Celebrating James Joyce: Bloomsday

As James Joyce fans already know, “Bloomsday” is an annual daylong reading of Ulysses, the massive Irish tome that is generally regarded as the greatest novel in the English language.

This nearly 800-page narrative takes place over the course of a single day in Dublin, and to celebrate the magnificent stream-of-conscious prose, Joyceans migrate through Pittsburgh, from café to cemetery to pub, to hear excerpts read aloud.

When the book was first published in 1921, it was banned in both Great Britain and the United States. Today, the novel is freely enjoyed by literature aficionados, and each June 16, fans gather to hear the adventures of Stephen Daedalus and Leopold Bloom.

We joined the party at  in Regent Square for a noond reading and lunch. Bloomsday was abbreviated this year, incorporating only three stops, but patrons were also invited to the for a Guaranteed Irish concert.