Literary Events

The wellspring of Irish literature is gushing these days with inspiring new novelists, short story writers, poets and scholars publishing, reading and discussing their latest works.

Irish folklore and heritage get top billing at the John J. Burns Library at Boston College on March 12. Editors Cormac O’Malley and Patrick Mahoney discuss their new book, The Enchanted Bay: Tales and Legends from Ernie O’Malley’s Irish Folklore Collection, while local author Vincent J. Quealy, Jr. talks about his book, Reflections of an Irish Grandson.

On March 27, award-winning non-fiction author Eric Jay Dolin talk about his book, Rebels At Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution at the Andover Center for History and Culture.

Several well-known fiction writers from New England are speaking in March, starting with Mayo native and Newburyport resident Áine Greaney. She reads from her wonderful new short story collection, Trespassers and Other Stories, on March 8 at Jabberwocky Bookshop in Newburyport and on March 18 at Salisbury Public Library.

New York Times best-selling author and Cape Cod resident Elin Hilderbrand is kicking off Quincy 400 festivities on March 13 at the Granite Links Restaurant in Milton. University of Maine Irish scholar Michael Connolly reads from his novel Ever the Twain Shall Meet at Lawrence Heritage State Park on March 16.

And finally, the most anticipated literary event of the Irish season is novelist Niall Williams, who reads from his new book, Time of the Child, at Porter Square Book Store in Cambridge on March 25. Niall is author of nine best-selling novels, all of them fictional meditations on the rhythms of rural life and the inner lives of the quiet, steady people who live there.

Williams’ novel, Four Letters of Love, has been turned into a soon-to-be-released movie starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne. Niall and his wife, American artist Christine Breen, live in Co. Clare and have written several books together, most recently In Kiltumper: A Year in an Irish Garden.

Find complete details on these and other events at irishboston.org.