This Book Event has already taken place - but you can watch the replay if you missed it

Kerri ní Dochartaigh - Cacophony of Bone

WithKerri ni Dochartaigh
In conversation withClare Archibald

At: The Portobello Bookshop

On:11th May 2023, 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Kerri ní Dochartaigh - Cacophony of Bone at The Portobello Bookshop

We're over the moon to be welcoming Kerri ní Dochartaigh to the bookshop for an event just after the publication of her brand new book, Cacophony of Bone. She will be in conversation with multidisciplinary writer Clare Archibald.

This event will take place in the bookshop with an in-person audience, as well as a livestream for attendees watching from home. There will be a signing after the event.

In-person vouchers can be redeemed on the night of the event against a single copy of Cacophony of Bone – we will have a list of attendees with vouchers to be redeemed. Livestream vouchers are valid until the day after the event and can be redeemed on the website against a single copy of Cacophony of Bone. Please note that only one voucher can be redeemed per book.

About Cacophony of Bone:

Two days after the Winter Solstice in 2019 Kerri and her partner M moved to a small, remote railway cottage in the heart of Ireland. They were looking for a home, somewhere to stay put. What followed was a year of many changes.

The pandemic arrived and their isolated home became a place of enforced isolation. It was to be a year unlike any we had seen before. But the seasons still turned, the swallows came at their allotted time, the rhythms of the natural world went on unchecked.

For Kerri there was to be one more change, a longed-for but un-hoped for change. Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of a year - a journey from one place to another, field notes of a life - from one winter, to the next. It is a telling of a changed life, in a changed world - and it is about all that does not change.

All that which simply keeps on - living and breathing, nesting and dying - in spite of it all. When the pandemic came time seemed to shapeshift, so this is also a book about time. It is, too, a book about home, and what that can mean.

Fragmentary in subject and form, fluid of language, this is an ode to a year, a place, and a love, that changed a life.

Please note: Tickets for our events are non-refundable. Professional photography and videography may take place during this event. Thank you for your understanding.

Participants:

Kerri ni Dochartaigh Author

Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in 1983, in Derry-Londonderry at the border between the North and South of Ireland. She has written for the Guardian, the Irish Times, the BBC, Winter Papers and others. She is the author of Thin Places, which was highly commended by the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021.

Clare Archibald Chair

Clare Archibald is a Scottish multidisciplinary writer working with text, sound, still and moving image and materials to create solo, collaborative and collective work that explores ideas of articulation, place, the real and imagined and what of the private we make public and why. Further work here: https://www.clarearchibald.com/ 

The venue

The Portobello Bookshop

46 Portobello High Street
Edinburgh
EH15 1DA

Telephone: 0131 629 6756

Website: www.theportobellobookshop.com


Wheelchair Access

We have a ramp at the front of the shop which has a ratio of 1:10 and loading capacity of 300kg, and so should be able to be used by most wheelchair users or those with mobility vehicles. The front doors are fully automated. Our shop interior is designed to allow access throughout for wheelchair users and prams, though please note there is only 700mm wide clearance to access the staff toilet.

Sound

We use a PA system to enhance the audio at our live events. We also have a hearing loop system installed, if you’d like to use our loop system during an event please let us know and we’ll make sure we have it set up and connected to the live audio feed during the event. If you wish to attend an event and require BSL interpretation, please give us a few weeks notice and we’ll do our best to arrange an interpreter.