8 - 14 September 2024
Writers & Storytellers
Meet your hosts for this week of wonder…
Niall Williams
Niall is an international best-selling novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and non-fiction author with 14 books to his name. His books have been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, The Irish Books Award, and The Walter Scott Prize. His first novel, Four Letters of Love, was adapted by Niall for the screen and is currently in post-production with the director Polly Steele and an international cast including Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham-Carter, and Gabriel Byrne. His last novel, This Is Happiness, was one of The Washington Post`s Books of the Year and praised by Bonnie Raitt as her favourite book “found in her entire life”. It has been translated into several languages, including Greek. His new novel, Time of the Child, will be published in the autumn '24.
Niall is an experienced teacher of writing, having delivered many workshops. He is currently a mentor and teacher for the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Carlow University, Pittsburgh.
For more on Niall, visit www.niallwilliams.com
Christine Breen
A writer, artist, and master gardener, Christine is a New Yorker by birth. In 1985 she and Niall came to West Clare, Ireland, to live in a two hundred year old stone cottage built by her ancestors. Christine and Niall co-authored four bestselling non-fiction books on country living in Ireland, including O Come Ye Back to Ireland. Christine has written two novels, Her Name is Rose, which was published in the US and translated into Turkish and Polish, and Accidents, a novel in progress, and a travel memoir, So Many Miles to Paradise. In Kiltumper - A Year In An Irish Garden, co-authored with Niall and featuring Christine`s pen and ink drawings and illustrations, was published by Bloomsbury UK & USA in 2021. For thirty years Christine has been Niall`s first editor, as well as the editor for numerous novelists who have gone on to receive publishing contracts.
For more on Christine, visit www.christinebreen.info
Terence Mickey
As a storyteller, Terence has worked in various mediums, from podcasting and film to print and the stage. Working for The Moth as a storytelling coach, he’s prepared everyone from executives at Fortune 100 companies to exonerees for The Innocence Project to share their story. As a podcaster, he created Memory Motel, among other narrative shows, featured in Wired, The Guardian and IndieWire. As a director, he sold his first feature documentary to the Starz Network and he’s written for Vice TV and the Discovery Channel’s Investigation Discovery.
Terence brings his deep understanding of narrative to every medium and helps writers, performers, filmmakers and podcasters find the heart of their story and the best shape, pace and tone for the material.
For more on Terence, visit www.wayfindersessions.com
Ben McGuire
Ben is yet to find a better compass than story to help us find our true north, as individuals, communities, and cultures. A writer, storyteller, editor, lawyer, and film-maker, Ben delights in unlocking human potential by helping those with a story to find their true voice.
He is the author of At Swim, Three Men – A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Swimming, a meditation on grief, loss, love and the rituals of masculinity in the context of long-distance swimming, and is currently waist-deep on the third novel in a trilogy that includes A Song for the Hopes of Crones and The Book of Bloody Brambles. His documentaries include The Surfer and the Birds and Pete`s Last Dance. He takes story to the stage in live storytelling and improvised theatre performances in Europe and Scandinavia.