Poetry happening—Fiona Perry

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IKNO_C5g644 Postpartum, by Fiona Perry  You are as naked as a shucked oyster so, my breasts are slashed and raining pearls for you, my suckling child. The universe

Quiet cruelties cast long shadows: revelation in Moyra Donaldson’s Bone House

Bone House|Moyra Donaldson|Doire Press 2021|ISBN: 978-1-907682-81-0|€12 Aoife Lyall talks to Moyra Donaldson about her new collection, Bone House Moyra Donaldson strikes hard truths with a light touch. The poems in Bone House resonate with candour, warmth and vitality. In the opening poem, 'So What...

A Very Strange Man—Sue Leonard on Alannah Hopkin’s memoir of Aidan Higgins

A Very Strange Man: A memoir of Aidan Higgins| by Alannah Hopkin| New Island|€17.95|ISBN 9781848407930  by Sue Leonard In 1986, the poet Derek Mahon introduced Alannah Hopkin to the writer, Aidan Higgins. The attraction was like a thunderbolt. Leaving his Wicklow home, Higgins moved in with...

Why Must the Show Go On?—A short story by Rick O’Shea

from Empty House|edited by Alice Kinsella and Nessa O’Mahony|Doire Press 2021|978-1-907682-80-3|€15.00 by Rick O’Shea Alan weighed himself as usual, shaved while the coffee was brewing, and brushed his teeth thoroughly just before leaving for work. You shouldn’t let your standards slip just because you’d be...

Our Wild World

Our Wild World|Éanna Ní Lamhna|The O'Brien Press|IBN:9781788492331|€16.99 by Éanna Ní Lamhna The theme for this year’s World Earth Day on 22 April is Restore the Earth. We are all looking forward to things going back to normal as soon as possible. When we have finally ended the...

Beautiful Speech: A Tribute to Eavan Boland

The Casey/Boland Family, Poetry Ireland and Stanford University present a tribute to Eavan Boland on the one-year anniversary of her death. A year ago, we lost one of our finest and truest poetic voices. Over the course of her long career, Eavan became one of...

Poetry: Aoife Lyall

photo: Ruth McKee 'poetry is a way of happening, a mouth'—W.H. Auden https://www.youtube.com/embed/nuA4hStlFUA Silt, by Aoife Lyall   It gathers in the riverbeds and basins of your hands.

Shortlist for Dalkey Literary Awards 2021 Announced

€30,000 Prize Fund For Irish Writers To Be Awarded At Dalkey Book Festival In June The shortlist for this year’s Dalkey Literary Awards presented by Zurich has been announced by the Dalkey Book Festival, in conjunction with Zurich Insurance.  The winners of the 2021 Novel of the Year and...

Conjuring a courageous heroine: Laura King on Nuala O’Connor’s Nora

Nora|Nuala O’Connor|New Island|Paperback €16.95|ISBN: 9781848407893 by Laura King The subtitle “A Love Story” is apt in a number of ways when describing Nora by Nuala O’Connor; it’s clear from the opening pages that this is a work of great love. The novel details...

Catherine Murphy on Lucia’s War, by Susan Lanigan

Lucia's War|Susan Lanigan by Catherine Murphy It’s a wonderful thing when the cover art for a book leads the reader so perfectly into the story as this design for Lucia’s War. Before even opening the book there is music, war, and Lucia herself. I love...