Dublin’s International Literature Festival will feature Sinéad Gleeson and other writers for This Woman’s Work, an event highlighting the struggles women have faced in fighting for a place within the music industry. The event will take place tomorrow evening, May 24, at Merrion Square Park and is also available to view online.

Gleeson has worked as an author, journalist and broadcaster, with her 2019 collection of essays, Constellations: Reflections from Life, earning her Non Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. She understands the power and importance of music, as her life has been shaped by its undeniable influence. She is also painfully aware of the realities of women within such a male-dominated industry.

That fact led Gleeson to create This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music, co-edited with Kim Gordon and complete with essays from contemporary writers such as Anne Enright, Ottessa Moshfegh, Jenn Pelly, Zakia Sewell and more.

Hot Press’ own Pat Carty praised the book upon its release, writing, “Music is magic. You can try to explain it, write paragraphs about it … or put dots and squiggles on a stave, but conveying that mystery of the way it makes us feel is a tricky operation. This Woman’s Work shows how it can and should be done.”

This Woman’s Work is centred in the conversation surrounding sexism in the realm of the arts – music, film and literature – using the power of astute prose and personal accounts.
Gleeson will take the stage at Dublin’s Literature Festival alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Margo Jefferson and contributing writer and DJ, Zakia Sewell. The three writers will discuss music inspirations behind the essays and open up a pathway for further, necessary discourse on the topic of sexism within music and the arts industries.

The event is chaired by writer and broadcaster Louise McSharry via Dublin’s International Literature Festival. Tickets are available for the night, which will take place tomorrow, May 24 at Merrion Square Park, The Synge. In-person and online attendance are both offered under ticket options via the festival’s website.