Books for Breakfast

• 80: Sarah Moss on Ripeness

  Send us a textOn this episode we drop in to the Carlow University Pittsburgh MFA summer programme in Trinity College, Dublin to interview Sarah Moss about her latest novel, Ripeness. 'Tender and rueful . . . Sarah Moss is a marvel of insight and eloquence' - Emma Donoghue'One of our greatest living writers' - Katherine May, author of WinteringMore Praise for Sarah Moss:'Throws much contemporary writing into the shade' - Hilary Mantel‘One of our very best contemporary novelists’ - Independent'A brilliant mind' - The Guardian'Moss has quietly been putting out some of the most interesting and carefully sculpted novels of recent years' - Financial Times'One of the finest contemporary writers working in Britain today' - StylistIntro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.Support the show

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• 79: Mall Life: Karin-Lin Greenberg

  Send us a textOn this episode we talk about this year's International Literature Festival Dublin which runs from 16-25 May, and where Enda will be interviewing novelists Gethan Dick and Patrick Holloway. We also talk to Karin-Lin Greenberg about Your Are Here, her novel set in a dying mall in upstate New York."Lin-Greenberg’s web of characters illustrate the complex lives of ordinary people." —Laura Zornosa, Time"Like Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, the charm of Lin-Greenberg’s engaging story lies in the sweetness of the characters’ everyday lives." —Becky Meloan, The Washington Post"Charming . . . The small lies woven into a lifelong marriage, the petty resentments harbored by polite neighbors and, above all, the comic discrepancy between a character’s outer and inner life—all emerge unforced and unadorned in this multifaceted narrative . . . But the everyday reality that Ms. Lin-Greenberg so memorably creates is not easily eclipsed. Compassion and wry understatement remain her strengths, and in You Are Here she captures not only the frayed texture of suburban existence but also the turbulent emotions, immediate and long buried, of protagonists who are ultimately far more than stereotypes." —Anna Mundow, The Wall Street Journal"Beautifully written and radically sympathetic . . . Among its achievements, You Are Here is a breathtaking depiction of a community—even one at the mall." —Jeffrey Condran, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"Absolutely irresistible." —PeopleIntro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.Support the show

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• 78: Richard Blanco; Poetry at Strokestown

  Send us a textIn this episode, on Poetry Day, we cross the Atlantic and. breakfast in Miami, where we talk to Cuban American poet Richard Blanco about his Homeland of my Body: New and Selected Poems, a rich, accomplished, intensely intimate collection with two full sections of new poems bookending Blanco’s selections from his five previous volumes. We also feature this year’s Strokestown International Poetry Festival, including the five poets shortlisted for the Strokestown Poetry Competition. If you’re around for the festival Enda will be giving  a poetry workshop and Peter will be giving a talk on The Life of the Poet.Praise for Richard Blanco:“An engineer, poet, Cuban American… his poetry bridges cultures and languages – a mosaic of our past, our present, and our future – reflecting a nation that is hectic, colorful, and still becoming.”– President Joe Biden, conferring the National Humanities Medal on Richard BlancoSandra Cisneros describes Blanco’s poems as “sad, tender, and filled with longing. Like an old photograph, a saint’s statue worn away by the devout, a bolero on the radio on a night full of rain. Me emocionan. There is no other way to say it. They emotion me.”This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.Support the show

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• 77: Mary O’Donnell on new fiction and poetry

  Send us a textOn this episode we talk to poet novelist and critic Mary O’Donnell about Mary O’Malley’s The Shark Nursery, Patrick Holloway’s The Language of Remembering,  ! All’ ARME /? by Eilish Martin and Beginnings Over and Over: Four New Poets from Ireland, edited by Leeanne Quinn.We also give a shout out to a special anthology for One Dublin One Book, Dublin, Written in our Hearts, published by the Stinging Fly Press and edited by Declan Meade. It’s an anthology that offers writings about Dublin in the first quarter of this century and contributors include Kevin Barry, Caitriona Lally, Felizspeaks, Stephen James Smith, Anne Enright, Estelle Birdy, Paula Meehan and our own Peter Sirr. There are lots of events happening throughout the city to coincide with this anthology and you can find out more by checking out onedublinonebook.ieMary O’Donnell’s book of short stories, Walking Ghosts, comes out this May from Mercier Press. ‘Each story shines in its own distinctive light,’ Neil Hegarty says. It will be launched in the Maynooth Bookshop on the 7th of May, and in Hodges Figgis, Dublin on the 20th of May.  This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.Support the show

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• 76: Pat Boran on Hedge School

  Send us a textFinding inspiration in the local and near at had, attentive to climate concern and global unrest, to home and homeless, belonging and welcome, concern and global and welcome – on today’s episode we talk to poet and publisher Pat Boran about his eight collection Hedge School. 'A writer of great tenderness and lyricism' – Agenda, UK'... local and international, full of wisdom and wry humour ...' – Irish Literary Supplement, USAThis episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.Support the show

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