Devotions by Lucy Caldwell

Ahead of the Belfast Book Festival 2026, The Crescent is offering a taste of Festival events in a new series called Bookmarks.

Join us at The Crescent for this special event; The launch of Lucy Caldwell's new collection, Devotion and we shall reveal the programme for the Belfast Book Festival 2026. 

From the acclaimed, prize-winning author of Multitudes, Intimacies and Openings, Devotions contains eight vital stories of memory and connection.

‘There must be moments when we let go – let go of all that we do, all that we are.’

In her new collection, Lucy explores yearning for distant pasts and unknown futures. A woman recalls the time her grandfather claimed to have met Jesus.

A professional musician travels across the world and through her memories with a violin older than the USA.

A young Belfast theatre troupe brings their experimental production of Hamlet to New York.

Transporting and profound, these are stories of love, grief, and the ways that lives can be haunted.

Lucy will be in conversation with Alex Clark, and you will have the opportunity to purchase copies of the book. 

‘What a mature and rare and rich writer Caldwell has become.’ Tessa Hadley

‘Like her countrymen William Trevor, John McGahern and Colm Toibin, she excels at vocalising the unsaid.’ Times Literary Supplement

Lucy Caldwell: Born in Belfast in 1981, Lucy is the author of four novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, and three previous collections of short stories. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018, she was also the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories in 2019, and has won the E. M. Forster Award, from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Walter Scott Prize among others. 

Save the Date! 

Book lovers are invited to save the date for The Crescent's Belfast Book Festival which will run from 4–11 June 2026. The full programme and tickets will be announced in April 2026, with all events offered on a pay-what-you-decide basis.