Gail McConnell: The Sun is Open Gail McConnell, poet

Event details

Writers at York

Gail McConnell is a poet from Belfast. Her most recent book, The Sun is Open sifts through a boxed archive of public and private materials related to the life and death of her father, who was murdered by the IRA outside their Belfast home in 1984. The book has won the John Pollard International Poetry Prize and, in May 2022, the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize. Chair of the judges, Roy Foster said of The Sun is Open: 'Using a remarkable range of sources, this long poem investigates and interrogates memory, grief and violence in a new and arresting way and is an utterly original and compelling contribution to the literature of the Troubles.' Gail McConnell will be reading from the Sun is Open and other poems.

This event will be followed by a drinks reception and book signing.