Joseph Brooker

Joseph Brooker is Reader in Modern Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, where he is Director of the Centre for Contemporary Literature. He is the author of Joyce’s Critics (2004), Flann O’Brien (2005) and Literature of the 1980s (2010), and has edited special issues of New Formations, Journal of Law & Society, Textual Practice, and Critical Quarterly. He organised the conferences Joycean Literature (2011) and 100 Dubliners (2014) and is a member of the host committee for the International James Joyce Symposium 2016.

Catherine Flynn

Catherine Flynn is Assistant Professor of English at UC Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Introduction to the Humanities Program. Her book project, James Joyce, Walter Benjamin and the Matter of Modernity, considers Joyce and Benjamin’s radical rejections of the conventions of fiction and theory within a context of urban writing that ranges from nineteenth-century realist fiction to twentieth-century surrealist works. She is co-editor, with Richard Brown, of a forthcoming special issue of James Joyce Quarterly on ‘Joycean Avant-Gardes’. She is a member of the Advisory Board of The Parish Review. She is currently at work with David Wheatley on a scholarly edition of Cruiskeen Lawn.

Brian Ó Conchubhair

Brian Ó Conchubhair is Associate Professor of Irish Language & Literature and Director of the Center for the Study of Languages & Cultures at the University of Notre Dame. In 2009 he published a monograph on the intellectual history of the Irish revival entitled Fin de Siècle na Gaeilge: Darwin, An Athbheochan agus Smaointeoireacht na hEorpa. He has edited numerous titles including Gearrscéalta Ár Linne (2006), WHY IRISH? Irish Language and Literature in Academia (2008), Twisted Truths (2011), Dorchadas le Liam Ó Flaithearta (2011), The Language of Gender, Power and Agency in Celtic Studies (2013), Lost in Connemara/Cailte i gConamara (2014), a special issue of Éire-Ireland dedicated to ‘Ireland and Sport’, and Pádraic Breathnach: Rogha Scéalta (2014). He was also Series Editor for Mercier’s Kerry’s Fighting Story 1916-1921, Limerick’s Fighting Story 1916-1921, Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story 1916-1921, and Dublin’s Fighting Story 1916-1921 (2009). In 2011-13, he served as the Executive Director of the IRISH Seminar. He was elected President of the American Conference for Irish Studies for 2015-2017. His current research project is a monograph concerning the impact on of high modernism on Irish-language authors with specific reference to the novel in Irish.

Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry’s new novel, Beatlebone, will be published by Canongate in October 2015. His previous books include the Rooney-prize winning short story collection, There Are Little Kingdoms (2007), the Edge Hill-winning short story collection, Dark Lies The Island (2012), and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award-winning novel, City of Bohane (2011). He lives in Sligo.

Gerry Smyth

Gerry Smyth is a Reader in Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. He researches in the areas of Irish cultural history (particularly popular music), modern fiction, post-colonialism, and contemporary critical theory. He has lectured across Europe and the United States, and held fellowships at institutions in Prague, Monaco and Vienna.

Gerry Smyth is also a musician and actor. In 2012 he completed his sixth and seventh studio albums. His own adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s ‘The Brother’ was one of the highlights of the IFOBS inaugural conference in Vienna in 2011, and was subsequently performed at the Edinburgh Festival. Gerry and his fellow theatre makers are bringing to Prague their new show, entitled ‘Will the Real Flann O’Brien …? A Life in Five Scenes’.