The Women’s Prize Trust in collaboration with the Women’s Irish Network, presents an evening showcase of Irish writers, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Hear 2024 Women’s Prize shortlisted author of Soldier Sailor Claire Kilroy, author of The Best of Everything and Chair of Judges for the 2025 Women’s Prize Fiction Kit de Waal, and winner the 2016 Women’s Prize for Fiction with The Glorious Heresies Lisa McInerney, in discussion as they read from and talk about their outstanding books. Author and Associate Professor in Modern British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St Catharine's College Niamh Gallagher will chair the writers in conversation, covering everything from creative inspiration and Irish diaspora to the contemporary Irish fiction landscape and the need to champion women’s voices.
After the event, browse a list of the best Irish fiction curated and sold on-site by independent bookshop Bookbar, and get your copies of the authors’ books signed.
Date: Thursday 11th September
Time: 6.30 - 8.30pm
Venue: Bankside Hotel, 2 Blackfriars Road, Upper Ground, London SE1 9JU (map)
Tickets:
Members – £20 (WIN Members will receive a discount code to their registered email.)
Non-Member – £25
Including a drink on arrival, nibbles and networking with like-minded Irish women in London
In conversation with:
Claire Kilroy is the author of five novels, All Summer, (Faber, 2003), Tenderwire, (Faber, 2006), All Names Have Been Changed, (Faber, 2009), and The Devil I Know (Faber, 2012). In 2023, after an eleven year silence, her fifth novel, Soldier Sailor, about the early years of motherhood, was published to universal acclaim. The Times selected it as the Times Novel of The Year, and it was named a Best Book by The Sunday Times, The Irish Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, The Economist, The Irish Examiner, The Journal, The Irish Independent, Vogue, and The Independent. It was shortlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Sky Arts Literature Award and the Irish Novel of the Year. She studied at Trinity College and lives in Dublin.
Kit de Waal has written novels for adults and young adults, short stories and her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in 2022. Her debut novel My Name is Leon was an international bestseller; in 2022 it was adapted for television by the BBC and it is now on the GCSE curriculum. She is founder of the TV production company Portopia Productions and The Big Book Weekend, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds many roles in book and arts organisations. Her new novel Best of Everything was released in April 2025.
Lisa McInerney is the author of three novels: The Glorious Heresies, The Blood Miracles and The Rules of Revelation. She has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the RSL Encore Award and the Premio Edoardo Kihlgren for European literature, and has been nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Premio Strega Europeo, the Sunday Times Short Story Award, and twice for the Dylan Thomas Award. Her work has featured in Winter Papers, Granta, The Guardian, Le Monde, Internazionale, Vogue CS, The Irish Times, BBC Radio 4 and numerous anthologies. She is published in 12 languages. In 2022, she was appointed editor of The Stinging Fly.
Niamh Gallagher is Associate Professor in Modern British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St Catharine's College. She is the author of the award-winning book, Ireland and the Great War: A Social and Political History (Bloomsbury, 2019) which won the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield Prize in 2020, and co-editor of The Political Thought of the Irish Revolution (Cambridge, 2022). She is currently working on a major research project entitled Ireland and the “ends” of the British Empire as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Niamh has appeared frequently in international media and has consulted at state-levels in both the UK and Republic of Ireland.