Winter Issue Launch Begins Tomorrow!

Prairie Schooner invites you to the Irish Issue Launch Party! The two-day event at the Sheldon Museum of Art, takes place on Thursday, February 9, and Friday, February 10. This free and open-to-the-public event features award-winning Irish writers included in Prairie Schooner’s Winter 2011 Special Irish Issue, along with other exciting, Irish-themed festivities.

Thursday, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., Irish authors Deanie Rowan Blank and Nuala Ni Chonchuir read and give on-stage interviews in Sheldon’s Ethel S. Abbott Auditorium, followed from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. with a panel focusing on contemporary Irish literature. (Hear Nuala Ni Chonchuir read from her story “Peach”.)

From 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. on Friday, in the Ethel S. Abbott Auditorium, Irish writers Aidan Rooney (pictured) and Sandra Bunting read and give on-stage interviews, followed from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. by the Prairie Schooner Irish issue launch, featuring live guest readings.

Friday evening, from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. in the Sheldon’s Great Hall, Prairie Schooner will host a reception featuring live Irish music along with Irish-themed food and alcoholic beverages, immediately followed at 8 p.m. with feature readings by Blank, Bunting, Ni Chonchuir, and Rooney.

According to Glenna Luschei Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner Kwame Dawes, this collection edited by Stephen Behrendt, “constitutes one of the best gatherings of contemporary Irish fiction and poetry in print today. Professor Behrendt has managed to bring together an amazing list of authors and it is our good fortune that we have been able to bring some of these brilliant writers to our campus to be part of this celebration.”

This will be a lively international event, no doubt, and one we’re very excited to bring to Lincoln. We hope to see you there!