LAUNCH: ‘Quickly, While They Still Have Horses’ by JAN CARSON

Thursday 11th April 2024 at 6:00pm

Join us on Thursday 11th April for the launch of Jan Carson’s eagerly anticipated collection of stories, “Quickly, While They Still Have Horses”. Author Olivia Fitzsimmons will officially launch the book from 6pm. Refreshments will be served, books will be for sale, and all are welcome!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

In sixteen sparkling stories, Jan Carson introduces us to worlds and characters that feel real enough to touch. All of life is here: the thrill of growing up, the grief when youth is over; first love, mature love, parenthood and loss – all shot through with profound compassion, warm wit, and boundless imagination.

In ‘A Certain Degree of Ownership’, a distracted couple on a beach fail to notice their baby crawl perilously towards the sea.

In ‘Troubling the Water’, a rumour spreads at a public swimming pool and chaos ensues. In ‘Fair Play’ a dishevelled father loses his two sons in an adventure park.

Every so often, an irresistible suggestion of the other world will surprise and delight, reaffirming Carson as a thrillingly original and audacious talent, and making Quickly, While They Still Have Horses the perfect introduction for readers new to her work.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim, followed by a short-story collection, Children’s Children (2016), and two flash fiction anthologies, Postcard Stories (2017) and Postcard Stories 2 (2020). Her second novel, The Fire Starters (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award and her third novel, The Raptures (2022) was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She has won the Harper’s Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year, and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize. She specializes in running arts projects and events with older people, especially those living with dementia.