The 2026 Cheuse Lecture: Stories of Sanctuary by Colm Tóibín
Author Colm Tóibín will be in conversation with German author and journalist Malte Herwig. The lecture is part of a series focused on the literature of ethics and sanctuary, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center.
Tóibín will also discuss his newest work, The News from Dublin, a collection of nine short stories, many never-before-published, set across Ireland, Spain, and America—about the complexities of family, longing, loss, and love.
When: Thursday, April 23 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Where: Stacy C Sherwood Comm Center (3740 Blenheim Blvd, Fairfax, VA 22030)
Price: FREE, with reservation
Celebrated as “his generation’s most gifted writer of love’s complicated, contradictory power” (Los Angeles Times), Colm Tóibín is a master of short fiction as well as the novel, able to summon an extraordinary intensity of emotion in a brief tale.
In “The Journey to Galway,” a mother who has learned of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in World War I, travels to Galway to inform his wife and their three now fatherless children. “Sleep,” originally published in The New Yorker, explores the rift between two lovers as one of them cannot reckon with his grief and fear after the death of his brother. Death, again, is a central character in the title story, “The News from Dublin,” as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin to try to save his younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis. Maurice must petition the health minister for access to a new experimental drug, and this is the only hope.
Tóibín’s stories are rich with the complexities of family dynamics, the haunting pull of the past, and the quiet revelations that define our lives. His characters, whether navigating the aftermath of war, or forbidden love, or the desires of a girl in Catalan, or the quiet struggles mundane life, are rendered with illuminating, unforgettable empathy and insight.
The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, based at George Mason University, honors the spirit of the late NPR literary critic and dedicated professor Alan Cheuse. It fosters a global writing community by bringing emerging and established international writers to the U.S., supporting MFA students with international travel fellowships, and curating inclusive programming that connects writers, translators, and readers both locally and worldwide.
This event is presented in partnership with George Mason University's Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, Goethe Institut, Arts Fairfax, Fairfax City, Mason Exhibitions, Bards Aley Bookshop, and The Fairfax County Public Library.
Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, as well as three story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature.
