LITERATURE

An Evening with Peter Behrens

in association with
Consulate General of Canada
and
Glucksman Ireland House – New York University

Tuesday, March 6 | 7:30 pm

"Behrens is a natural storyteller and his scope is vast." —VANCOUVER SUN

“epic, a piece of rough beauty itself” –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

An unforgettable saga of love, loss, and exhilaratingchange spanning half a century in the lives of a restless family.

The O'Briens is a tale that pours straight from the heart of a splendid, tragic, ambitious clan. Picking up a generation later from Behrens’ award-winningThe Law of Dreams—a harrowing tale of potato famine Ireland and immigration—we now meet Joe O’Brien, a fiercely compelling character who exchanges isolation and poverty in the Canadian wilds for a share in the dazzling possibilities and consuming sorrows of the twentieth century. When Joe meets Iseult Wilkins we begin the story of a marriage and a family moving through history—from the first flying machines, through two world wars, and the election of JFK—told with epic precision and wondrous imagination.

Peter Behrens is the author of The Law of Dreams and Night Driving, a collection of short stories. His short stories and essays have appeared in many publications, including The Atlantic and Tin House. He has received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, among other honors. 

Admission: FREE

If you need assistance placing your order, call 866-811-4111.

Irish Arts Center Book Day 2012

in association with
New York City Council,
Culture Ireland
Solas Nua

Friday, March 16 | Early morning until the books run out!

Irish Arts Center will kick off the Friday of St. Patrick’s Day weekend with the second annual Irish Arts Center Book Day! Keep an eye out for Book Day volunteers handing out 10,000 works by Irish and Irish American authors, free, at subway stops and transportation hubs across all five boroughs. Be in the know on Book Day locations and other Book Day buzz by following our up-to-the-minute Twitter (#IACBookDay) and Facebook updates.

Spanish and Chinese translations will be available!

Thank you for the generous support of our publishing sponsors, including Ireland Literature Exchange; The Overlook Press; Riverhead Books, A Division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.; Stinging Fly Press & Magazine; Harper Perennial; Pantheon Books, a division of Random House

Get involved!

For volunteer, book donation and sponsorship opportunities promoting this day of literacy and Irish culture, contact 212-757-3318 ext 209.

Thank you to Glucksman Ireland House – New York University and the New York Irish Center for helping make Book Day 2012 a success.

This program is supported, in part, by Culture Ireland, the agency for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide, and Deborah and Brian Henry.

Irish Arts Center Book Day is inspired by a similar event run by Solas Nua in Washington D.C. since 2006.

An Evening with Meghan O’Rourke
in conversation with Belinda McKeon

Tuesday, April 3 | 7:30 pm

“a beautiful memoir about her loss of a truly irreplaceable mother—yes, it is sad, it is in fact heartrending, but it is many things more: courageous, inspiring, wonderfully intelligent and informed, and an intimate portrait of an American family” —Joyce Carol Oates

Join us for an evening with celebrated poet and critic Meghan O’Rourke, for the paperback launch of her recent memoir The Long Goodbye. O’Rourke will be joined in conversation by IAC PoetryFest and Dublin’s DLR Poetry Now curator Belinda McKeon.

The Long Goodbye chronicles the author’s path through grief after the loss of her mother to cancer at age fifty-five. Recording the endeavor ultimately bloomed into a profound look at the fleeting moments of joy that make up a life and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss.

Meghan O’Rourke began her career as one of the youngest editors in the history of The New Yorker. She has served as an editor for Slate and The Paris Review, and her essays, criticism, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker,  The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Vogue, and more. O’Rourke is also the author of the poetry collections Once (2011) and Halflife (2007).

Admission: FREE

If you need assistance placing your order, call 866-811-4111.

An Evening with Kathleen Hill
in conversation with Mary Gordon

Tuesday, May 1 | 7:30 pm

“A memorable portrait of a family’s identity.” —Publishers Weekly

“If you love Howard’s End, To The Lighthouse, Joyce’s Dubliners…this is the book for you.” — Mary Gordon

A 2010 New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Kathleen Hill’s finely wrought novel Who Occupies This House tells the story of four generations of an Irish American family, faced with the imminent sale of the family home they have lived in for almost a century. Join us for an evening with Kathleen Hill in conversation with Mary Gordon, professor at Barnard and author of several bestselling novels, including Final Payments and The Company of Women.

Kathleen Hill teaches in the M.F.A. program at Sarah Lawrence College. Her first novel Still Waters in Niger was named a notable book by The New York Times,Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and was nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Award. Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize XXV, and The Pushcart Book of Short Stories.

Admission: FREE

Reserve through irishartscenter.org or 866-811-4111

Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage
An Audio Book Launch with Music, Song and Storytelling

Tuesday, May 15 | 7:30 pm

A magical evening of music and story that conjures a vanished Dublin.

Author Honor Molloy joins forces with actor Aedin Moloney (Dancing at Lughansa) and Grammy Award-winner Susan McKeown to celebrate the publication of Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage. Molloy’s autobiographical novel is a tender, irresistible and raucous portrait of 1960sDublin, as seen through the eyes of a precocious little girl with a fierce imagination. The audio book will come alive with readings by Moloney and Molloy, and music sung by McKeown (Simon & Schuster Audio).

“I have seen many perform their written work over the last forty years, but it is easy to say that Honor Molloy, on the page or in person, is one of the very best I have ever experienced.”  –Stanley Crouch, critic, columnist, novelist

Honor Molloy holds an MFA from Brown University and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Born in Dublin, Honor Molloy lives in Brooklyn.

Admission: FREE

If you need assistance placing your order, call 866-811-4111.

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