I was delighted to be asked to read at an event to celebrate five years of Banshee, one of Ireland’s most exciting literary journals (Ireland has a lot of literary journals, for our size, so the competition is stiff), alongside Kevin Power, Bebe Ashley, Marie Gethins and Tom Vowler, with Eimear Ryan hosting. Kevin and Tom read excerpts from their novels, Bebe from her new poetry collection Gold Light Shining (available from Banshee Press here!) and Marie from her flash fiction. All are gifted writers who are very much worth your time.
I read from an essay that I haven’t finished yet, which is about a period earlier this year when my mother was admitted to hospital during the early days of Ireland’s first Covid-19 lockdown. Thankfully she is fine now, but any essayist will tell you that a happy ending isn’t enough to stop is reflecting and pondering and drawing conclusions, even if we do so from a place of deep gratitude.
You can watch the event back here for free, if you provide an email address: https://dublinbookfestival.com/programme/five-years-of-banshee-press-2/
(The recording also features a sneak preview of Kevin Power’s upcoming novel White City, due out in spring 2021).
A brief content warning for my reading (starts about 17 minutes in): mentions of death, hospitals, illness, bereavement, Covid-19.
Ellen Brickley 