Date: Friday 29th May 2026

Venue: Listowel Arms Hotel Main Room

Time: 3 PM

The Art of Reinvention

Edel Coffey, author of In Glass Houses, and Charleen Hurtubise, author of Saoirse brings us their new novels, which follow women navigating hidden pasts and high-stakes choices—one a determined journalist chasing a buried truth, the other a young woman living under a false identity as her new life begins to unravel. Together, they offer a gripping discussion on power, belonging and the fragile line between who we are and who we pretend to be.

In Glass Houses is a fast-paced, twist-filled thriller set in the glittering but corrupt world of New York’s elite, where power, privilege, and dark secrets collide. Saoirse is a poignant love story about reinvention and redemption, following a young American who flees to Ireland under a stolen identity, intending only a temporary escape but instead building a new life. Through their new novels, they explore identity, secrets, and the art of reinvention.

In conversation with Katriona O’Sullivan, bestselling author of Poor.

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Date: Friday 29th May 2026

Venue: St John’s Theatre & Arts Centre

Time: 5.30 PM

Across Languages: A Poetry Evening from Kerry to Budapest

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Date: Friday 29th May 2026

Venue: Plaza Hall

Time: 2 PM

Presenting Mr Hoo & Other Stories
Mr Hoo & Other Stories is the latest short story collection from award-winning writer John O’Donnell. Loneliness, vengeance, sorrow, and desire are among the themes featuring in these compelling stories of schemers and survivors: a gullible bird-lover, a woman seeking revenge against an author, a brooding survivor of the Titanic, a young murderer trying to cheat the gallows. Here are almost-winners and not-quite losers, a grieving father and a desperate mother, an unhappy judge, and a troubled client. Love and loss, redemption and remorse, yearning and heartbreak; in clear, incisive language these exhilarating stories movingly examine the human condition. John O’Donnell has won major awards including the Hennessy Award for Emerging Fiction and the Cúirt New Writing Prize. He has also published four poetry collections and has received several poetry prizes.

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Date: Friday 29th May 2026

Venue: Listowel Arms Hotel Main Room

Time: 1 PM

New Journeys from East Clare to New Ross

Two debuts, two writers who explore very different yet deeply human forms of tension and connection in Irish life. Dara Waldron, author of A Sheepdog Named Oscar, is a reflective memoir following his journey through grief and healing in rural Clare, where rescuing a border collie becomes a source of solace and renewal and an exploration of the unspoken understanding between human and animal.

Neil Tully’s The Visit transports readers to 1963 New Ross on the brink of JFK’s historic visit, weaving a tense story of ambition, frustration, and consequence in a small-town community. Sergeant Jim Field feels a guilty paternalism for Patrick Hatten, a young man struggling to find a job, a life and a purpose. Both are used to being on the fringes but while Jim is a romantic with bad health and regret, Patrick is full of anger and action, and his actions could have devastating effects.

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