Sinead Gleeson

'Passionate, wild, hugely atmospheric' DAVID NICHOLLS

'Wild, elemental... I adored it' LOUISE KENNEDY

'Intelligent, probing' MAGGIE O'FARRELL

'Wonderfully gothic ... [a] cracking debut' DOUGLAS STUART

Sinéad Gleeson is a literary sensation from across the Irish Sea. Sinéad has been celebrated at home and internationally for her award-winning memoir Constellations: Reflections From Life and This Woman's Work, a collection of essays on music, co-edited with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth.

We can't wait to welcome Sinéad to Edinburgh to hear all about her beautiful and eerily haunting debut novel, Hagstone. Do join us in celebrating one of the literary highlights of 2024.

Hagstone

The sea is steady for now. The land readies itself. What can be done with the woman on the cliff?

On a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to some, artist Nell feels the island is her home. It is the source of inspiration for her art, rooted in landscape, folklore and the feminine. The mysterious Inions, a commune of women who have travelled there from all over the world, consider it a place of refuge and safety, of solace in nature.

All the islanders live alongside the strange murmurings that seem to emanate from within the depths of the island, a sound that is almost supernatural - a Summoning as the Inions call it. One day, a letter arrives at Nell's door from the reclusive Inions who invite Nell into the commune for a commission to produce a magnificent art piece to celebrate their long history. In its creation, Nell will discover things about the community and about herself that will challenge everything she thought she knew.

About Sinéad Gleeson

Sinead Gleeson's essay collection Constellations: Reflections from Life was published by Picador in 2019 and won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at 2019 Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Literary Award for Emerging Writer. It was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Michel Deon Prize. She is the editor of The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers (named for a line from Maeve Brennan, which includes a story by Brennan), The Glass Shore: Short Stories by Women Writers from the North of Ireland and The Art of Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories. Sinead also collaborates with artists and musicians, with commissions from The Wellcome Collection, BBC, Frieze and various galleries. In 2022, with Kim Gordon, she co-edited This Woman's Work: Essays on Music, published by White Rabbit Books, and Hagstone is her first novel.

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