Sinéad Gleeson

The Fund for Irish Studies continues its 2025-2026 series with a reading by bestselling writer and editor Sinéad Gleeson. The theater is an accessible venue, and guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week prior to the event date.

Gleeson’s debut novel, Hagstone, was published in 2024 by 4th Estate and was longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. Hagstone tells the story of a remote island steeped in folklore and mystery, where artist Nell is commissioned by the reclusive Iníons women’s commune to create an art piece celebrating their legacy. As she delves into the project, Nell discovers unsettling truths about herself and the island’s supernatural undercurrents, along with hidden histories of the women who call it home. Called “original and captivating” by the BBC, Hagstone was named “a most-anticipated debut” by Sunday Independent, Irish Times, and the Irish Examiner, among others.

Gleeson’s essay collection, Constellations: Reflections from Life, won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Literary Award for Emerging Writer. It was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Michel Déon Prize, and it has been translated into several languages. She is the editor of four anthologies including The Art of the Glimpse, the award-winning The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers, and The Glass Shore: Short Stories. Gleeson has collaborated with artists and musicians on performance and sound installations, including commissions from The Wellcome Collection, the RHA Gallery, BBC, Rua Red Gallery, and Frieze. Her short stories have featured in Being Various: New Irish Short Stories, and she is co-editor with Kim Gordon of This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music.

Gleeson will read from her work and books will be available to purchase and to have signed.

The 2025-26 Fund for Irish Studies Series is co-chaired by Jane Cox, Professor of the Practice in Theater and Director of the Program in Theater & Music Theater at the Lewis Center, and Robert Spoo, Princeton’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters.