In this centenary year of the publication of Ulysses we are delighted to welcome David Collard back to the Society with his new book, Multiple Joyce: One Hundred Short Essays About James Joyce’s Cultural Legacy (Sagging Meniscus Press, June 2022). Springing from the essays we’ll have discussion, song, readings and music to mark the UK launch of the book and to bring our season to a close.
The story goes that a man in Zürich once asked James Joyce if he could kiss the hand that wrote Ulysses. Joyce declined, saying that it had done many other things as well. Multiple Joyce is a book inspired by those other things – it fizzes and astonishes at every turn, springing Joyce’s masterpiece free from the idolatry of academe and reminding us how strange and hip it must have seemed in 1922. John Mitchinson, co-host of Backlisted Podcast
Holding up a funhouse mirror to our times, Collard finds a multitude of Joyces, in often ludicrous disguises, wherever he looks—whether at Anthony Burgess, Cher, first editions, Flann O’Brien, Guinness, Hattie Jacques, John Cage, Kim Kardashian, Lego, Moby-Dick, numismatics, perfume, pianos, Princess Grace, puns, The Ramones, Sally Rooney, Stanley Unwin, Star Wars, waxworks or Zylo spectacles. Endlessly reinvented and exploited, Joyce emerges as a ubiquitous, indispensable and ruthlessly commodified Everyman. An excerpt riffing on Timon of Athens, Walter Benjamin and Ironman can be read on the RTÉ site. As Rónán Hession puts it in his foreword, Collard is above all “good company” and “I wish that the first time anyone heard about Joyce was from David Collard.” We’re delighted that Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul and Panenka will be joining Collard in discussion.
Collard’s Joyce nerdiness excels! Eimear McBride
The event will be followed by a sale of Multiple Joyce and a signing by the author. There will also be a grand giveaway of Joyce titles.
David Collard
David Collard is a London-based writer, reviewer, researcher, editor and occasional broadcaster, appearing regularly in the Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review and elsewhere, in print and online. Previous titles include About a Girl, a reader’s guide to Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (C B Editions, 2016).Find out more on David’s website.
Rónán Hession
Rónán Hession is a writer and musician based in Dublin. His debut novel, Leonard and Hungry Paul, was published by Bluemoose Books in 2019. The book was shortlisted for numerous awards and chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the 50 great Irish novels of the 21st century. Ronán’s second novel.
Melanie Pappenheim
Melanie Pappenheim is a singer, performer and composer. Her versatility has allowed her to explore several different genres. She has worked with with many leading contemporary composers including Jocelyn Pook, Orlando Gough, Gavin Bryars and Graham Fitkin and performed in a huge variety of venues ranging from The Royal Opera House, the ENO, The Royal Albert Hall, the National Theatre, Glyndebourne, a barge on the Thames, a tent in Sussex, a tower in Wells, in clubs, in lighthouses, hillsides, halls and basements everywhere. Find out more on Melanie’s website.
Sarah Angliss
Sarah Angliss’ music explores the sonorities of voices and ancient instruments, revealing and augmenting them with her distinctive electronic techniques. In 2021 she received a Visionary Award from the Ivors Academy for her body of work. Sarah draws on her lifelong interest in European folksong, cybernetics and esoteric sound culture. These inspire her progressive and strikingly original music for film, theatre and the live music stage.Find out more on Sarah’s website
Frank Grimes
Frank Grimes was born in Dublin and trained at the Abbey Theatre School of Acting. He was a member of the Abbey Players for seven years and performed in O’Casey, Synge, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Joyce and O’Connor. He scored an early success as the young Brendan Behan in Borstal Boy. rank has worked extensively in the theatre in London; at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court and in London’s West End, as well as in Dublin and New York. Amongst his many Joyce related credits he performed in Anthony Burgess’s Joyce musical Blooms of Dublin and has previously performed his hit one-man show on James Joyce, “…the he and the she of it…” in Dublin, London and Paris.Find out more on Frank’s website
Stephanie Ellyne
Stephanie Ellyne is an American actress based in London and Dublin. She recorded the 45-hour audio book of Booker nominee Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport (Whole Story/W.F. Howes) in 2020, and plays Amy Jennings in on-going British/American audio drama Dark Shadows with Big Finish, nominated for the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Other work includes The Confessions of Dorian Gray (Big Finish; Open Book (BBC Radio 4); and The Man Behind The Prophet (BBC World Service). Stephanie records stories for the annual Costa Short Story Award, and is a frequent narrator for RNIB Talking Books. Her most recent audio book is Things Are Against Us by Lucy Ellmann (W.F. Howes).
