“[Soldier Sailor] is a blistering account of that twilit zone of early motherhood.” – Jane Feaver

“[Milk] is a book for the ages. It truly is mesmeric, stunningly beautiful, open and intense, revelatory and generous.” – Donal Ryan

Though Claire Kilroy and Alice Kinsella approach the experience of motherhood through different genres, both authors find common ground in the powerful and painful clash between the fierce love for a new life, and a seismic change in their identities.

Unafraid to dig deep, Soldier Sailor and Milk are both unflinching examinations of love, social and political autonomy for mothers in Ireland, a country still so deeply unsure about its women.

Claire Kilroy’s Soldier Sailor, her first novel in over a decade, explores a new mother’s hard, tumultuous early days. When an old friend offers her a lifeline, she must discover whether she can ever become the woman she once was. Kinsella’s memoir, Milk, follows her move to a small town on the west coast, where her world swells and contracts in unimaginable ways. As Kinsella considers the lives of her mother and grandmothers, she asks how much this country has truly left its bad old days in the past.

Kilroy and Kinsella will be in conversation with behavioural and data scientist and author Dr Pragya Agarwal.

Claire Kilroy’s debut novel, All Summer, was awarded the 2004 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.Her second novel, Tenderwire, was shortlisted for the 2007 Irish Novel of the Year.

Alice Kinsella edited Empty House: poetry and prose on the climate crisis. Milk is her debut book of prose.

Birth, Rebirth: Claire Kilroy & Alice Kinsella