Coming of age and masculinity in modern Ireland

11 October, 19.00-20.00 (mingling and closing party to follow at Kuro cafe and bar)

John Patrick McHugh’s novel Fun and Games brings us into the inner world and mind of a 17-year-old boy in 2009, living on an island off the coast of the Irish mainland. The time and place take us to an Ireland in recession; a legacy that is still highly relevant today, when many young adults cannot afford to move out of their parents’ homes, and the memory of the Celtic Tiger economic boom (and bust) linger.

In conversation with Daniel Fuller, John Patrick will discuss Fun and Games, his previous short story collection Pure Gold, and how he skillfully and humanly portrays young men of this generation.

John Patrick McHugh is from Galway. His work has appeared in the Stinging Fly, Granta, Winter Papers, and been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. He is the Fiction Editor of Banshee magazine. He is the author of the short story collection Pure Gold and the novel Fun and Games.

Daniel Fuller is a British-Irish writer of poetry and fiction. Though born in England, he has spent time living on Darug country (Sydney), in the lands now known as Australia, and is now based in Oslo, Norway, and each of these places has left an indelible print on his work. His work has been published in The North, The Stinging Fly and Channel Mag.

Books by all the authors and panelists will be for sale throughout the festival.

This event was made possible through the generous support of Culture Ireland and the Embassy Of Ireland in Oslo.