Writers discuss the pros and cons, ways and means of putting your publications before the public. They will showcase specific works, including their own as examples. Robin Hemley will serve as Chair, with Madeleine D'Arcy as Co-Chair. The participants are Robin Hemley, Katie Singer, Evelyn Conlon, Madeleine D'Arcy, Emma Hislop, Rebekah Clarkson, Paul McVeigh, and Robert Olen Butler.  

Robin Hemley has published fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent books are the autofiction, Oblivion, An After-Autobiography (Gold Wake, 2022), The Art and Craft of Asian Stories: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology, co-authored with Xu Xi (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood (Nebraska, 2020, Penguin SE Asia, 2021).  He has previously published four collections of short stories, and his stories have been widely anthologized. His widely used writing text, Turning Life into Fiction, has sold over a hundred thousand copies and has been in print for nearly thirty years.  His work has been published and translated widely and he has received such awards as a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, three Pushcart Prizes in both nonfiction and fiction, The Nelson Algren Award for Fiction, The Independent Press Book Award for Memoir, among others. His short stories have been featured several times on NPR’s “Selected Shorts” and his essays and short stories have appeared in such journals as Creative Nonfiction, Conjunctions, Guernica, The Iowa Review, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and many others.  He is the Founder of the international nonfiction conference, NonfictioNOW and was the director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at The University of Iowa for nine years, inaugural director of The Writers’ Centre at Yale-NUS, Singapore, and is a graduate of The Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is co-editor with Leila Philip of Speculative Nonfiction (Specualtivenonfiction.org) and co-founder of Authors at Large with Xu Xi (aalauthors.com).  His websites are Robinhemley.com and Oblvion.cafe. His forthcoming collection of essays is How to Change History: A Salvage Project  (Nebraska, 2025).  Subscribe to his Substack at Robinhemley.substack.com

Madeleine D’Arcy is a fiction writer based in Cork City, Ireland.

Her début short story collection, WAITING FOR THE BULLET (Doire Press, 2014) won the Edge Hill Readers’ Choice Prize 2015 (UK). Her second collection of linked short fiction, LIBERTY TERRACE (Doire Press, 2021) was awarded a FAPA Bronze Medal 2022 (US) and was Cork’s One City One Book 2023. Madeleine co-edited CORK STORIES (Doire Press, 2024) with fellow Irish writer Laura McKenna. She has completed her first novel. She is currently working on a second novel and on a third short story collection. Madeleine is a qualified solicitor in Ireland and the UK. She is represented by Brian Langan of Storyline Agency.

Evelyn Conlon short story writer, novelist and essayist is widely translated, most recently into Tamil, Chinese and Greek. She is the editor/co-editor of four anthologies including Cutting the Night in Two and Later On.  She has been writer-in-residence in many places at home and internationally, and is Adjunct Professor with Carlow University, Pittsburgh, MFA.  Her last short story collection, Moving About the Place, 2021, was followed by Reading Rites: Books, writing and other things that matter, 2023, a collection of essays on the life. Telling Truths, a collection on her work, was edited by Teresa Caneda-Cabrera, published by Peter Lang, 2023.

More details on www.evelynconlon.com

Paul McVeigh, author of the novel, The Good Son, which was the winner of The Polari First Novel Prize as well as the winner of The McCrea Literary Award is noted as a writer, playwright and festival organizer. His works have been shortlisted for the Prix du Roman Cezam; shortlisted for The Authors Club Best First Novel Award; finalist for The People's Book Prize; and promoted for the City Reads Brighton choice 2016. His story "Hollow" was shortlisted for the 'Short Story of the Year' at The Irish Book Awards 2017. Additionally, Paul's collection of short stories commissioned by BBC Radio, I Hear You, is out with Salt Publishing, March 2025.

Born in Belfast, Paul McVeigh is an award-winning writer whose work has been performed on stage and radio, published in print and been translated into French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish. He began his career as a playwright before moving to London where he wrote comedy shows, which were performed at the Edinburgh Festival and in London’s West End. His short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies, read on BBC Radio 5, commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and 4, and Sky Arts TV. He is the co-founder of London Short Story Festival, of which, he was the Director and Curator for 2014 & ’15. He is Associate Director at Word Factory, the UK’s premier short story salon. The Good Son was selected from 160 books by The British Council and The Literary Platform to be one of twelve that will be part of The UK-Russia Year of Language and Literature 2016. Paul has read his work at festivals around the world and he represented the UK in Mexico 2015 and Turkey 2016 for The British Council.