DABF23 Talk: We are the Passengers

Wendy Erskine will be in conversation with three prominent literary figures: Will Ashon, Nithy Kasa and Susan Tomaselli. They will consider matters such as totalising perspectives and polyphony, people and place, tradition and innovation. And chance. Will Ashon founded an independent record label and, in addition to two novels, has written about subjects as diverse as Epping Forest and the Wu-Tang Clan. His latest book The Passengers (2022), is soon to be released in paperback. Poet Nithy Kasa, speaks four languages and divides her time between Dublin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her debut poetry collection, Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho, draws on folk tradition and women’s experience. Susan Tomaselli is publisher, writer, literary contributor and editor of Gorse journal, a publication which has been described as combining assured editorial judgment with startling original content.

Will Ashon lives in London and is author of two previous works of non- fiction, Strange Labyrinth and Chamber Music: About the Wu-Tang (in 36 Pieces) and two novels, Clear Water and The Heritage. The Passengers, his latest, was shortlisted for The Rathbones Folio Prize 2023. Ashon also founded the independent record label Big Dada Recordings, which he ran for over fifteen years.

Nithy Kasa is a Congolese-Irish poet. She was selected for Poetry as Commemoration for the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme, a recipient of I bhFad i gCéin international residencies for Cave Canem, the Poetry Ireland Commission 2020 and shortlisted for The Eavan Boland Emerging Poet Award 2021. Her debut collection of poetry, Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho, Doire Press, 2022, was listed in the Irish Times top poetry books of 2022, and shortlisted for the Pigott Poetry Prize 2023

Susan Tomaselli is founder and editor of Gorse journal. She has written for The Guardian, The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, Bookmunch, CultureNI. Recent publications include Editor, DW Cities: Dublin (Dostoyevsky Wannabe 2019) and ‘Ghosting,’ We’ll Never Have Paris (ed. Andrew Gallix, Repeater Books 2019). She is currently working on a novel-in-essays, Traces, on memory, trauma, technology, and failure

Wendy Erskine is Guest Curator of Dublin Art Book Fair 23: Polyphonic. She is the author of two prize-winning short story collections published by The Stinging Fly Press. She edited well I just kind of like it, an anthology of writing about art in the home, published by PVA Books. She is a frequent broadcaster and interviewer, and her non-fiction is widely published. In 2022, she was Seamus Heaney Fellow at Queen’s University and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She is also a full-time secondary school teacher.

This event takes place as part of Dublin Art Book Fair 2023: Polyphonic, sponsored by Henry J Lyons and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.

Image description: Three portraits side-by-side Nithy Kasa, Will Ashon and Susan Tomaselli. Left to right: (1) A head and shoulder portrait image of Nithy. She is an African woman with a dark skin tone. She wears a pearl earring in her right ear, her hair is pulled back, and she is wearing a yellow floral print scarf. (2) A black-and-white photograph of Will Ashon standing on a stool with his back to the camera. He is writing on a piece of paper pinned to the wall. He is a middle-aged man with short messy hair. He is wearing glasses, a dark shirt, trousers, socks with a pen lid in his mouth. (3) A photograph of Susan Tomaselli in front of two shelves of colourful books. She wears a black jacket and plaid shirt. She has chin length straight brown hair parted on her right.