In 2023 Irish authors made up 50% of the 2023 Booker Prize shortlist and when Paul Lynch took the prize for Prophet Song, he became the sixth Irish novelist to do so in the prize’s less than 60 year history.

Add that to the country’s four Nobel Prize Literature Laureates, and being the home of some of the most impactful classic and contemporary writers of our time, our panel explores: what is it about the Emerald Isle that produces such a concentration of great writers and writing?

Irish Book Awards winner Sinéad Gleeson and Ockham New Zealand Book Awards winner Noelle McCarthy join Kiran Dass to discuss the lauded literary output of their small but mighty isle.

And as two island nations of comparable populations, what links exist between the literature of Ireland and of Aotearoa New Zealand?

Supported by Culture Ireland.