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Eleanor Wachtel interviews one of Ireland's finest Authors, Jennifer Johnston. She writes about familial relationships and unexpected friendships, set against the violence of Ireland.

Dublin writer Roddy Doyle talks about politics and the fight for independence. His new novel, A Star Called Henry - described as a cross between Dickens, and Tarantino - is a re-visioning of the struggle for an Irish Republic and the events around the Easter Rising of 1916.

A look at the great visionary poet, the Novel Prize winner, William Butler Yeats. Eleanor Wachtel speaks with Irish historian Roy Foster about the first volume of his new biography, W. B. Yeats, A Life, Vol. I. The Apprentice Mage.

Readings and interview with Irish writer Seamus Deane. His extraordinary new novel is in the form of a memoir. It's a classic growing-up Irish story that's political, poetical, and humorous. It's called Reading in the Dark.

This week: the first episode of a special series with international short story writers. Edna O'Brien - one of the world's great short story writers - has been writing for 30 years. Her stories are set in the heartland of Ireland, and almost always about women.

The first episode in a special series on Irish writers, starting with one of the best - William Trevor. His Collected Stories was named one of the best books of 1993.

A reading by Roddy Doyle, from his book Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha.. Also - a discussion with writer and editor Dermot Bolger and historian Roy Foster about the myths and changes in Irish literature.

This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with with Hugo Hamilton about his novels The Last Shot and Headbanger, and about his memoir of a half-Irish childhood, The Speckled People.

Irish writer Colm Tóibín was this year's grand prize winner at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal. His latest, The Testament of Mary, takes place twenty years after Jesus' death.

INTERVIEW: Global adventuring and her extraordinary life on the road, with Irish travel writer, Dervla Murphy. FEATURE: "Visions," a story of searching for miracles, by Canadian writer and former nun, Ann Copeland. Read by Canadian actress Nicky Guadagni. INTERVIEW: Canadian author Merna Summers reveals her surprising reading habit.

In honour of Bloomsday (June 16th), the day of James Joyce's Ulysses, Eleanor Wachtel talks to four Irish writers - Michael Collins, Claire Keegan, Colum McCann and Nuala O'Faolain - on ideas of home and away. Recorded at the Manulife Literary Arts Festival in Victoria, B.C.

Host Eleanor Wachtel talks with Irish writer Nuala O'Faolain. The wonderfully funny and moving memoirist is the author of Are You Somebody?: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman and Almost There: The Onward Journey of a Dublin Woman.

A conversation with the Irish-American memoirist Frank McCourt, author of 'Tis and the Pulitzer Prize winning work, Angela's Ashes. It's a surprisingly candid chat with a man who - at age 66 - catapulted himself onto the best seller lists. Includes two readings by McCourt, from Angela's Ashes and from 'Tis.

Eleanor Wachtel talks with Irish literary historian Declan Kiberd about his new book Irish Classics, which covers four hundred years of poetry and prose, from Gaelic bards to Joyce and Beckett.

Sebastian Barry This week on Writers & Company, from Ireland - novelist, playwright, and poet, Sebastian Barry. His latest novel, The Secret Scripture, is shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize. The Secret Scripture is published by Viking.