Irish Writers' Weekend: Maggie O'Farrell

In conversation with Martin Doyle.

At this special event to open the British Library Irish Writers' Weekend, one of the finest novelists working today discusses her tenth novel Land, her most ambitious to date, and first since an Oscar nomination for the poignant screenplay of her novel Hamnet. Beginning on a windswept peninsula on the west of Ireland and charting an odyssey through loss, hope and reunion, Land, is an epic new tale of place, colonisation and rebellion inspired by Maggie O’Farrell’s own family history.

Maggie joins Martin Doyle, Books Editor of The Irish Times, in conversation.

Please note, this event is not included in Irish Writers’ Weekend day and weekend passes and separate tickets are required. Tickets to watch live online or within 14 days on catch up are also available.

The Irish Writers' Weekend is supported by Culture Ireland.

In 2020, her novel Hamnet won the Waterstones Book of the Year and the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020. Maggie co-wrote the screenplay for the Academy-Award nominated film of Hamnet, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley and directed by Chloé Zhao. Maggie’s other novels include After You’d Gone, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand that First Held Mine (which won a Costa Book Award), Instructions for a Heatwave and This Must Be the Place. In 2017 she released her first non-fiction work, the memoir I Am, I Am, I Am.

During his career Martin has time has interviewed many of the most talented and successful Irish writers at different stages of their careers. He is the author of Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Home Place (Merrion Press, 2023). His new book A Hosting: Interviews with Irish Writers 1991-2026 collects more than 50 of his interviews with Irish authors: from the late Brian Moore to Sally Rooney, Claire Keegan and Anne Enright.