In his new poetry collection, Lives of the Saints, Mícheál McCann brings canonical saints into the realm of ordinary people. Saint Francis drifts during a spin class, Saint Bridget snoozes during Mass, an A&E doctor shoots the breeze with Saint Sebastian…

Inspired by her own devout upbringing, Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin’s novel Ordinary Saints tells the story of a queer woman who learns that her late brother may be made into a Catholic saint. 

Join Mícheál and Niamh for a conversation with Wendy Erskine about writing, Christianity and queer identity. 

Meet the writers

Mícheál McCann is a poet from Derry City. He has published two pamphlets of poems, and most recently a collection, Devotion, with The Gallery Press in 2024. Devotion was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry 2024 and named a book of the year by RTÉ and The Irish Times. He is a poetry critic for The Irish Times, and he lives and works as a secondary school teacher in Belfast.

Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin was the winner of the inaugural PFD Queer Fiction Prize and was also shortlisted for the Women's Prize Trust Discoveries Prize in 2022. Her début literary novel Ordinary Saints was shortlisted for the 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize.