As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.

Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Louise Kennedy, writer of “Trespasses”, her first novel published by Riverhead Books in 2022. Together, they talk about her late vocation for writing which was born out of writing short stories. They also discuss the influence of Irish history, culture and language in her work.

(00:00) Introduction  

(00:56) Presentation of Louise Kennedy and her novel “Trespasses” by Erica Wagner 

(04:08) On the author’s path to becoming a writer 

(07:38) Her Irish background 

(08:51) On writing with an academic angle 

(10:07) On the publication process of her novel 

(14:27) The writers who inspire her 

(18:27) Reading an extract of “Trespasses” by Louise Kennedy 

(19:42) On the writing process of her novel 

(22:07) Her relationship to the Irish language 

(23:48) On her choice to blur the temporality of her novel 

(25:23) On her writing techniques 

(26:30) Her first reader 

(27:10) On her writing residency 

(28:12) On the reception of the book 

(32:35) The ending questionnaire of “les Rencontres” 

Louise Kennedy, Trespasses © Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.

© The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2023

© Eason Novel of the Year.

© An Post Irish Book Awards.

Louise Kennedy, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac, © Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

© The Sunday Times.

© The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award.

© Le Cordon Bleu.

© Queen's University Belfast.

© The Tangerine.

© Netflix.

© Bloomsbury Publishing.

© Booker Prize Foundation.

The Irish for No © Ciaran Carson, 1987. Published in Ireland by The Gallery Press and in

North America by Wake Forest University Press.

Belfast Confetti © Ciaran Carson, 1989. Published in Ireland by The Gallery Press and in

North America by Wake Forest University Press.

THE COUNTRY GIRLS TRILOGY by Edna O’Brien. Copyright © 1960, renewed 1988 by Edna

O’Brien. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The Way Paver © Anne Devlin, 1986. Published in English in the UK by Faber & Faber Ltd and

in French by Editions Privat.

© Leeds United football club.

© Faber & Faber.

© Twitter.