Dublin City Council’s Public Library Service is delighted to announce that The Long Gaze Back, An Anthology of Irish Women Writers edited by Sinéad Gleeson, is the Dublin: One City One Book choice for 2018.
Published by New Island, the anthology spans four centuries and features some of Ireland’s most gifted writers.
Sinéad Gleeson said: “I’m thrilled and delighted on behalf of the 30 writers, past and present, that The Long Gaze Back is this year’s Dublin: One City One Book choice. Anthologies are a platform for telling multiple stories and so many of the writers and their work included here are intrinsically connected to Dublin and its people. The book arose from a desire to amplify the voices of women who write, and being chosen for Dublin: One City One Book will help to introduce these talented writers to all kinds of new readers.”
Dublin City Librarian Margaret Hayes added “This collection of stories embraces writers of the past, present and of the future, an anthology of diversity and talent. With themes universal and contemporary, and settings urban and rural, it includes some of our best writers in a genre much loved by the Irish reader and storyteller. Dublin City Libraries wishes to showcase the full catalogue of these women writers, many of whom will be well known to readers but others who may have slipped a little from view and who deserve to be looked at anew.”
A full programme of events will be announced in spring 2018.
The Book
The Long Gaze Back features short stories by 30 Irish writers, spanning four centuries. It won The Best Irish-Published Book at the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards in 2016. It features short stories by the following writers:
Niamh Boyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Maeve Brennan, Mary Costello, June Caldwell, Lucy Caldwell, Evelyn Conlon, Anne Devlin, Maria Edgeworth, Anne Enright, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Norah Hoult, Mary Lavin, Eimear McBride, Molly McCloskey, Bernie McGill, Lisa McInerney, Belinda McKeon, Siobhán Mannion, Lia Mills, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Kate O’Brien, Roisín O’Donnell, E.M. Reapy, Charlotte Riddell, Eimear Ryan, Anakana Schofield, Somerville & Ross, Susan Stairs.
The Editor
Sinéad Gleeson is a writer, editor and freelance broadcaster. Her essays have appeared in Granta, Banshee, Winter Papers and Gorse among others. Her short story ‘Counting Bridges’ was longlisted at the 2016 Irish Book Awards, and she has a short story in forthcoming Repeal the 8th anthology edited by Una Mullally. She is the editor of three anthologies including The Long Gaze Back: an Anthology of Irish Women Writers (2015) and The Glass Shore: Short Stories by Women Writers from the North of Ireland, (2016) both of which won Best Irish Published Book at the Irish Book Awards. Her collection of essays, Constellations will be published in Spring 2019 by Picador. She is currently working on a novel.