Since Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney has been recognised as one of the great chroniclers of our times. His new novel, Bright, Precious Days paints a portrait of New York as Obama and Clinton battle for leadership and Lehman Brothers teeters on the brink of collapse. It’s the story of a generation that flew too close to the sun on wings of cocaine and whose lives changed irrevocably on 9/11. Nadine O’Regan is Books and Arts Editor - The Sunday Business Post

This podcast was recorded on the 8th September 2016 in dlr LexIcon Studio.

https://soundcloud.com/dlr-soundcloud/jay-mcinerneymp3

Southside Travellers Action Group launched "Days Long Gone" Trailer Project in dlr Lexicon as part of Traveller Pride Week 2016.

Through the established Chill Out Zone Group in Southside Travellers, a handful of Traveller women came up with the idea to recreate a miniature replica trailer with the help of a local community arts facilitator. The group designed and built the trailer from scratch and have made and hand sewn all of the interior furnishings. 
‘Days Long Gone’ features recordings of Traveller women recalling days of old on the road and traditional nomadic ways of living. They speak of the freedom and peace; the harmony, solidarity and sense of plenty of those times. They also discuss the situation as it stands today, where there is little space or provision for a nomadic culture and how Travellers are being forced to move into settled housing. The women talk of the loss of freedom, the loneliness, the separation from friends and family and the impact of this loss and isolation on health, particularly mental health. They express their fears that Traveller culture is being wiped out and highlight the importance and challenges of passing on Traveller ways to the younger generations. 

The group want ‘Days Long Gone’ to be a celebration of Traveller ways, to create a space for Travellers to reflect and remember days on the road and to create an opportunity for the settled community to learn and understand the importance of travelling for Travellers and their culture. 

Southside Travellers Action Group works to respond to the needs of the Traveller community in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area and for the civil and human rights and distinct cultural identity of all Travellers.

https://soundcloud.com/dlr-soundcloud/days-long-gone-trailer-project

Patrick Deeley has published six highly acclaimed collections of poems. His evocative, lyrical memoir of grief, love and renewal, The Hurley Maker’s Son, has become a major bestseller. Deeley's train journey home to rural East Galway in autumn 1978 was a pilgrimage of grief: his giant of a father had been felled, the hurley-making workshop silenced.

In a style reminiscent of John McGahern’s Memoir, Deeley’s beautifully paced prose captures the rhythms, struggles and rough edges of a rural life that was already dying even as he grew. This is an enchanting, beautifully written account of family, love, loss, and the unstoppable march of time

This podcast was recorded in dlr LexIcon Studio, 22nd September 2016

Listen here; https://soundcloud.com/dlr-soundcloud/patrick-deeleymp3

Pavilion Theatre, Tue 4 Oct 2016.

Described as 'the UK’s supreme exponent of the literary thriller', Robert Harris is the author of ten bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy and historical and political thrillers such as Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, and An Officer and A Spy.

His latest novel, set in Papal Rome, carries all the hallmarks of Harris’s exhilarating storytelling style. In Conclave, the Pope has died and behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and twenty Cardinals from all over the globe prepare to cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.

Listen back here: https://soundcloud.com/dlr-soundcloud/robert-harris

Margaret Atwood has consistently named Shakespeare as one of the most important influences on her work. ‘The Tempest is, in some ways, an early multi-media musical,’ she says. ‘If Shakespeare were working today he’d be using every special effect technology now makes available. But The Tempest is especially intriguing because of the many questions it leaves unanswered. What a strenuous pleasure it has been to wrestle with it!’

Published as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare’s modern interpretations series, Hag-Seed is Margaret Atwood’s novel take on Shakespeare’s play of enchantment, revenge and second chances.  Atwood leads us on an interactive, illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises and wonders of its own.   

Recorded at the Pavilion Theatre, Sunday 9th October 2016

Listen back at:https://soundcloud.com/dlr-soundcloud/margaret-atwood

Recorded on Tuesday 8 November in dlr LexIcon Studio

Dublin Since 1922 tells the story of Ireland's capital city since independence. Richly illustrated throughout, it unfolds around hundreds of dates in the city's history, beginning with the founding of the Irish state - when Dublin had the worst slums in Europe - and ending in the last days of the Celtic Tiger. Through major events, Carey charts nearly a century of the capital's history, from the Civil War, the Eucharistic Congress and President Kennedy's visit, to the 1986 earthquake, the Stardust disaster and the changing faces of the St Patrick's Day parade. Brought to life are the figures who have shaped the city's identity - from Archbishop McQuaid to Tony Gregory, from Luke Kelly to Maeve Binchy - and the daily life of its people, through the books they read, the way they move around the city, the music they listen to, the crimes they commit and the unique experiences they have of simply being in the city of Dublin. A captivating celebration of people and place, this book makes essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the character of a city - and its inhabitants - is shaped.

Tim Carey, dlr’s Heritage Officer is author of Mountjoy, The Story of a Prison, Hanged for Ireland, Hanged for Murder and Croke Park: A History.

Listen back here: https://soundcloud.com/dlr-soundcloud/dublin-since-1922-tim-careymp3

Dame Margaret Drabble is the author of eighteen novels including A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, and most recently, the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. Her glittering new novel, The Dark Flood Rises, holds our hand as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The question of what constitutes a good death and how we understand it if we have lived well preoccupy this dark and enthralling novel. With characteristic wit and caustic prose, The Dark Flood Rises dazzles, entertains and poses the big existential questions in equal measure.

Recorded at the Pavilion Theatre on Wednesday 23 November 2016

Listen back here: https://soundcloud.com/dlr-soundcloud/margaret-drabble-mp3

How much do children’s writers get paid? How important are events and social media? What are publishers and agents looking for in 2017 and beyond?
Part of a suite of events celebrating 20 years of Children's Books Ireland, providing professional development services to Irish authors and illustrators.

Recorded at dlr LexIcon Studio on Saturday, 04 February 2017.

Listen back here: https://soundcloud.com/dlr-soundcloud/sets/when-are-you-going-to-write-a-proper-book-a-day-for-childrens-writers-and-illustrators

A one-day programme of talks and workshops seeking to explore productive interactions between literature and mental health both historically and in the present day. Aiming to identify the roles that writing and narrative can play in medical education, patient and self-care, and/or professional development schemes. Bringing together psychologists, psychiatrists, interdisciplinary professionals, GPs, service users, and historians of literature and medicine, we will be asking questions about ilterature as a point of therapeutic engagement. We will explore methods that can be used to increase the well-being and communication skills of healthcare providers, patients and family members.