Tickets: FREE (No booking REquired)

Venue: Marion E. Wade Center, 351 E Lincoln Ave, Wheaton, IL, 60187

The English Department  at Wheaton College presents "Writing Contemporary Northern Ireland - Jan Carson Talk," a lecture by Jan Carson on Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 7:00 PM.

In this lively, illustrated talk Belfast-based novelist and short story writer Jan Carson will take us on a whirlwind journey through the canon of her work. With readings, insights and anecdotes lifted from over two decades of engagement with post-conflict Northern Ireland’s flourishing arts community, Carson will highlight the key themes explored in her stories, talk us through her stylistic choices and spend some times discussing her writing process. The talk will also touch upon how the Northern Irish conflict and its repercussions has influenced Carson culturally, politically and creatively. It will conclude with an opportunity for the audience to ask questions and reflect on the presentation.  

Jan Carson is a Belfast based writer who has published four novels, three short story collections and three micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland, 2019. The Raptures was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Jan was the Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast in 2025, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has achieved the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. Her latest novel, Few and Far Between was published by Doubleday UK and Scribner in the US.  

This event is free and open to the public and will take place in Marion E. Wade Center,   Room 130 Bakke Auditorium,   located at 351 East Lincoln Avenue in Wheaton on the Northwest corner of campus at the intersection of Washington Street and Lincoln Avenue. For more information, contact Kim Sasser at 214.991.5574 or kim.sasser@wheaton.edu.