The Arts Council Podcast The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 27: ‘Molly Fox’s Birthday’ by Deirdre Madden by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 26 'The Bee Sting' by Paul Murray by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 25: ‘Youth’ by Kevin Curran by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 24: 'Soldier Sailor' by Claire Kilroy by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

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'.

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.

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/