Solstice Stories 2

Solstice Stories feature creative collaborations between established and emerging writers along with a visual artist, presented in the form of a high-quality book and accompanying audio-visual experience. This innovative series will showcase the work of contemporary writers and artists, at least one of whom is from a background traditionally underrepresented in Irish literature and the arts. It seeks to stimulate conversations and inspire hope by reconnecting us with our imaginations and bringing people and communities together, particularly following this time of increased distance and isolation. The series provides a unique developmental space to foster collaboration of this nature, with creativity and inclusiveness at its heart.

Weave is the second of the Solstice Stories, an innovative series designed to celebrate the small, the brilliant, and the beautiful. In this unique collaboration, writers Deirdre Sullivan and Oein DeBhairduin and artist Yingge Xu explore their shared passion for storytelling, folklore and ritual. Encompassing eight stories inspired by the eight festivals in the wheel of the year, this book illuminates our experiences and traverses our fears, intertwining older threads with contemporary spaces.

Deirdre Sullivan is a writer and teacher from Galway. She has written seven acclaimed books for young adults, including Savage Her Reply (Little Island 2020), Perfectly Preventable Deaths (Hot Key Books 2019), and Tangleweed and Brine (Little Island 2017). She was the recipient of the CBI Book of the Year Award in 2018 and the An Post Irish Book Award for YA in 2020. Her short fiction has appeared in Banshee and The Dublin Review.

Oein DeBhairduin is a writer, activist and educator with a passion for preserving the beauty of Traveller tales, sayings, retellings and historic exchanges. He is the author of the award-winning Why the moon travels and Traveller Culture Collections Development Officer with the National Museum of Ireland. He seeks to pair community activism with cultural celebration, recalling old tales with fresh modern connections and, most of all, he wishes to rekindle the hearth fires of a shared kinship.

The third collaborater is Yingge Xu, an ink brush artist, meditator and art teacher. Yingge Xu is not appearing at the festival.