Wendy Erskine and Jan Carson are two of Northern Ireland’s most celebrated contemporary writers.
Wendy Erskine is an award-winning short story writer whose debut novel, The Benefactors, has become a literary sensation. The novel follows Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh, three very different women, and was awarded Waterstones Irish Book of the Year in 2025. Described by The Daily Telegraph as “Northern Ireland’s most exciting novelist”, Wendy is based in Belfast.
Jan Carson, originally from Ballymena, won the EU Prize for Literature in 2019 for her novel The Fire Starters. Her later novel The Raptures was shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year, and The Sunday Times has described her as “one of the most exciting and original writers of her generation”. Her new novel, Few and Far Between, is due to be published shortly.
Wendy Erskine and Jan Carson will be in conversation with award-winning writer and journalist, Freya McClements. Freya is Northern Editor of The Irish Times, a former BBC reporter, and was co-author of the acclaimed Children of the Troubles, which won an Irish Book Award in 2019.
This is a rare opportunity to hear from two of Northern Ireland’s most compelling literary voices, in conversation about their work, writing lives and the stories shaping contemporary fiction.