Rencontre with Sinéad Gleeson

How do you tell the story of a life in a body, as it goes through sickness, health, motherhood? How do you tell that story when you are not just a woman but a woman in Ireland? In the powerful and daring essays of her first book, Constellations, Sinéad Gleeson does just. All of life is within these pages, from birth to first love, pregnancy to motherhood, terrifying sickness, old age and loss to death itself. Throughout this wide-ranging collection she also turns her restless eye outwards delving into work, art and our very ways of seeing. In the tradition of some of our finest life writers, and yet still in her own spirited, generous voice, Sinéad takes us on a journey that is both uniquely personal and yet universal in its resonance. Constellations won thé An Post Irish Book Award in 2019 and has gone on to become a bestseller in Ireland. CCI is delighted to present this live online conversation on the occasion of its publication in French translation. Tonight, Sinead will discuss her masterful expression of the fierce joy and pain of being alive with journalist and producer Dearbhail McDonald.

“Sinéad Gleeson has changed the Irish literary landscape, through her advocacy for the female voice. In Constellations, we finally hear her own voice, and it comes from the blood and bones of her body’s history. Sinéad Gleeson is an absolute force: if you want to know where passion and tenacity are born, read this book.” Anne Enright

Rewatch this talk, hosted by journalist and producer Dearbhail McDonald, with the author Sinéad Gleeson: