Are You Somebody? Why it Remains Relevant 30 Years Later

Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain – Why it Remains Relevant 30 Years Later

Jackie Lynam interviews Katriona O Sullivan (Poor and Hungry: A Biography of My Body) and Sinéad Gleeson (Hagstone and Constellations: Reflections from Life).

THE PANELISTS

SINÉAD GLEESON’s essay collection Constellations: Reflections from Life won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Literary Award for Emerging Writer. It was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Michel Déon Prize and has been translated into several languages. She is the editor of four anthologies including The Art of the Glimpse and the award-winning The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers, and The Glass Shore: Short Stories. Sinéad has engaged in multi-disciplinary collaborations with artists and musicians, including commissions from The Wellcome Collection, the RHA Gallery, BBC, Rua Red Gallery and Frieze. In 2002, she edited This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music with Kim Gordon. Her debut novel, Hagstone, was published in 2024 by 4th Estate. It was longlisted for 2025 Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for the 2025 John McGahern Book Prize.

KATRIONA O'SULLIVAN is a Professor in the Faculty of Science at Maynooth University, a psychologist, speaker and award-winning author. As one of five children in a home shaped by her parents' heroin addiction, Katriona's story chronicles her journey from poverty, teenage pregnancy and homelessness to graduating with a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and becoming an award-winning lecturer whose work challenges barriers to education. Her new best-selling memoir, Hungry, is the biography of her body. It has received critical acclaim and has been translated into several languages. Her first memoir, Poor, is an international bestseller. It has sold over 250,000 copies and has been translated into eight languages so far. It was adapted into a critically acclaimed theatre production by The Gate in Ireland and the Belgrade Theatre Coventry, UK.

JACKIE LYNAM is a writer from Dublin. Her poems have been published in several journals and anthologies, and she has been shortlisted for the Anthony Cronin International Short Poem Award and RTÉ’s The Prompt writing competition. Her writing has also featured in the Irish Independent and on RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany programme. Her debut chapbook Traces: Poems and Essays was published in 2023.

This event is supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.