An evening with Colm Tóibín in conversation with Sarah Kavanagh

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Celebrated as “his generation’s most gifted writer of love’s complicated, contradictory power” (Los Angeles Times), Colm Tóibín is a master of short fiction as well as the novel, able to summon an extraordinary intensity of emotion in a brief tale. The eleven stories transport readers across continents and eras.
In “The Journey to Galway,” a mother who has learned of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in World War I, travels to Galway to inform his wife and their three now fatherless children. “Sleep,” originally published in The New Yorker, explores the rift between two lovers as one of them cannot reckon with his grief and fear after the death of his brother. Death, again, is a central character in the title story, “The News from Dublin,” as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin to try to save his younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis. Maurice must petition the health minister for access to a new experimental drug, and this is the only hope.
Tóibín’s stories are rich with the complexities of family dynamics, the haunting pull of the past, and the quiet revelations that define our lives. His characters, whether navigating the aftermath of war, or forbidden love, or the desires of a girl in Catalan, or the quiet struggles mundane life, are rendered with illuminating, unforgettable empathy and insight.
The News from Dublin is an exquisite introduction to Tóibín’s short fiction for new readers who may have discovered Tóibín with the publication of Long Island, and a glorious new collection for longtime fans of this “achingly beautiful writer…with infinite compassion” (The Miami Herald).

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, as well as three story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature.

Sarah Kavanagh took up her post as Consul General of Ireland in Miami in October 2022 and is leading the establishment of Ireland’s first Consulate General in Florida. The consular area also includes Mississippi, Alabama, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
Ms. Kavanagh came to Miami from the Human Rights Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin where she served as Deputy Director. Prior to joining the Department in 2020, Ms. Kavanagh served as Special Adviser to the Minister for Justice and Equality (2017-2020) and Special Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade (2014-2017). From 2005-2014, she worked for in the Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament of Ireland) in a range of policy, strategy development and political communication roles.
Ms. Kavanagh is originally from Galmoy, Co. Kilkenny in the southeast of Ireland. She holds a Barrister-at-Law Degree (2012) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies (2010) from the Honorable Society of King’s Inns, Dublin. She also holds Masters Degrees in Political Communication (Dublin City University, 2017) and Politics (University College Dublin, 2021) and a BA Degree in History and Politics (University College Dublin 2000).

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