When you read the world Dublin, it’s hard to escape the romantic literary associations that James Joyce’s Ulysses kicked off a century ago. Central Dublin still bears the traces of Joyce, Beckett, and Wilde — Dubliners who left the city to write about it. But the contemporary Irish capital is a world away from Joyce's literary portrait.  

Today, Dublin is among the world’s most expensive cities on the planet, resembling more of a tech hub than a lit hub. And yet, many are still drawn to Dublin’s literary possibilities, despite its challenges. It’s made space for Rooney, Enright, and a slew of diverse writers. So just what is it about Dublin and the written word?