Nollaig na mBan: Women of Magic and Science

The Irish Writers Centre will be kicking off the new year with their legendary annual celebration of Nollaig na mBan. Originally a day off for Ireland’s hard-working women immediately after Christmas, the Irish Writers Centre reimagines this tradition by showcasing extraordinary women writers in Ireland.

For this year’s theme, WOMEN OF MAGIC AND SCIENCE, expect explorations of witchcraft, tarot talk and scientific endeavour: from Ireland’s first female botanist, Ellen Hutchins to women working in the field of quantum physics today. Award-winning poet Jessica Traynor will host the evening’s celebration which takes place for the first time at Pearse Street Library in Dublin. Look forward to an evening of phenomenal readings, spirited discussion and live music.

Remember to bring a book!

As in previous years, we’re encouraging those attending to take part in a New Year’s Kris Kindle extravaganza. Bring along a much-loved book by a woman writer, wrap it and label or tag it with a description of no more than three lines. If you bring a book, you go home with one too!

*Drinks provided* We will be serving complimentary wine, whiskey and soft drinks on the night. We would like to thank Dublin Liberties Distillery who will be providing us with a fabulous selection of whiskey!

Special Guests: 

Jessica Traynor is a poet, dramaturg, essayist, and poetry editor at Banshee. Her third poetry collection Pit Lullabies (Bloodaxe, 2022) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, an Irish Times book of the year, and a Guardian Best Summer Read of 2022. It was shortlisted for the Yeats Society Sligo/ Irish Independent Poetry Prize. She is 2024 recipient of the Tundish Award from Field Day for contributions to the arts in Ireland and the 2023 recipient of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry. She was 2023 Arts Council Writer in Residence in Galway University, a judge for the 2023 Forward Prizes, and is a critic for The Irish Times. Her next poetry collection, New Arcana, is forthcoming from Bloodaxe Books in 2025.

Zoé Basha is a musician, composer and carpenter, of French and American origins. Based between Ireland and the traveling life for over a decade, Zoé blends traditional singing with jazz blues. Drawing from the sway of Appalachian mountain songs, the solemn ornamentation of Irish traditional song, the playfulness of American ragtime and the fervour of the blues, this evocative voice is one that will stay with you.

Marianne Lee grew up in Tullamore, Co. Offaly and now lives in Dublin. She has a degree in Visual Communications from the National College of Art and Design and an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin. She works as a designer and copywriter. Her debut novel, A Quiet Tide, a fictionalised account of the life of Ellen Hutchins, Ireland’s first female botanist, was published in 2020 by New Island. A Quiet Tide was shortlisted for the 2021 Kate O’Brien Award and featured on RTÉ Radio One Book on One in spring 2022.

Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan is an Indian-Irish writer, performer, and cultural consultant from India. Her work has been published by Dedalus Press, Little Island, Banshee, Stinging Fly, Poetry Ireland, and others. She was a Science Gallery Dublin Rapid Residency artist in 2021, was the Writer in Residence for the Institute of Physics in 2023, and is a 2024 Goethe-Institut Studio Quantum Artist in Residence. She is currently under commission with Skein Press.

Nuala O’Connor lives in Galway. Her sixth novel Seaborne, about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny, was published in April 2024 by New Island; it’s shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. Her novel NORA (New Island), about Nora Barnacle and James Joyce, was a Top 10 historical novel in the New York Times. She won Irish Short Story of the Year at the 2022 Irish Book Awards. She is EIC of flash e-journal Splonk; founder of The Peers writing group, and a founder member of the Group 8 artist collective. www.nualaoconnor.com

Anne Tannam is the author of four poetry collections: Take This Life (Wordonthestreet 2011), Tides Shifting Across My Sitting Room Floor (Salmon 2017), Twenty-six Letters of a New Alphabet ( Salmon 2021) and dismantle (Salmon 2024). She is the current Poet in Residence with Poetry Ireland (2023 – 2025). For more on her poetry, visit www.annetannampoetry.ie

Sophie White is a novelist, essayist and podcaster from Dublin. She also holds a First-Class Honours degree in Sculpture from NCAD. She is the author of seven books. Her first four books, Recipes for a Nervous Breakdown (Gill 2016), Filter This (Hachette, 2019), Unfiltered (Hachette, 2020) and The Snag List (Hachette, 2022) have all been bestsellers and award nominees. Her fifth book, the bestselling memoir Corpsing (Tramp Press, 2021), was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award and the Michel Déon Prize for non-fiction. Her sixth book, Where I End (Tramp Press, 2022) was described as “brilliantly visceral”  by the Guardian and “exquisite and disturbing, brutish and beautifully crafted” by The Irish Times. It won the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. Her seventh book and fifth novel, My Hot Friend (Hachette, 2023) won the An Post Irish book Award for Popular Fiction.

Representing the Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann, an organisation dedicated to defending the right to responsible freedom of expression, Shauna Gilligan is a professional member of the Irish Writers Centre who facilitates creative writing in community and prison settings. Her prose has been widely published and she has received numerous awards for writing including the Cecil Day Lewis Literary Bursary for Literature (2015) and a Creative Ireland Grant (2021). Recently awarded a Brigid 1500 Grant (Kildare Co. Co.), she co-edited the anthology of writing and visual art, Fire: Brigid and The Sacred Feminine (Arlen House: Dublin, 2024). She is represented by Charlotte Seymour at Johnson & Alcock Literary Agency, London.

Shauna will be joined by Celia de Fréine, board member of Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann, Celia writes in many genres in Irish and English. Awards for her poetry include the Patrick Kavanagh Award, Gradam Litríochta Chló Iar-Chonnacht, the British Comparative Literature Association Translation Award. To date she has published eleven collections of which Focal den Fhírinne : A Grain of Truth (Arlen House, 2024) is the most recent. LeabhairCOMHAR published her new and selected poems  Aoi ag Bord na Teanga in 2022. Her plays, film and television scripts have won numerous awards in Ireland and the US. She has been nominated four times on various shortlists in An Post Irish Book Awards. www.celiadefreine.com

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