is free.

The Writers

Sara Baume is the author of the novels Spill Simmer Falter Wither, A Line Made by Walking, and Seven Steeples, as well as the non-fiction work Handiwork. Her work has earned numerous accolades, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award, the Rooney Prize, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, and an Irish Book Award. She has also been shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Folio Prize. In 2023, she was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Sara lives in West Cork. Her latest book, Opening Night (Granta Books), is available now.

Caitríona Lally has published two novels, Eggshells (2015) and Wunderland (2021). She won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2018 and a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction in 2019. She was the inaugural Rooney Writer Fellow at the Trinity Long Room Hub in 2022, and was one of the 2024 An Post Book Awards 20 Best New Irish Writers. Her first memoir, Home Economics, was recently published by New Island.

The Books

In Opening Night, Sara Baume reflects on her friendship with artist Mollie Douthit, whom she met shortly after the pandemic. Drawn together by shared artistic commitments, solitary dispositions, and a deep connection to the natural world, the two formed a close bond through regular meetings along the West Cork coast. Beautifully illustrated in full colour, Opening Night traces the contours of that friendship while exploring themes of art, community, belonging, love, loss, and the ways creativity connects us to one another.

In Home Economics, Caitríona Lally writes with characteristic honesty and humour about the intersecting roles that shape her life: writer, mother, worker, and artist. Through reflections on personal economics, creativity, ambition, and care, she offers a candid examination of what success and failure really mean in a writer's life, and the often invisible work that makes artistic practice possible.

Description supplied by the event organiser.