Short Stories in Focus

This event takes place in the Bartley's Lounge, Grafton Hotel.

Join us as we delve into three powerful debut short-story collections. The stories in Claire-Lise Kieffer’s Tenterhooks (Banshee Press) are humorous, off-kilter, savage and surreal; illuminating an Ireland both strange and familiar. Shane Tivenan’s To Avenge a Dead Glacier (The Lilliput Press) contains stories that explore the lives of rural Irish outsiders, with style, verve, tension and humour. Dave Tynan’s We Used to Dance Here (Granta) reveals a darker, edgier side of Dublin, a city and people in flux. Join the authors in conversation with writer Kate Barry.

This is an 18+ event.

Please note we may be capturing candid imagery at this event for use on our social media and website.

Claire-Lise Kieffer has fiction published in Irish and international magazines. She received two Arts Council grants and published her first book, Tenterhooks, in 2025. She now lives in Paris with her best friend and their cat. She is working on a novel, Age of Irony.

Shane Tivenan grew up close to Athlone Town, County Roscommon. He studied Cultural Anthropology at Maynooth University. His fiction has appeared in The Stinging Fly, The London Magazine, and has been broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. He was awarded the 2020 RTÉ Francis MacManus Prize, the 2024 John McGaher Award, and was selected for the Bridport Prize Anthology in 2023. His debut collection of short stories, To Avenge a Dead Glacier, was published by The Lilliput Press in 2025.

Dave Tynan is a writer and director from Dublin. He is the director of numerous award-winning short films and one feature. His stories have been published in the Stinging Fly and Winter Papers. We Used to Dance Here is his first book.

Kate Barry is a writer and teacher who lives in Cork City. Her work has appeared in the Sunday Tribune, Social & Personal and Metropolitan, and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She has twice been shortlisted for a Hennessy New Irish Writing Award and been longlisted for the Colm Tóibín Short Story Award.

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