Literature Ireland and the National Library of Ireland present a new series of talks, Translating a Nation. This will be a series of conversations on Irish literature, where it travels and how it is read in translation.
These conversations take inspiration from Literature Ireland’s archive of Irish literature in translation, copies of which are housed in the National Library. The series will celebrate the roles of Irish writers, publishers and translators in bringing Irish literature to a European readership and the Irish readers who read European literature in translation.
6.30pm - 7.30pm, Thursday 9 July 2026.
Location: National Library of Ireland, 7-8 Kildare St, Dublin 2, D02 P638.
Free registration HERE.
Join Niamh Campbell, Mary Costello and Enrico Terrinoni for a conversation on how Ulysses and its many translations have influenced the perception of Ireland across Europe, helping to form new generations of Irish writers. Moderated by critic and writer, Kevin Power.
Niamh Campbell is the author of This Happy, We Were Young and Make Strange. She has won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Niamh named Joyce's "The Dead" as her favourite short story upon winning the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award.
Mary Costello is a bestselling Irish short story writer and novelist living in Galway. Her first novel, Academy Street, won the Irish Novel of the Year award and was named overall Irish Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Her latest novel is A Beautiful Loan. Mary's novel The River Capture was described in the Guardian as a "beautifully modulated novel about a Joyce obsessive whose life has stalled, bending Ulysses to its own ends".
Enrico Terrinoni is a renowned academic, writer and translator, and has translated Irish authors such as Brendan Behan, James Stephens, Oscar Wilde, Michael D. Higgins, George Bernard Shaw and James Joyce (Ulysses, Finnegans Wake and Dubliners, all in collaboration with Fabio Pedone).
Funded as part of the Culture Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2026. In partnership with the National Library of Ireland.
6.30pm - 7.30pm, Thursday 17 September 2026.
Location: National Library of Ireland, 7-8 Kildare St, Dublin 2, D02 P638.
Free registration HERE.
What role do critics, publishers and book clubs play in bringing translated literature to the public? In this event, publisher Stephen Reid and writers Sara Baume and Jan Carson will discuss the importance of reading fiction in translation and consider what can be done to inspire readers to read more widely.
Sara Baume is a writer and visual artist based in West Cork. In 2026, she began writing a new translated fiction column in The Irish Times. Her latest book, a non-fiction work entitled Opening Night, was published by Granta in July 2026.
Jan Carson is the author of four novels, three short-story collections and two micro-fiction collections. In 2022, she co-founded Mexico and Below, a book group that meets in No Alibis bookstore to discuss work in translation. She lives in East Belfast.
Stephen Reid is Publishing Manager of The Lilliput Press. Lilliput has published works in translation by writers Maylis Besserie, Sorj Chalandon and Seosamh Mac Grianna.
Funded as part of the Culture Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2026.