Athlone launch of new short story collection next week

A collection of interconnected short stories by an Athlone writer and five of her colleagues will be launched in the town's Dean Crowe Theatre Bar this Tuesday evening, April 8.

Local woman Máirín Stronge worked on the short story collection - entitled 'The Decades' - along with five others from the graduate cohort of the Masters in Creative Writing at Limerick University.

The group called themselves The Adnibs Collective and their series of short stories has been published by 451 Editions, an independent publishing collective.

Its launch in the Dean Crowe Theatre Bar will take place at 6.30pm on April 8, and will include a question and answer session hosted by Athlone poet Jackie Gorman.

Originally from county Mayo, Máirín Stronge has been based in Athlone for many years and worked as a solicitor in the town, a job from which she retired before Christmas.

She has been involved in writing for the last 15-20 years, and said she greatly enjoyed collaborating with her Masters in Creative Writing colleagues at Limerick University.

The five other contributors to 'The Decades' hail from various parts of the country, and include Mullingar native Sean Coffey.

The other contributors are Sharon Guard, Gio, Sarah Lou Ryan and Conor Clohessy.

Máirín explained that the stories in The Decades collection take place over a six-decade timeframe, with a west coast of Ireland setting, a specific house, and a priest being the three common threads that connect all six of the stories.

In addition to the question and answer session with Jackie Gorman, next week's launch will see the authors talk about and read from the work featured in this collection.

All are welcome to attend the launch..