22 – Sue Rainsford

Welcome to Day 22 of our West Cork Literary Festival Advent Calendar. Our author today is Sue Rainsford.

Sue Rainsford is an Irish fiction and arts writer living in Dublin. A graduate of Trinity College, IADT and Bennington College, she is a recipient of the VAI/DCC Art Writing Award, the Arts Council Literature Bursary Award, and a MacDowell Fellowship. She has been awarded residencies by such institutions as the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Maynooth University, and recent commissions include RTÉ Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. Her debut novel, Follow Me To Ground, received the Kate O’Brien Award in Ireland, was long listed for the Republic of Consciousness Award and the Desmond Elliott Prize in the UK, and received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly upon its release in the US. Her short story, “Shorn”, was a finalist for the 2021 New York Radio Festival Awards, and her second novel, Redder Days, was published by Doubleday in March 2021.

Sue is reading an extract from Redder Days which was published by Doubleday in March 2021. Today’s video unlocked on 22nd December 2021 and may be viewed below. Closed caption subtitles are available and may be turned on or off. Click on “youtube” or “full screen” icon in the video to watch it in full screen or visit youtube here.

About our WCLF Literary Advent Calendar

2021 was another wonderful year for Irish writing and so many incredible books by Irish authors and authors living in Ireland were released this year. Even though festivals returned in-person and online not every author had the opportunity to launch their books with a public celebration or to engage with audiences in the “usual” way. We’re delighted to bring you a small selection of these authors and we’ve invited twenty-four writers to submit a short video reading from their new books. Our selection is an attempt to show the wide range of Irish writing and in particular to focus on writers whose books we feel deserve more attention and those who were not previously featured in WCLF 2021 events. We hope that you will enjoy the chance to hear these writers reading their own work and to discover some new books for your reading piles.