Author and Activist Winnie M. Li to visit UCC 15th March 2018

15 Mar 2018

George Mitchell Scholar returns for a reading and discussion of her book, Dark Chapter

Winnie M. Li first came to Ireland, and to UCC, as one of the first George Mitchell Scholars in 2000-2001. She spent a year in the School of English in UCC studying for a MA focusing on issues of gender and sexuality in Irish writing (ultimately writing an MA dissertation on the traveller and author Dervla Murphy), and subsequently moved to London where she worked as a film-maker for a number of years.

As she explains in a recent Irish Times article, her relationship with Ireland took a traumatic turn in 2008, when she visited Belfast to attend events commemorating the 10^th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and was raped in a park on the outskirts of the city.

Winnie has drawn on these experiences to write a widely-acclaimed novel, Dark Chapter, (it won the 2017 ‘Not the Booker’ prize, which is voted on by readers of the Guardian and is currently nominated for the prestigious Edgar Awards in the US) and is also an activist in the area of sexual violence against women and girls. She co-founded the Clear Lines festival, which aims to challenge the silence and stigma that surrounds sexual violence. Winnie was also one of four sexual assault survivors profiled in the TV3 documentary Unbreakable: True Lives, which aired last September. 

Winnie will visit UCC on Thursday 15 March for a reading and discussion jointly sponsored by the School of English and Women’s Studies. The event will take place from 5.30-7 pm in Room 1.23 in the O’Rahilly Building. For further information please contact Dr Clíona Ó Gallchoir (c.gallchoir@ucc.ie)

You can read more about Winnie’s writing and her activism on her website, and her work has also been covered extensively in the media, including the Guardian, Journal.ie and on the Sean O’Rourke programme on RTÉ Radio One.