Our Final Authors Confirmed

We are delighted to announce that our final event for Burford Lit Fest is now confirmed.

At 7pm Saturday 26th September authors Joanna Cannon and Donal Ryan will be talking about their life as acclaimed authors and their works.

Joanna Cannon’s first two novels, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things about Elsie, were both Sunday Times bestsellers and Richard and Judy picks. Her first non-fiction book, Breaking and Mending, a memoir about her experience as a junior doctor, was published in 2019 to critical acclaim. Her writing has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail and the Observer, amongst others. Joanna has been a guest on Radio 4 Open Book, Saturday Live and Woman's Hour, as well as BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 2, Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio London. In March 2022, Joanna was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to write and present Papageno and the Poetry of Disquiet.

Together, her books have sold almost a million copies and have been translated into 14 languages. Her third novel, A Tidy Ending, was published in April 2022.

Joanna left school at fifteen with one O-level and worked her way through many different jobs before returning to school in her thirties and qualifying as a doctor in her forties. Her work as a psychiatrist and her interest in people on the fringes of society continue to inspire her writing.

Donal Ryan, from Nenagh, County Tipperary, has published seven number one bestselling novels and a short story collection. He has won several awards for his fiction, including the European Union Prize for Literature, the Guardian First Book Award and six Irish Book Awards, and has been shortlisted for several more, including the Costa Book Award and the Dublin International Literary Award. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2013 for his debut novel, The Spinning Heart, and again in 2018, for his fourth novel, From A Low and Quiet Sea. The Spinning Heart was voted Irish Book of the Decade in 2016. In 2021 Donal became the first Irish writer to be awarded the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. His most recent novel, Heart Be at Peace, won both Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Nero Book Awards. His work has been adapted for stage and screen and translated into over twenty languages. Donal has lectured in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick since 2014 and lives in Castletroy with his wife Anne Marie and their two children.

Details for all of our wonderful authors will be available soon on our website and early bird tickets will be on sale in May.

We look forward to you joining the conversation.

Kim and the team

Burford Lit Fest