Golden Age of Irish Prose - North and South of the Border, Hepworth Sculpture Prize Winner

In Sebastian Barry’s inaugural speech as Laureate for Irish Fiction earlier this year, he stated that Ireland was in a 'golden age of prose'. As Northern Irish writer Anna Burns scooped the Man Booker Prize for her novel Milkman last month, Front Row hears voices from the No Alibis bookstore in Belfast. We speak to former Irish Laureate and Booker Prize winner Anne Enright; Professor of Irish History and Literature, Roy Foster; award-winning, Belfast-born writer Lucy Caldwell; and writer, editor and journalist Sinead Gleeson. They discuss the renaissance in Irish writing, its roots in Irish storytelling and love of language, and how the border - now at the heart of the Brexit debate - is being written about by a new generation of writers, north and south.

And Front Row exclusively announces the winner of this year's Hepworth Sculpture Prize, hearing live from the victor and from the Chief Curator of The Hepworth Wakefield, Andrew Bonacina. This year’s shortlist includes Mona Hatoum, Michael Dean, Phillip Lai, Magali Reus, and Cerith Wyn Evans.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Sarah Johnson