Join us via Zoom for a reading and discussion with acclaimed writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat, and Alyssa Harad. Doireann and Alyssa will discuss obsession as inspiration, research as the pursuit of ghosts (and what happens when you catch them), and other topics.

In the eighteenth century, on discovering her husband has been murdered, an Irish noblewoman drinks handfuls of his blood and composes an extraordinary lament that reaches across centuries to the young Doireann Ní Ghríofa, whose fascination with it is later rekindled when she narrowly avoids fatal tragedy in her own life and becomes obsessed with learning everything she can about the poem Peter Levi has famously called “the greatest poem written in either Ireland or Britain” during its era. A kaleidoscopic blend of memoir, autofiction, and literary studies, A Ghost in the Throat moves fluidly between past and present, quest and elegy, poetry and the people who make it.

Doireann Ní Ghríofa is a poet and essayist. A Ghost in the Throat was awarded Irish Book of the Year and described as “powerful” (New York Times) and “sumptuous” (The Sunday Times). She is also author of six critically-acclaimed books of poetry, each a deepening exploration of birth, death, desire, and domesticity. Awards for her writing include a Lannan Literary Fellowship (USA), the Ostana Prize (Italy), and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her most recent book of poems is To Star the Dark.

Alyssa Harad is the author of a memoir, Coming to My Senses, and has published essays in The Nation, Jewish Quarterly, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other venues. She is currently writing a novel inspired by the lives and art of women associated with Surrealism.

Zoom Info:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81812438629?pwd=YU5yNnRjaVpCRnBUWnFiZ1RTUENRQT09

Meeting ID: 818 1243 8629
Passcode: 730401

This event can also be viewed live on our YouTube channel.