LIVE Event
Venue: Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray
Tickets - €16/€14 book here
Join Belfast-based writer Jan Carson (The Raptures) and Wicklow-based debut novelist Olivia Fitzsimons (The Quiet Whispers Never Stop) for an engaging evening of bookish talk. Jan and Olivia will read from and discuss their latest critically acclaimed books, exploring themes such as rural life, growing up in the North, the role of women and community. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and find out a little more about the long journey from first inspiration to finally seeing a novel published. Both Jan and Olivia will share personal experiences and insights into their writing practice.
Olivia Fitzsimons
Olivia Fitzsimons is from Northern Ireland and now lives in Wicklow but never lost her accent. She studied History at Trinity College Dublin and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands. The Quiet Whispers Never Stop is her first novel and was an Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair Winner in 2020. Her short stories have been placed or shortlisted in many competitions including the Sunday Business Post/Penguin Short Story Prize, The Benedict Kiely Short Story Award and Dalkey. She has two feature films in development and is currently working on her second novel.
Jan Carson
Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has a novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears and short story collection, Children’s Children, (Liberties Press), two micro-fiction collections, Postcard Stories 1 and 2 (Emma Press) and a short story collection, The Last Resort (Doubleday). Her novel The Fire Starters (Doubleday) won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019, the Kitschies Prize for Speculative Fiction 2020 and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Book Prize 2020. Jan won the Harper’s Bazaar short story competition in 2016 and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Story Prize (2020), Sean O’Faolain Short Story Prize (2016) and the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year Award (2021). Jan’s latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022.