Page 22 - The 15th Percy French Festival: French Awakenings

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Paul (b.%(-") is an English writer who Luke, from Keadue, Co. Roscommon,
lives in the west of Ireland. His non!ction has taught as Professor of Irish Studies
works address macro-themes (environ- at May nooth University, Ireland, and
mentalism, globalisation, and the chal- at the University of Notre Dame, USA.
lenges posed by civilisation-level trends) His new book, James Joyce and the Irish
and his !ction tends to be mythological Revolution: The Easter Rising as Modern
and multilayered. He edited Cherwell Event (University of Chicago Press, "'"&),
at Oxford University (where he studied was published in May. He has written
modern history). He has contributed to widely on Irish culture and criticism and
The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily other recent publications include Joyce’s
Telegraph, Daily Express, Le Monde, New Ghosts: Ireland, Modernism and Memory
Statesman, London Review of Books, (University of Chicago Press, "'%,);
Granta, The Ecologist, New Internationalist, (co-editor) Charles O’Conor: Life and
The Big Issue, Adbusters, BBC Radio 4, BBC Works (Dublin: Four Courts Press, "'%,);
Radio 2, BBC Four, ITV, and Resonance FM. and Limits of the Visible: Representing the
His !rst collection of poetry, Kidland and Irish Great Famine (Quinnipiac Univer-
other poems, appeared in 2011and Songs sity/Cork University Press, "'%&). His
From The Blue River followed in 2018 ‘Roscom mon in Literature, %+''–"''',’
(both published by Salmon). His !rst was published in Roscommon; History
novel, The Wake, (Unbound, 2014) was and Society (Geography Publications,
longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and "'%*), and he gave the inaugural John
the Folio Prize, shortlisted for the Gold- McGahern Lecture at the Iron Mountain
smiths Prize, and won the Gordon Burn Festival, Carrick-on-Shannon, "'%(.
Prize. His second novel, Beast, (2016,
Faber & Faber) was shortlisted for the
Encore Award for the Best Second Novel
in 2017, and his third novel, Alexandria,
was published by Faber & Faber, 2021.

•!' • FRENCH AWAKENINGS • PERCY FRENCH FESTIVAL !"!#