Bloomsday Goes Digital
This year the events to commemorate James Joyce’s Ulysses on 16 June are going digital. Highlights of this year’s festival include ‘My Little Ireland’ by Ciclopatas Theater, Brazil; All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: Bloomsday Portraits; Walking Into Eternity: Balloonatics; and ‘Blooms and Barnacles’ podcasts. Full details of all the Bloomsday...
Submissions open for 2020 Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition
The Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition – now in its eighth year – attracts hundreds of entries from across the island of Ireland annually. Rory Duffy, who won first prize in 2019 for “A Guide to the Items Recovered from the Stomach of the Last Wild Whale” said, ‘My experience of The Red Line Book...
US Publishers Sue The Internet Archive
In March, the Internet Archive, a non-profit group, announced that it was creating a "National Emergency Library," temporarily suspending waiting lists to borrow e-books during the pandemic. At the time, many writers and publishers were outraged. This isn't the first conflict between IA and critics who accuse it...
Review: A Quiet Tide, by Marianne Lee
A Quiet Tide by Marianne Lee | New Island | 394pp | €14.95 pb | 9781848407541 |May 2020 review by Patricia O'Reilly A Quiet Tide marks the début of Irish writer Marianne Lee. Set in the...
Lost Legends: Maurice Walsh
A lost legend of Irish literature—Maurice Walsh and ephemeral fame Tony Canavan Maurice Walsh (1879–1964) is now best known for his short story ‘The Quiet Man’, which was made into an Oscar-winning film, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne...
Bookshops reopen to the public
Readers welcome but no browsing – Bookshops reopen to the public From today (08 June) bookshops in the Republic of Ireland can open to the public again. The lockdown caused by the Coronavirus has been a difficult time for bookshops, particularly smaller, independent ones. Many have managed to survive...
Teen Reads: On Midnight Beach, by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick
On Midnight Beach Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick | Faber & Faber | 320pp | £7.99 pb |9780571355594 review by Síne Quinn ‘My novels are rooted in myth and legend but ultimately they are concerned with how we...
Crime Spree: Now That You’ve Gone, by Fiona Gartland
Paula O’Hare casts her eye over recent crime fiction Now That You’ve Gone by Fiona Gartland | Poolbeg Crimson |400pp | €9.99 pb | 9781781997956. review by Paula O’Hare
Liam Donnelly pays tribute to Gina O’Donnell.
Gina O'Donnell the Bookshop Manager of Hodges Figgis has died after a brief illness. Gina started in Hodges Figgis in 1980 initially as a cashier quickly rising to the position of floor manager on the ground floor where her skills interpersonally and wide knowledge of books developed the shop...
Poetry Ireland announce new Director: Niamh O’Donnell
Poetry Ireland announce the appointment of Niamh O’Donnell as the new Director of Poetry Ireland. Niamh will step down from her current position as Artistic Director of Mermaid County Wicklow Arts Centre to take up the role in mid-August 2020 and will take on the position previously held by...
