Elaine Feeney: How To Build A Boat

We welcome to the stage Elaine Feeney in conversation with Louise Kennedy to discuss Elaine’s latest novel.

How To Build A Boat (Vintage Publishing, 2023) is the story of how one boy and his mission transforms the lives of his teachers, Tess and Tadhg, and brings together a community.

Written with tenderness and verve, it's about love, family and connection, the power of imagination, and how our greatest adventures never happen alone. 

Elaine Feeney writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. She has published three poetry collections including The Radio was Gospel & Rise. Her debut novel As You Were won Dalkey Emerging Writer Prize, The Kate O’ Brien Prize, Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize, and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Rathbones-Folio Prize. Her second novel, How to Build a Boat was published in 2023 and was longlisted for The Booker Prize, shortlisted for Novel of the Year at Irish Book Awards and won Tatler’s Literature Award, 2023. Feeney’s short fiction was published in The Art of The Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories and she has published widely including The Paris Review, The Stinging Fly, The Moth, Poetry Review and The Guardian. A new collection, All the Good Things You Deserve is forthcoming in 2024. She lectures at University of Galway.

Louise Kennedy grew up in Holywood, Co. Down. Her short stories have appeared in journals including The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, Banshee, Wasifiri and Ambit and she has written for the Guardian, Irish Times, BBC Radio 4 and RTE Radio 1. Her work has won prizes and she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award in both 2019 and 2020. Before starting her writing career, she spent nearly thirty years working as a chef. She lives in Sligo with her husband and two children.