BAD SEX

With 2016 soon coming to an end, it’s that time of the year when all sorts of prizes are being awarded. Last week saw Ireland’s literary scene shine its brightest at the Bord Gáis Energy Book Awards, honouring Irish writers across a range of genres. Mike McCormack‘s audacious Solar Bones was selected as Novel of the Year, just one week […]

Poetry Competitions & Submissions – November 2016

Get scribbling … A great round-up of poetry contests from Angela Carr of A Dreaming Skin A smorgasbord of competitions, writing submissions and opportunities all open or with deadlines in the month of November! Source: Poetry Competitions & Submissions – November 2016

Fluffing Apologies …

If you’ve never been in a room full of adults playing Pass the Parcel with an invisible ball of energy, then you don’t know what you’re missing.

At the John Hewitt Summer School

I left Armagh with a bag full of books, a head full of ideas, a heart full of memories, and the soft feel and lingering scent of hugs and kisses from my new friends.

To Read or Not to Read

My friend Cathy at 746 Books is running her 20 Books of Summer Challenge again, and once again I am woefully short of the target. However, I have managed to read a few great books in the last few weeks. Click on the picture to read the post from my other blog.

The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths

My friend Clare has written a book all about Switzerland. You can read about it here

making hay in kells all weekend

I spent a wonderful weekend of songs, stories and laughter in Kells at the Hay Festival Kells. The heritage town was filled with writers, musicians and artists, including Hanif Kureishi. We strolled around town together, discussing the Book of Kells, medieval round towers, Brehon laws, and Cromwell. I don’t have many claims to fame, but I can […]

The Dream Against The Deed

Poet Patrick Deeley has written a beautiful memoir about growing up in East Galway. The Hurley Maker’s Son has been hailed for its evocative prose, and for its moving celebration of life in rural Ireland in the 1960s. As a child, Deeley was something of a misfit in his family: a loner, a dreamer, and […] […]

Making Hay in Kells

From the sister site: The historic Irish town of Kells — as in The Book of Kells, which might not have been written in Kells, and isn’t actually in Kells anymore, but no matter — will play host to some of the world’s finest writers this coming weekend during the Hay Festival Kells. The line-up […]

Family Life Wins International DUBLIN Literary Award

Ahkil Sharma’s novel Family Life has won the 2016 International DUBLIN Literary Award, the richest annual prize in literature. He was presented with a crystal trophy and a cheque for 100,000 euros by the Lord Mayor at a lavish ceremony at the Mansion House in Dublin. How lavish? Very. Smartly-dressed servers moved through the crowd offering hors […]