‘Meeting of minds’ as top writers join forces for free event at Druid

American author Alice McDermott, who has been commissioned by Druid Theatre to write a new play, will join novelist Mike McCormack for a public conversation at Druid’s Mick Lally Theatre on Wednesday next, March 21.

These two top-class authors will discuss the writing process and their own work during this intimate event in the tiny theatre space.

Druid’s Artistic Director, Garry Hynes, is anticipating “a brilliant meeting of minds”, at the evening.

“I’ve long been an admirer of Alice’s writing so it’s a great honour to have her under commission for Druid. This once-off event with the fantastic Mike McCormack in our own Mick Lally Theatre, should be a great evening out,” says Ms Hynes.

The authors will also give a talk at 2pm on Wednesday next as part of the Druid Academy at NUIG.

Alice McDermott is one of the USA’s foremost writers.  The Ninth Hour, her eight novel, was a finalist in the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2017 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Time Magazine, The Library Journal and The Wall Street Journal listed it among 2017’s top ten works of fiction. Her seventh novel, Someone, published in 2013, was a New York Times bestseller, a finalist in the Dublin IMPAC Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Patterson Prize for Fiction, and The Dayton Literary Peace Prize.  Someone was also long-listed for the National Book Award.

Three previous novels, After This, At Weddings and Wakes and That Night, were Pulitzer Prize finalists. Charming Billy won the National Book Award for fiction in 1998 and was a finalist for the Dublin IMPAC Award.  That Night was also a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award and The Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her stories, essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Harpers, Commonweal and elsewhere. Her numerous awards include the Whiting Writers Award, the Carrington Award for Literary Excellence, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for American Literature.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.