Explore contemporary Ireland with Kevin Barry, author of the wildly acclaimed Night Boat to Tangier, as he talks about his wonderful new collection of short stories, That Old Country Music.

Kevin will be speaking from County Sligo, Ireland, with award-winning writer Matthew Thomas.

That Old Country Music tells of contemporary Ireland: full of love (and sex), melancholy and magic, bedecked in some of the most gorgeous prose being written today.

"There's not an aspect of writing that Barry doesn't excel at. His dialogue rings true, and he's amazingly gifted at scene-setting — he evokes both the landscape of western Ireland and the landscape of the human heart beautifully. "–NPR

Kevin Barry is also the author of Beatlebone, and City of Bohane. His many awards include the Goldsmiths Prize, the Lannan Foundation Literary Award and Night Boat to Tangier was nominated for the Booker Prize. His stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker and Granta, and he also works as a playwright and screenwriter.

Matthew Thomas is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel, We Are Not Ourselves. He teaches at Xavier High School in Manhattan, as well as in NYU’s Low-Residency MFA Program in Paris and he lives in Montclair. He is working on his second novel.

All authors appear for free and the best way you can support them is to buy their book. Kevin's book is available from Festival partner Watchung Booksellers here.

This event is part of Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival's special series of author events, Global Voices taking place on March 20 and March 21, 2021, and featuring authors and poets from England, Scotland, Ireland, Korea, Iran, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, and Spain.  The fifth annual Montclair Literary Festival will take place on Saturday October 2, 2021, with a combination of live and online events.

See all of the talks by following us on Crowdcast here or visiting our website events page here.

Any proceeds from the festival benefit parent organization, Montclair-based non-profit Succeed2gether, which offers after-school one-on-one tutoring and enrichment classes with the aim of closing the education and opportunity gaps in Essex County, NJ. You can read more about Succeed2gether and the festival at www.succeed2gether.org.

The festival organizing committee wishes to thank event partners Montclair Public Library and Watchung Booksellers, and festival sponsors Rao's, West of Hudson Realty Group, Jill Williams (Ameriprise Financial), Ferguson Dental, the County of Essex, and community members.

Kevin Barry "That Old Country Music" with Matthew Thomas