Wexford Literary Festival

2pm – 3pm Peter Murphy reads from his critically acclaimed John the Revelator and Shall We Gather at The River and also works from his new story featured Being Various – New Stories by Irish Contemporary writers. Enjoy

some tea and food while listening to some new tales and Peter in conversation with Johnny Lappin IMRO and music events instigator, author of In a Lifetime: From Hozier to U2.

3.15pm – 4pm Emer Martin in Conversation with Helena Mulkerns. Emer Martin, is an Irish novelist based in CA, US, an exhibited painter and international film-maker who has also lived in Paris, London, the Middle East, and the United States. Her first novel, Breakfast in Babylon, described the life of a young Irishwoman in the Parisian underworld and won Book of the Year at the 1996 Listowel Writers’ Week. She converses with Helana Mulkerns, a freelance writer and author whose debut title, Ferenji, was published by Doire Press and her story “Dogs” shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards.  She has been internationally anthologised and was shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize and the Francis MacManus awards among others. She previously worked as a journalist (Irish Times, Hot Press, New York Times), and as a press officer with the United Nations. Currently, she is working on her debut novel and is often in Wexford for the arts event she founded and performs in, The Cáca Milis Cabaret. Recently, Ferenji was optioned for film adaptation and its second edition will be available at our Festival.

4pm – 5pm Imelda O’Reilly in Conversation with Fintan Kelly (Including short film screenings).

Imelda O’Reilly is an independent Irish filmmaker from Kildare known forexploring themes of identity, exile and longing in her work. She is also a published poetand playwright. Her award winning short films have been screened at fifty film festivalsinternationally around the world, including Rhode Island International Film Festival,International Film Festival de Creteil, WorldFest Houston International Film Festival,Festival de Cine International Barcelona, and the Richard Harris International FilmFestival.As a commissioned writer on Song For New York with Mabou Mines her work wasdeveloped through the Sundance Theater Lab and New York Theater Workshop. Shedid writing residences at Vassar College, Bard College and UCross Foundation. She hadtwo of her plays produced at the CSV in Manhattan by Deadalus Theater Company titled Fazinate and Emilita and the Fairy Glen. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Morocco where her film Bricks, Beds and Sheep’s Heads was a Regional Finalist for the Student Academy Awards. Other grants include a Provost Grant and a College of Arts and Letters Grant fromJames Madison University, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York Women in Film, The Irish Arts Council, Culture Ireland, The City University of New York, and a Critical Language Enhancement Award in Morocco. Imelda completed her short film Eggs and Soldiers that won an award of excellence at the Broadcast Education Association. It also won the Tonino Guerra Award a screenwriting award from the Chicago Art-house Blow-Up Film Festival. In addition, it received awards from Accolade Competition, Global Shorts, Los Angeles and IndieFestFilm Awards. Eggs and Soldiers has screened on RTE and is distributed throughShortsTV Europe. It has screened at 50 festivals across nine different countries. Imeldahas a collection of poems titled I Wake In Half Dream published by Lapwing Press.Her fiction appears in an anthology of Irish fiction titled Shenanigans published byScepter in the UK.She is currently developing four feature films. Beneath the Boy’s Cry, an Irish thriller set in war-torn Ireland. This screenplay has also been a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriters lab. Most recently her feature screenplay Beneath the Boy’s Cry was selected as the “Best Of” the festival at the Broadcast Education Association for 2017.She is also developing Article 475 a thriller set in Morocco and Emilita and the Asian Glen an animated film. Her feature screenplay We’re the Kids in America was selected for the Moving Picture Institute Screenwriting Fellowship. More recently We’re the Kids in America was an official selection of L’Atélier Cinéfondation that is part of the Cannes International Film Festival for 2018. It was also a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriting Lab in 2018. She currently has Barbara DeFina attached as Producer for this project. The screenplay also received an Honorable Mention from the Stowe Story Labs and a “Best Of” competition from the Broadcast Education Association in 2019. She has an MFA in film from Columbia University. Imelda spent three years in Singapore as an Arts Professor in the Graduate Film Program for New York University Tisch Asia. Prior to NYU she taught at Barnard College, Hunter College and the School for VisualArts. She is currently an Assistant Professor at James Madison University. Her short film Eggs & Soldiers with be shown with Fintan Kelly’s, Ignatius.