Part of the Eastside Arts Festival

An online events

Tickets £5 - pre-book here

Join much-loved English writer, Sarah Moss and Belfast's own Jan Carson for an irreverent, honest and engaging chat about holiday parks in literature. Moss' 2020 novel, Summerwater is set in a rain drenched holiday park in Scotland. Carson's 2021 short story collection, The Last Resort features an equally sodden caravan park in Ballycastle. Hugh Odling-Smee will be encouraging both to share their favourite caravanning memories, discuss the dismal holiday in literature and enthuse us all about holidaying a little closer to home. The perfect event for anyone who's ever spent a wet bank holiday weekend in a caravan.

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in east Belfast.  Her debut novel Malcolm Orange Disappears and short story collection, Children’s Children, were published by Liberties Press, Dublin. A micro-fiction collection, Postcard Stories was published by the Emma Press in 2017. Jan’s novel The Fire Starterswas published by Doubleday in April 2019 and subsequently won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. She has been shortlisted for the Sean O’Faolain Short Story Prize and in 2016 won the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize.

Sarah Moss is the author of eight novels including the Sunday Times top ten bestseller, Summerwater, and Ghost Wall, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize. She has also written a memoir of her year living in Iceland. She was born in Glasgow and grew up in the north of England. After moving between Oxford, Canterbury, Reykjavik, west Cornwall and the Midlands, she now lives in Dublin, where she teaches English and creative writing at UCD. The Fell, Sarah Moss's new novel, will be published in November 2021.

Currently Manager of Film Hub NI, part of the BFI Film Audience Network and based at QFT, Hugh Odling-Smee has over 25 years’ experience working in Belfast's arts and heritage sectors for organisations as diverse as the Linen Hall Library, Belfast Book Festival and Belfast International Arts Festival.