From May 16th-25th, International Literature Festival Dublin brings over 200 events across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, film, music and performance to Dublin's Merrion Square.
Below, we've selected 10 must-see events at the capital's premiere book bash...
Headliners include trailblazing US writer, cultural critic and commentator Roxane Gay, who brings her unique brand of radical honesty to Dublin on Thursday 22nd May.
Vincenzo Latronico and Naoise Dolan discuss why writing is about breaking things in order to put them back together again on Friday 16th. Seen through the eyes of two Berlin-based hipsters, Latronico’s International Booker Prize 2025 shortlisted novel Perfection astutely skewers contemporary privilege and the disparity between social media and real life.
Faith in globalisation has been fatally undermined by the pandemic, energy crisis, tariff and trade frictions and power rivalry. What if globalisation fails is the subject on Friday 16th, when journalist Ben Chu, Policy and Analysis Correspondent at BBC Verify, discusses his book Exile Economics with barrister Ingrid Miley, formerly RTÉ Industry and Employment Correspondent.
The Mind Keeps the Score (Tuesday 20th) features ABC News Chief International Correspondent James Longman, whose experiences with depression prompted him to wonder if he had inherited mental illness, and specialist psychotherapist Owen O’Kane, one of the UK’s leading mental health experts. They discuss their fascinating new books, The Inherited Mind (Longman) and Addicated to Anxiety (O’Kane).
With the controversial relationship between AI and literature a major news topic, The Cost of Truth (Wednesday 21st) sees authors Jo Callaghan and Ian Green talking to Adrian Weckler, Irish Independent technology editor. AI researcher Callaghan’s spellbinding mystery Human Remains features the world’s first AI detective, while Green’s novel Extremophile is a breakneck biohacking thriller set in climate-collapse London.
Discover how the stories around Irish words reveal a unique perspective on Ireland’s landscape, weather, relationships, feelings and the body on Friday 23rd when Hector Ó hEochagáin tells Patrick Freyne about his award-winning Irish Words You Should Know, described by Tommy Tiernan as "The best book on the Irish language I have ever read".
Modern retellings can transform our understanding of a novel. On Sunday 25th, Aimée de Jongh, Xiaolu Guo and Clara Kumagai talk to Martina Devlin about finding inspiration in classic literature: respectively, Lord of the Flies, Moby Dick and Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.
Also on the 25th, Serhii Plokhy, Professor of History at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, discusses his gripping account of the chaos and disaster that unfolded at Ukraine’s nuclear plant from the first day of Russia’s 2022 invasion. A remarkable story of uncertainty and courage, Chernobyl Roulette sounds the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in these unprecedented times.
In a packed programme of stories, songs, drawing, and writing for children of all ages, two highlights include The Ultimate Comic Creation Event with comic book artist Will Sliney on Sunday 18th May, where he’ll get everyone drawing Spider-Man.
On Saturday 24th May, author and illustrator Laura Ellen Anderson, creator of Amelia Fang, introduces Marnie Midnight the moon-loving moth in Make Your Own Minibeast on the Minibeast Mission!
International Literature Festival Dublin runs From May 16th-25th - find out more here.
