Mary Lavin and the New Yorker

Gráinne Hurley’s debut book, Gratefully and Affectionately: Mary Lavin and The New Yorker, is the first ever book to explore Lavin’s relationship with the influential publication. Based on Mary Lavin’s extensive correspondence with the magazine, Hurley’s book also reveals Lavin’s friendships with prominent literary figures including J. D. Salinger, Elizabeth Bowen, Eudora Welty, Frank O’Connor, William Maxwell and John McGahern.

For this very special evening Mary Lavin’s two granddaughters Kathleen MacMahon and Alice Ryan both highly respected writers in their own right, sit down with the author to chat about their grandmother and this fascinating time in her life . Renowned journalist and critic Alex Clark will lend her brilliantly incisive skills to lead this incredibly interesting conversation. The icing on the cake for this evening is a performance from Ireland’s most renowned rock fiddler, Steve Wickham. Steve has a long standing relationship with Mary Lavin’s work having composed a song and a fiddle piece in response to two of her short stories.