RTÉ Radio 1's Spoken Stories trilogy of new stories, begins its concluding season on RTÉ Radio 1 on Sunday 6th October at 7.30pm.
Like its other two seasons, these stories will be accompanied by an extended podcast of each episode.
The 36 stories across Spoken Stories were commissioned by RTÉ from some of the most exciting and imaginative present day writers associated with Ireland and the short story.
Through their stories, the writers navigate the breadth of what it is to be alive in the world from the perspective of our own time.
The themes of the 3 series that make up Spoken Stories are Independence, Creatures of the Earth and The State of Us.
The latest 12 writers to contribute are William Wall, Mia Gallagher, Carlo Gébler, Nuala O'Connor, Rebecca Miller, Adrian Duncan, Niamh Campbell, Melatu Uche-Okorie, Cauvery Madhaven, Elaine Feeney, Colm Ó Snodaigh and Paul McVeigh.
Among the actors voicing their stories are Barry Ward, Claire Dunne, Peter Coonan , Ciarán McMenamin, Gabriel Adewusi, Mark O'Regan, Marcus Lamb, and Roisin Gallagher.
The stories are in English and in Irish, as well as by writers whose first language is neither Irish nor English. They are voiced by a cast of actors and some of the contributing writers.
This RTÉ Radio 1 original concept is made with the support of Coimmisiún na Méan.
The new series of Spoken Stories kicks off on Sunday 6th October with Poets of Rapallo by William Wall, voiced by Mark O'Regan.
In Poets of Rapallo, a retired teacher is navigating his recent widowhood. He is in Italy for the first time, a place he has always wanted to visit, but never thought he would do so alone.
For Wall, the relationship between the past and the present never seemed so fraught as it is now in Italy, with the political descendants of Mussolini's fascists in power, and of the poet Ezra Pound who lived in Rapallo and became a devoted follower of Mussolini.
The series continues on Sunday 13th October with Great Beasts of Myth by Mia Gallagher, voiced by Peter Coonan.
For Mia Gallagher, the theme of The State of Us is colloquial and self-deprecatory, but invokes wider political ideas too.
When she sat down and wrote what became Great Beasts of Myth, the memory of coming out of Covid was still raw; sea swimming, loneliness and longing collide in a Dublin pandemic story that is also a hymn to what it is to feel connected - its flow, stops, starts and changes of direction are that of the sea.
Spoken Stories, RTÉ Radio 1 from Sunday 6th October at 7.30pm - listen to more from Spoken Stories here.
