Sat 8th Nov
2:00 - 3:30pm
Theatre 2

The seminar with Donal Ryan offers participants an opportunity to discuss, in a conversational format, the novels and the writing life of one of Ireland's outstanding new authors.

Donal Ryan is from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. He currently lives in Limerick with his wife Anne Marie and their two young children. Donal’s number one bestselling  debut novel, The Spinning Heart, co-published by The Lilliput Press and Doubleday Ireland, won overall Book of the Year at the 2012 Irish Book Awards. Donal also won Newcomer of the Year for 2012. The Spinning Heart was released in the UK and Commonwealth in June 2013 and was selected for the Waterstones Eleven. 

The Spinning Heart was long-listed for the 2013 Man Booker Prize and won the 2013 Guardian First Book Award. The book has also been shortlisted for the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and long-listed for the 2014 Desmond Elliot Award.

Donal’s second novel, The Thing About December, became a number one bestseller shortly after its release in October 2013. It was shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2013 and is on the five-strong shortlist for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year for 2014.  The Spinning Heart entered the Boston Globe bestseller list on its first week of release in the US in February 2014. The Thing About December will be released in the US this September. 

Donal Ryan is Limerick’s Person of the Year for 2013.