Alannah

Alannah Hopkin is a writer based in southwest Ireland. She is this year’s Frank O’Connor International Fellow and will be teaching on the M.A. in Creative Writing at University College, Cork. Her story collection The Dogs of Inishere was published by Dalkey Archive Press in 2017. Her stories have appeared in the London Magazine and The Cork Literary Review, among others, and been short-listed for the RTE Short Story Award. She has worked as a freelance journalist mainly in arts and travel, and as an art critic and book reviewer. She has published two novels with Hamish Hamilton (London) and her non-fiction books include Eating Scenery: West Cork, the People & the Place. She regularly hosts events for the Cork International Short Story Festival, the West Cork Literary Festival and Words by Water in her hometown, Kinsale. In 2019 she was a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin, researching her latest book. ‘A Very Strange Man’: A Memoir of Aidan Higgins is due from New Island in Spring, 2021.

Download full CV.

Represented by The Jonathan Williams Literary Agency.

You may be looking for another Alannah. If so this page of alternative spellings might help.

Writing

You can find more information about my published fiction on the Books page.

Book reviews and journalism

Gerald MacSweeney Irishwoman’s Diary

Robert Gibbings Irishwoman’s Diary

John Calder’s birthday Irishwoman’s Diary

[Several Irish Examiner reviews, they are no longer put up on their website, so no links, PDFs to be made.]

Fifty Years of Sunday Miscellany (New Island) https://www.newisland.ie/nonfiction/miscellany-50-fifty-years-of-sunday-miscellany

White – shortlisted for the RTE Francis McManus short story prize 2014. Read by Angela Harding
https://www.rte.ie/radio1/francis-macmanus-short-story/generic/2014/0709/629559-winning-stories-and-shortlist-2014/

Books

I write books and short stories. My books are available from Amazon and from Dalkey Island Press.

Books

ON THE BANKS

Cork City in Poems and Songs - a beguiling mosaic of a city that has been much loved by natives, transient residents and visitors alike

EATING SCENERY

‘You can’t eat scenery’ is an old saying about the difficulty of making a living in beautiful but remote places. West Cork, from Kinsale to the Beara Peninsula and from the Atlantic to the Lee Valley is such a place.

SHIP OF SEVEN MURDERS

In June 1828, the Mary Russell sailed into Cork Harbour from the West Indies. Seven crewmen lay in the main saloon, brutally and inexplicably murdered by the captain.

THE OUT-HAUL

A few years ago I was introduced to a woman at a party in Kinsale, where I live. ‘I’m very interested to meet you,’ she said, ‘I hear you’ve written a novel about my husband.’

A JOKE GOES A LONG WAY IN THE COUNTRY

There is a certain librarian in Cork who, every time he sees my name on my ticket, says in a furtive whisper ‘You wrote A Joke Goes a Long Way in the Country!’, and winks...

INSIDE CORK

Travel guide to Cork city and county. Probably the most thorough guide to Cork City and County ever written, this was one of the first books from the Collins Press, now a major figure in Irish publishing.

THE LIVING LEGEND OF ST PATRICK

This book looks at the historical man and the evidence of his writings, the apocryphal legends, the myth and the process that led in the 18th century to his emergence as a symbol of Irish nationalism.

THE DOGS OF INISHERE

A collection of the best of my stories from the past thirty years, will be published in Europe and the US on 21 April, 2017. This marks a welcome return to fiction writing after a long gap.

Events

CORK INTERNATIONAL SHORT STORY FESTIVAL
Online Festival available worldwide, October 6-10, 2020
(Irish time = GMT+1)
http://www.corkshortstory.net/programme.html
At 7pm on Tuesday 6 October, I will be reading from my own work in an event hosted by Sarah Byrne and also featuring Cathy Sweeney.
At 9pm on Friday 9 October I will be in conversation with American writers Bret Anthony Johnston and Ron Rash.
€5, book in advance
At 7pm on Tuesday 6 October, I will be reading from my own work in an event hosted by Sarah Byrne and also featuring Cathy Sweeney.
At 9pm on Friday 9 October I will be in conversation with American writers Bret Anthony Johnston and Ron Rash.
€5, book in advance

Interviewing Sara Maitland at the Cork International Short Story Festival 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu5sgrw7jwc

Interviewing William Wall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEqThIAfkTc

With Carlo Gébler, reading from The Dogs of Inishere at Cork International Short Story Festival 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRETwb55-sg

Fifty Years of Sunday Miscellany (New Island) https://www.newisland.ie/nonfiction/miscellany-50-fifty-years-of-sunday-miscellany
Listen to me reading from Sunday Miscellany (the following audio is courtesy of RTÉ Libraries and Archive) here:

(click just to the left of the timestamp if it won’t play)

The Dogs of Inishere, a collection of the best of my stories from the past thirty years, will be published in Europe and the US on 21 April, 2017. This marks a welcome return to fiction writing after a long gap.

Poetry Ireland
I am on the panel for Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools. I normally work with Transition Year students and fifth and sixth year. Bookings, which are part-funded by Poetry Ireland, must be made well in advance through their website. http://www.poetryireland.ie/education/writers-in-schools.html. Find out more about my workshop work.

Sunday Miscellany
Listen to me reading from Sunday Miscellany (the following audio is courtesy of RTÉ Libraries and Archive) here:

(click just to the left of the timestamp if it won’t play)