Featuring Tony Macaulay, Michael Magee, Michelle Gallen & Lizz Murphy

Lizz Murphy was born in Belfast but has shared her time between the Australian bush and Canberra for over 40 years. She has worked in publishing, arts marketing, arts and poetry development, community arts and the media. She is the former Poetry Editor of The Canberra Times. She has published fourteen books. The Wear of my Face (Spinifex Press, 2021) is her ninth poetry title.

Dr Tony Macaulay is an author, peacebuilder and broadcaster from Belfast. His books Paperboy, Breadboy and All Growed Up are critically acclaimed bestsellers in Ireland. His autobiography Little House on the Peace Line tells the story of how he lived and worked on the peace line in North Belfast in the 1980s. His latest book, Kill the Devil: A Love Story from Rwandais co-authored with Rwandan screenwriter Juvens Nsabimana.

Michael Magee is from Poleglass. His debut novel, Close to Home, has received widespread acclaim, and is the story of Sean, a graduate, involved in a drunken assault on a night out, and follows his reflections—the struggles of his working-class upbringing and the lingering shadows that the Troubles have cast on the ‘ceasefire generation’

‘Kneecap meets Chekhov—no one else is doing this. I had great hopes for this novel and Michael Magee has booted it out of the park. Absolutely glorious’ – Louise Kennedy

Factory Girls is Michelle Gallen’s darkly comic follow-up to Big Girl, Small Town (currently being adapted for TV). The main character is smart-mouthed and filthy-minded Maeve Murray who is in a summer job, ironing 800 shirts a day, hoping that her A-Level results will be her ticket out of the North. It is 1994, pre-ceasefire, and there is the divisive marching season to contend with… and the paws of her English boss, Handy Andy Strawbridge, to dodge.

‘Vital, bang-on, and seriously funny’ – Roddy Doyle
‘A cracking, confident follow-up: at times savagely funny, but with a loamy undertow of complex feeling’ – The Times

Chaired by Marnie Kennedy, Shared Reading facilitator.

This event is hosted by Stories@theDuncairn, a volunteer-led, community literary project, in partnership with the Greater New Lodge Community Festival and Féile an Phobail.

Café at the Duncairn open for tea, coffee and refreshments. Wine Reception. All welcome!