Events

Readings, festivals and one teaching day a year. Everything confirmed, and what you need to know before you book.

The diary

Everything that is confirmed

Dates go up here as soon as they are signed. Past dates stay on the list so you can see what a year actually looks like.

  1. 14 Mar 2026

    Launch night: The Salt Line

    Charlotte Quay Books, Dublin Launch

    The first public reading from the new book, with a conversation and a signing afterwards. Doors at seven.

    Book a seat

  2. 02 Apr 2026

    In conversation: writing the coast

    Spring Words Festival, Cork Festival

    An hour on harbour towns, parish records and what a place remembers about itself.

    Book a seat

  3. 19 Apr 2026

    A day on first chapters

    The Old Customs House, Galway Workshop

    Twelve places. Bring nine hundred words of something unfinished and a thick skin.

    Sold out

  4. 08 May 2026

    Reading and questions

    Marchmont Library, Edinburgh Reading

    No booking, no tickets, tea afterwards in the reading room.

    Free entry

  5. 30 May 2026

    The Salt Line, in translation

    Maison de la Litterature, Nantes Talk

    With my French translator, in both languages, mostly badly on my side.

    Book a seat

  6. 21 Jun 2026

    Summer reading on the pier

    Rossmore Harbour Festival, County Mayo Reading

    Outdoors, weather permitting, which it will not.

    Free entry

  7. 12 Sep 2026

    Prize evening, guest reader

    Kestrel Story Award, Limerick Talk

    Reading and presenting. Invitation only.

    By invitation

  8. 23 Nov 2025

    Annual lecture: the sea as an archive

    Maritime Institute, Belfast Talk

    A recording is on the institute site.

    Past

  9. 04 Oct 2025

    Harbour Light, one year on

    Long Walk Books, Galway Launch

    With six of the nineteen contributors.

    Past

Booking

What a programmer usually asks

How far ahead do you book?
Nine to twelve months for festivals, less for a bookshop evening. If it is inside three months, ask anyway; I keep a few dates back for the ones that turn out to matter.
What do you need on the night?
A lectern or a table, a glass of water, and a microphone if the room seats more than sixty. I bring my own copies if you would rather not carry stock, and I will sign for as long as there is a queue.
What does it cost?
Festivals and literature venues pay the going rate for the country they are in and I do not negotiate downwards for organisations that pay everyone else. Libraries and schools are a different conversation and usually a shorter one.
Do you travel?
Ireland and the UK by train wherever the timetable allows, which is most places. Further afield twice a year, usually where a translation has just come out. Travel and one night are the venue's; I book my own.
Is the venue accessible?
Ask me and I will ask you, in writing, before we announce. I have pulled out of one event over this and I would do it again.
Can you do it online?
Yes, and for book groups it is often better. Forty minutes, camera on, and I would rather read to twelve people who have finished the book than two hundred who have not.
An evening reading, from the back of the room

Bringing me to your festival, library or bookshop

Tell me the room, the month and roughly how many people. I answer booking mail myself, usually within a day or two.

Start a booking See the books first