The Laureate's book choice for his Art of Reading Book Club in May is 'Homesickness' by Colin Barrett. Colin joined Colm Tóibín to discuss his latest collection of short stories. Watch back on our youtube channel below or listen to it as a podcast on the Arts Council's podcast channel.

The Laureate says: ‘Colin Barrett has the ability to create character and create a scene in a few sentences. His dialogue that seems so spare and clipped manages to establish mood and build tension. His scenes are constructed with great sympathy, but there is also a bleakness in his vision. What is remarkable in his work is the texture of the language, the use of metaphor, the handling of rhythm.’ Colm Tóibín, Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.

Colin Barrett is from County Mayo, Ireland. In 2009 he was awarded the Penguin Ireland Prize, and in 2014 his debut collection of stories Young Skins was published and awarded The Rooney Prize, The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize and The Guardian First Book Award. In 2018 he was announced as the Rolex Arts Initiative Literary Protégé, mentored by Colm Tóibín. His stories have appeared in The Stinging Fly, the New Statesman, the New Yorker, Harper's and have been read on Radio 4. His story 'Calm With Horses' was adapted for a feature film starring Barry Keoghan, Cosmo Jarvis and Niamh Algar, released in 2020. 

Colin's new short story collection, Homesickness, will be published in 2022. He is also working on his debut novel, due to be released in summer 2023.