About
The 2026 T. S. Eliot Lecture will be delivered by Zadie Smith. The evening will be introduced by Abbey Theatre Artistic Director Caitríona McLaughlin, followed by a reading of T S Eliot’s Preludes by Marty Rea. After the lecture, Zadie Smith will be in conversation with the writer Sheila Heti….
The 2026 T. S. Eliot Lecture will be delivered by Zadie Smith.
The evening will be introduced by Abbey Theatre Artistic Director Caitríona McLaughlin, followed by a reading of T S Eliot’s Preludes by Marty Rea. After the lecture, Zadie Smith will be in conversation with the writer Sheila Heti.
The title of this year’s lecture is Radical Intimacy: On Sally Rooney.
Presented at the Abbey Theatre since 2016 and inspired by Eliot’s legacy and impact on modern literature, previous speakers include Paul Muldoon, Samantha Power, Steven Pinker, Sean Scully, Edna O’Brien, Es Devlin, Sally Rooney, Jeanette Winterson, Ralph Fiennes and Colm Tóibín.
Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, Swing Time and The Fraud; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; four collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, Intimations and Dead and Alive; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and a play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives.
Sheila Heti is the author of twelve books, including the novels Alphabetical Diaries, Pure Colour, Motherhood, and How Should a Person Be? which New York magazine deemed one of the New Classics of the twenty-first century. Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages. She will publish a new novel, The St. Alwynn Girls at Sea, in April 2027
Marty Rea is an acclaimed stage and screen actor from Belfast. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2002 and is best known as a core member of the Druid Theatre Company ensemble, performing in over 40 plays.
His many theatre credits include most recently Playboy of the Western World directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, Macbeth and The Shaughraun directed by Garry Hynes for Druid Theatre Company, and 4.48 Psychosis by Tom Creed. He most recently played James Tyrone Jr in the Druid Theatre’s production of A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O Neill.
His awards include Irish Times Theatre Awards, Best Actor (Hamlet), Best Actor (DruidShakespeare), Best Supporting Actor (King of the Castle and The Great Gatsby); Herald Angel Award, and Edinburgh Festival (Waiting for Godot).
