Comic Artist Sana Takeda and Playwright Rosaleen McDonagh Coming To Dublin 2019

Hugo award-winning comic book artist Sana Takeda and Irish playwright Rosaleen McDonagh will be featured at Dublin 2019 – An Irish Worldcon.

“It is important to us that we share all aspects of Irish culture and brilliance with our members,” Dublin 2019 chair James Bacon said. “We look forward to bringing our own artists in all media together with the fantastic slate of worldwide talent who will be joining us in Dublin.”

Joining Dublin 2019 as a featured artist, Tokyo-based Sana Takeda is best known for drawing the prizewinning Monstress series, written by Marjorie Liu and published by Image. The heroine of Monstress, Maika Halfwolf, survives bereavement, slavery, and disabling injury to take control of her psychic powers and change her people’s history. Since it premiered in 2015, Monstress has won three Hugos, five Eisners, three British Fantasy Awards and a Harvey Award.

Takeda´s artistic reference points range from Japanese woodblock prints to Marvel Comics, where she has drawn for franchises including X-Men and Ms. Marvel. She joins Afua Richardson, Maeve Clancy, and Jim Fitzpatrick on the featured artist roster.

Equally excitingly, Rosaleen McDonagh, playwright and activist for the Irish Traveller community, will be discussing Irish Traveller culture at Dublin 2019. Her plays including Mainstream, Stuck, She’s Not Mine, and Rings explore aspects of feminism, ethnicity and disability. She has been chosen by Colum McCann to adapt for the stage his novel Zoli, the story of a Polish Roma poet and writer.

McDonagh worked for ten years managing the Violence against Women Programme at the Pavee Point Traveller & Romany Centre. She writes for the Irish Times and is completing a PhD that will be her fourth degree from Trinity College Dublin. She was the first Traveller invited to join the Irish artists’ academy Aosdána in 2017, and the first Traveller to stand for election to the Seanad, the Irish legislature’s upper house, in 2002 and 2007.

2 thoughts on “Comic Artist Sana Takeda and Playwright Rosaleen McDonagh Coming To Dublin 2019

  1. She has been chosen by Colum McCann to adopt his novel Zoli, the story of a Polish Roma poet and writer.

    Not sure what they mean here, but I presume it’s not that Zoli is an orphan. Maybe that she has been chosen to adapt his novel Zoli into a play?

    It’s nice to see that they’ve got an interesting, non-traditional lineup of guest artists.

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