An Evening with John Banville and Mike McCormack

John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of twenty novels, including The Book of Evidence, The Sea, winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize, and, most recently, the bestselling crime novels, Snow and April in Spain – both of which were shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger – and The Lock-Up.

Mike McCormack comes from the west of Ireland and is the author of two collections of short stories Getting it in the Head and Forensic Songs, and four novels Crowe’s Requiem, Notes from a Coma, Solar Bones and This Plague of Souls.

In 1996 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature and Getting it in the Head was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In 2006 Notes from a Coma was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award. In 2016 Solar Bones was awarded the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bord Gais Energy Irish Novel of the Year and Book of the Year; it was also long-listed for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. In 2018 it was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award. He is a member of Aosdána.