About
Éire to Everywhere is delighted to welcome the wonderful Katriona O’Sullivan, who many will know from her gritty and powerful memoir Poor, recently staged as a play. She joins us at EPIC to discuss her new book Hungry, another biography, this time focusing on the topic of body positivity and how…
Éire to Everywhere is delighted to welcome the wonderful Katriona O’Sullivan, who many will know from her gritty and powerful memoir Poor, recently staged as a play. She joins us at EPIC to discuss her new book Hungry, another biography, this time focusing on the topic of body positivity and how she has struggled with this despite academic and professional accolades.
Ticket holders should arrive about 10 minutes before 5:30pm at the Visitor Information desk within chq. There they will be escorted to the event’s location. We would ask that you arrive no later than 5:35pm, as it’s imperative these events begin on time to ensure the best experience for the author and for our visitors.
About the Book
Katriona O’Sullivan has come a long way from the poverty, chaos and abuse she knew growing up. A respected academic and bestselling author, she defied every expectation placed on the teenage mother she once was.
Yet even as the accolades arrived, old beliefs held fast. No degree, no award, no recognition could silence the sense that she was only worthy when her body looked the way society said it should.
In this fierce and fearless memoir, Katriona pulls back the curtain on her journey: the relentless comparison to the curated bodies of strangers on the internet, the dangerous weight-loss treatments, the attempts to reshape herself into an impossible ideal – and how she slowly learned to accept and love herself.
Hungry is an unforgettable examination of how gender, class and trauma shape a woman’s sense of worth. It is one woman’s story – and a rallying cry for every woman who has ever felt she had to shrink to survive.
About the Author
Dr Katriona O’Sullivan is a professor of psychology and the bestselling r Bio author of Poor, winner of Biography of the Year and Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. The memoir has been translated into seven languages, adapted into a sold-out play at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, and remained in Ireland’s top-ten nonfiction chart for two years. A regular commentator on the BBC and across Irish and international media, she has spoken at Westminster, the UN and UNESCO.
Born in Coventry to Irish parents, her early life was marked by poverty, addiction, teenage pregnancy and homelessness. In 1998, she moved to Dublin, where she entered Trinity College through the access programme and went on to earn a PhD in psychology. Now a professor at Maynooth University, she directs the National Centre for Inclusive Higher Education and leads the award-winning STEM Passport for Inclusion, which has supported over 10,000 young people from underserved communities into higher education and high-status careers.
Endorsements of Hungry
“Raw and remarkable” – The Irish Independent
“As profound and honest as anything I have ever read” – Liz Nugent
“Soaring with compassion, intelligence and hard-won wisdom” – Louise Kennedy
Endorsements of Poor
“O’Sullivan’s redemptive arc has had to break through the systemic discrimination” – RTÉ Bookclub
“Grit, courage, and the life-changing value of self-belief” – Irish Central