LAUNCH: Let’s Dance
This event has now passed.
We look forward to welcoming Lucy Sweeney Byrne for the launch of her new collection of short stories, Let’s Dance, from the wonderful Banshee Press. We’ll kick things off from 6pm on Thurdsay 10th October. All are welcome to join us in celebrating the publication of Lucy’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to (Books Upstairs favourite) Paris Syndrome.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In her latest collection of dark, hilarious and provocative short stories, Lucy Sweeney Byrne explores women on the brink – of love, of joy, of disaster – with her signature wit, insight and daring. In her signature hypnotic prose, Lucy explores subjects such as physicality, identity and disillusionment. Utilising forms ranging from flash fiction to novella, Let’s Dance is a glittering display of fiction’s ability to probe, startle and entertain.
PRAISE FOR LET’S DANCE:
“These stories of reflection and resolve are all you’d ever want in a collection. Its crises are acute, and the thoughts and actions of its characters will cut to the heart.”
— Gavin Corbett
“Lucy Sweeney Byrne’s stories are like songs that make you sit up and listen till the last note. An album full of hits, Let’s Dance is sweet and catchy, tender and acid, salty and wicked — and always wonderfully readable.”
— Rob Doyle
“I love Lucy Sweeney Byrne’s precise, scurrying prose … I don’t know how she does what she does.”
— Tim MacGabhann
“Hers is a voice so strong, she makes the rest of us sound timid.”
— Sean O’Reilly
“In her gripping formal efforts to dilate ‘a passing something before the nothing’s void’, in fierce commitment to her subjects of time and the body, abjection and freedom, Lucy Sweeney Byrne is our Irish Duras while also wholly, electrifyingly, her own artist in every step of Let’s Dance.”
— Mary O’Donoghue
“Let’s Dance is a soul-stirring collection, as Lucy Sweeney Byrne carves women’s simmering rage on the page with tender, hypnotic prose. Let’s Dance is a modern masterpiece of the short story form. This collection is a triumph that cements Sweeney Byrne as among the best in contemporary Irish literature.”
— Aimée Walsh
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lucy Sweeney Byrne is the author of the short story collection Paris Syndrome (2019, Banshee Press), met with critical acclaim and shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Edge Hill Prize, the Kate O’Brien Award, the Butler Literary Award, and the John McGahern Prize. Lucy’s short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Southword, AGNI, Litro, Grist, 3:AM magazine, and other literary outlets. She also writes book reviews for The Irish Times.
