Join us in Leipzig for four great literary events, featuring Louise Kennedy, Micheál Ó Conghaile and Alan Murrin. All events are open to participants of the buchmesse, free and unticketed.
Buchmesse Fair, Café Europa, Hall 4 Stand E401: Thursday 27.03 2:30 pm
Micheál Ó Conghaile and Louise Kennedy: Writing from a Distance
Micheál Ó Conghaile and Louise Kennedy both set their books in Ireland in the recent past. They explore periods of personal history through a combination of their imaginations and memories. How does a writer create distance from the personal without losing authenticity?
Moderated by Hans-Christian Oeser
naTo: Thursday 27.03. 8–9 pm
Micheál Ó Conghaile and Alan Murrin: Writing the Rural
Both writers set much of their work in their homeplaces on the extreme western seaboard, not just of Ireland, but of Europe. Does writing from the edge have particular qualities? And, if so, are these solely geographical in nature?
Moderated by Magda Birkmann
naTo: Friday 28.03 6–7 pm
Alan Murrin and Louise Kennedy: Women Who Break the Rules
Transgression. What happens to Irish women who break the rules? The debut novels by Alan Murrin and Louise Kennedy both present women limited by their circumstances yet keen to gain some control and influence over their own lives and of those they love.
Moderated by Magda Birkmann
Buchmesse Fair, Hall 4 Stand E305: Saturday 29.03 3 pm
Louise Kennedy: Writing Brittle Lives
Louise Kennedy discusses her writing which captures ordinary lives at extraordinary moments. Retrospection, family ties, mortality and the weight of history characterize Kennedy’s work.
Interviewed by translator Hans-Christian Oeser.
Louise Kennedy is the author of Transgression / Übertretung (Steidl, 2023) and the forthcoming The End of the World is a Dead End / Das Ende der Welt ist eine Sackgasse (Steidl, 2025).
Alan Murrin is the author of The Coast Road / Coast Road (DTV, 2025).
Micheál Ó Conghaile is the author of The Island That Was Ours / Die Insel, die unsere war (Weissbooks, 2024).
If you are attending the fair, feel free to stop by the Literature Ireland stand, Halle 4 / C306.