Judy Wells, Evelyn Posamentier, and Natasha Sajé will read as part of the Last Word Reading Series, and there is also an open reading. Judy Wells’ latest poetry collection, The Glass Ship (Sugartown Publishing), completes her trilogy of Irish-themed works, including Everything Irish and Call Home (Scarlet Tanager Books). She…
Ethel Rohan • Green Apple, SF Sep. 14th Ethel Rohan (The Weight of Him, St. Martin’s Press 2017) is at Green Apple Books, 1231 9th Avenue, on Thursday, September 14 at 7:30pm. Ethel will be in conversation with Ben Loory to discuss his new, critically acclaimed book, Tales of Falling…
Evelyn Conlon • Spats, Berkeley, Sep 25 The diaspora, borders, and recalcitrant women and men are recurring themes in the work of Irish writer Evelyn Conlon. Her work “highlights the exceptional and unfathomable depths of what we nonchalantly dismiss as the normal, the everyday … Conlon emerges as champion of…
Micheline Sheehy Skeffington • Sunday, November 12 Hanna and Francis Sheehy Skeffington, nationalists, pacifists, feminists, socialists: their role in early 20th century Ireland National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) Professor Emerita Micheline Sheehy Skeffington will speak on the US organizing activities and political legacy of her grandmother, Hanna…
Exploration with James Silas Rogers • Mar 11 Is there still a distinct Irish identity in America? James Rogers’ new book, Irish-American Autobiography: the Divided Hearts of Athletes, Priests, Pilgrims and More, says yes, though it’s often an indirect one. True, the age of heroic immigration is over, and today…
ILHS St. Patrick's Banquet • Mar 11 The Literary & History Society's Saint Patrick's Banquet this year commemorates the SF Irish Labor Movement, honoring former ILHS Board Chairman Edward Callanan. Tickets and information at ilhssf.org or email event chair Maureen Barry
Join the Irish Studies Program at UC Berkeley for an engaging conversation with Paige Reynolds on Eimear McBride's recent novel, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (2013) FALSE COMFORT: SEX, PRAYER AND MODERNISM IN EIMEAR MCBRIDE'S A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING April 16 5-6:30 pm 300 Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley campus …
Irish Writers at Bay Area Book Festival • April 28 Breaking Literary Ground: Ambitious Young Writers from Ireland features Eimear McBride, David Hayden, and Liz Nugent, April 28, 10am For the third year in a row, the festival showcases some of today’s most powerful writers who come from our land…
Maud Drennan is a dedicated caregiver whose sunny disposition masks a deep sadness. A tragic childhood event left her haunted, in the company of a cast of prattling saints who pop in and out of her life like tourists. Other than visiting her agoraphobic neighbor, Maud keeps to herself, finding…
Following the release of her third studio album ‘Tóraíocht Shonais’ (Pursuit of Happiness), Helena returns to North America in May with her new show ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’. Helena delves into the music, superstitions & folklore of Ireland, alongside incredible stories of Irish emigration through the ages; the Great Famine,…
ReJoyce A Celebration of James Joyce with dramatic readings and song. Saturday June 16th 1-5pm Edinburgh Castle 950 Geary St. Sponsored by the Anna Livia Players More info: 415-728-8573
Bloomsday at Mrs. Dalloway’s Thomas Lynch reads from James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” 2 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley. www.mrsdalloways.com
Music, Readings, and Cuisine! Eat, Drink, Read, and Walk on the Wild Side of Dublin! The evening begins with a special Bloomsday menu with lively musical interludes featuring a Celtic music ensemble with singers Melanie O’Reilly, Esther Mulligan, and John Ilyin accompanied by Anne Goess on violin and others! This…
ILHS Speaker Series 2018 • Sep 30 Carl Nolte on his life and career in San Francisco – “From Portrero Hill to Fifth & Mission” Carl Nolte began his long journalistic career in San Francisco in 1961. Since then he has observed and reported on some of the biggest news…
Check out the exquisite new publication of The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, with an introduction by Merlin Holland, Wilde’s grandson, at Presidio-based fine press book publisher Arion Press. Artist Sandow Birk will talk about his illustrations, which put a very modern-day twist into these 130-year-old tales. The deluxe…
The ILHS presents writer Emer Martin, who will speak about her widely acclaimed new novel The Cruelty Men, a sweeping multi-generational account of an Irish-speaking family who moved from Kerry to the Meath Gaeltacht and the disasters that befall their children in Irish institutions. Sunday, Jan 27th, 5pm at the UICC,…
ILHS Celebrates Irish Diaspora of Australia on March 10 with Mairéid Sullivan, author, singer/song writer and historian– West Cork born, San Francisco raised, and Australian citizen Irish Literary and Historical Society of San Francisco will team with Mairéid Sullivan to present the storied Irish diaspora of Australia at a luncheon…
Youth Musical Theater Company (YMTC) continues its 14th season with A Man of No Importance. The show opens Saturday, March 9, at the El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Theater. Set in Dublin, Ireland, A Man of No Importance is from the same artistic team who created Ragtime. Alfie Byrne…
Youth Musical Theater Company (YMTC) continues its 14th season with A Man of No Importance. The show opens Saturday, March 9, at the El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Theater. Set in Dublin, Ireland, A Man of No Importance is from the same artistic team who created Ragtime. Alfie Byrne…
Poetry Flash presents a poetry reading by Susan Millar DuMars and Austin Smith. Irish-American poet Susan Millar DuMars is visiting from Ireland for this reading. Her new book of poems is Naked: New and Selected. Poetry Ireland Review says, “Her poetry, influenced by the directness of the American tradition, comes as a breath of fresh…
Celebrate national poetry month with Whitney Modern, and hear Montalvo Lucas Artist Fellow and former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, Sally Ashton, read from her latest book of poems, The Behaviour of Clocks, which uses Einstein’s famous thought experiments to transcend poetic inquiry into time and memory. Thought inducing poetry…
Visual displays play an important political role in Northern Ireland. They are often the most visible sign of sectarian division and attitudes in a society still marked by division thirty years after the end of the so-called ‘Troubles’. Violence still prevails in that country and sometimes it coalesces around Orange…
Join distinguished historian and Professor, David Emmons, as he returns to ILHS and shares excerpts from his upcoming manuscript, tentatively titled: Fosterland: Irish Catholics in Protestant America, 1830-1930. Emmons is the author of two prize winning Irish American books: The Butte Irish: Class and Ethnicity in an American Mining Town and Beyond…
Join authors Chang-Rae Lee and Dublin-born Eavan Boland, as they discuss diasporic literature. Both authors share inspirational stories of emigration, and will lecture on their impressions of diasporic literature, culture, and experience. This free event is held at Levinthal Hall, Stanford, on May 1.
Three celebrated Irish writers – Mike McCormack (Solar Bones); Catherine Ryan Howard (Distress Signals) and Emilie Pine (Notes to Self) – join the Bay Area Book Festival lineup for “Writing Irish” (1pm). Crime writer Catherine Ryan Howard takes part in “Criminally Good Writing” at (10am).
CALENDAR SPONSORED IN PART BY THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF IRELAND, SAN FRANCISCO