The critically acclaimed author of Big Girl, Small Town and Factory Girls, Michelle Gallen, joins us at The Linen Hall Library for an insightful conversation with Bernie McGill about her work. Fresh from her well-deserved Comedy Women in Print prize, Michelle will delve into how her characters’ narratives are intricately shaped by her deep connection to place, rural life, Northern Ireland politics, and her unique life experiences.

Copies of the book will be available to buy on the evening of this event.

ABOUT MICHELLE GALLEN

Michelle Gallen was born in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s and grew up during the Troubles a few miles from the border between what she was told was the “Free” State and the “United” Kingdom. She studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin, then survived what doctors now suspect was autoimmune encephalitis in her mid-twenties. Her debut novel, Big Girl, Small Town was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. Her critically acclaimed second novel, Factory Girls, was published in 2022. She now lives in Dublin with her husband and kids.

About Bernie McGill

Bernie McGill is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (named by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year in 2012). Her most recent short story collection, This Train is For, was published in 2022 by No Alibis Press and has just been shortlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize. Her first collection of stories, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the prize in 2014 and she is a former winner of the Zoetrope:All-Story Short Fiction Award in the US. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies The Black Dreams, Her Other Language, Belfast Stories, The Long Gaze Back, The Glass Shore and Female Lines.

Book tickets at the Linen Hall Library.