BANVILLE at 80

To conclude our special literary programme in appreciation of the writing life of Wexford born author John Banville and to celebrate his upcoming 80^th birthday, Wexford Public Library Service is honoured to present:

John Banville in conversation with Professor Derek Hand (DCU).

The format for the event will be a relaxed style interview with questions related to the authors writing life and literary works, posed by Professor Hand.

John Banville was born in Wexford in 1945. He was educated at Christian Brothers School and St. Peter’s College, Wexford. He worked for Aer Lingus, which enabled him to travel widely. He was the literary editor of the Irish Times for eleven years. His first published work, Long Lankin was a collection of short stories. Since then, he has published many well-reviewed and prize-winning novels, several of which are based on real people. In 1989 The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was awarded the first Guinness Peat Aviation Award. In 2005 Banville won the Man Booker Prize for his novel, The Sea.
He has also written a number of crime novels under the pseudonym Benjamin Black the first three of which were filmed by the BBC Drama staring Gabriel Byrne, Nick Dunning and Michael Gambon. More recently the Quirke & Stafford Crime Mystery’s, Snow, April in Spain the Lock-Up and The Drowned were published as John Banville. He has also written two plays and five screenplays for both cinema and television.

Professor Derek Hand is currently the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Dublin City University. The Liffey Press published his book John Banville: Exploring Fictions in 2002. He edited a special edition of the Irish University Review on John Banville in 2006. His A History of the Irish Novel: 1665 to the present was published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. He is also the co-editor of a collection of essays on John McGahern entitled, Essays on John McGahern: Assessing a Literary Legacy published by Cork University Press in 2019. He is currently working on a book for the Routledge Press, The Celtic Tiger Novel: Reading Literature, Culture and Society and co-editing a volume Companion to the Contemporary Irish Novel (1980-2020) for Syracuse University Press.

Booking is essential.