Irish literary award for Irish authors of under 40 years
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Host Jason Blitman sits down with Seán Hewitt (Open, Heaven) to discuss sense memories, queer representation in school growing up, and Seán's aversion to musicals—despite offering a sharp insight into The Sound of Music's film adaptation. Later, Jason is joined by Guest Gay Reader Jeffery Self, who shares what he's currently reading, talks about his book Self Sabotage, and reflects on theatre icons Cathy Rigby, Sally Struthers, and Gary Beach.Seán Hewitt's debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire, won the Laurel Prize in 2021, and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, and a Dalkey Literary Award. In 2020, he was chosen by The Sunday Times (London) as one of their “30 under 30” artists in Ireland. His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, is published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Penguin Press in the United States (2022). It was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, for the Foyles Book of the Year in nonfiction, for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and for a LAMBDA award, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022. Hewitt is assistant professor in literary practice at Trinity College Dublin, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.Jeffery Self is a writer and actor whose TV credits include Search Party, The Horror of Dolores Roach, Shameless, 30 Rock, Desperate Housewives, as well as co-creating and starring in the cult low-fi series Jeffery & Cole Casserole with Cole Escola. His film credits include Drop, Spoiler Alert, Mack and Rita, and The High Note. He is the author of the young adult novels Drag Teen and A Very, Very Bad Thing. He lives in New York City.SUBSTACK!https://gaysreading.substack.com/ BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreading FOLLOW!Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanBluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanCONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com
Send us a textIn this episode, I chat with Lucy Caldwell about contemporary Irish literature's vibrant yet complex landscape, her latest novel, These Days, and profound philosophical insights. Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles in a "mixed marriage" family—Protestant father, Catholic mother—Caldwell developed a unique perspective that informs her award-winning writing. Lucy describes writing during the pandemic and experiencing "a portal between worlds" as she researched the Blitz while living through COVID lockdowns. Lucy Caldwell was born in Belfast in 1981. She is the author of three previous novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, and three collections of short stories. She won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2021 for “All the People Were Mean and Bad.” Other awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the George Devine Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018, and in 2019, she was the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories. In 2022, she was the recipient of the EM Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters for her body of work to date.Lucy CaldwellThese Days, Lucy CaldwellJan Carson, AuthorGlenn PatersonWendy Erskine, AuthorKerry Dougherty, AuthorSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links
The Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University Podcast Series
Stephen Sexton is an Irish poet and a lecturer at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen's University Belfast. While on campus in March 2025 he sat down with the Center for Irish Studies Director Joseph Lennon to discuss howpoetry can help us navigate the world. He reads poems from his two books ___________________Stephen Sexton the author of two books of poems – If All the World and Love Were Young, published in 2019 and Cheryl's Destinies, published in 2021. He is a recipient of multipleawards, which include winning the National Poetry Competition in 2016, the Eric Gregory Award in 2018, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Shine / Strong Award for Best First Collection in 2019, the E. M. Forster Awardfrom the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2020. Sexton has been teaching creative writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen's University Belfast for six years. Sexton was ten years old when the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 brought a formal end to the Troubles in the North of Ireland, which later in life made him realize that he was growing up in a time that he did not understand, and he became aware of a profound generational divide between him and his parents. Sexton explains that in a sense, there is a “kind of ghostly history that is all around you, but you can't access it in the same way that other people can, so as a consequence, it doesn't necessarily show up in my writing.” In his book, If All the World and Love Were Young, which happens to be set in 1998, there is one moment that addresses the Omagh bombing – a single deadliest attack in thirty years of violence that he remembers hearing about on the radio and then seeingon television. But beyond that, the book is a blend of childhood memories that uses the analogy of a nineties Nintendo videogame, Mario Brothers, that digs into Sexton's more personal recollections about the house that he grew up in and memories of his mother. Sexton's more recent book of poems, Cheryl's Destinies, was written during the COVID lockdown, where he explored a desire to bring together the improbable and the sensitive, hence the section of poems that imagines a collaboration between Billy Corgan lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins and Irish poet W.B Yeats. The book's general theme of being obsessed with and anxious about the future came through the conversations between two strangers separated by a century, where they discuss the difficulty of making art. Sexton's book questions the role of a poet and its connection to the role of a medium, as they both perform a similar function -- look at the world and interpret it.
Recorded December 5, 2025. Trinity Long Room Hub Rooney Writer Fellow Mark O'Connell in conversation with Professor David Kenny (School of Law, TCD). Mark O'Connell is the author of A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, which was awarded the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize, the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The Guardian. Professor David Kenny is Professor in Law at the Law School, teaching and researching Irish and comparative constitutional law, conflict of laws, critical legal theory and law and literature. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Harvard Law School, and the Honourable Society of the King's Inns, and is an alumnus of the US State Department's Fulbright programme. He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2021. Since June 2024, he has served as Head of the Law School. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub
Recorded December 5th, 2024. Rooney Writer Fellow Mark O'Connell (A Thread of Violence, 2023) in conversation with historian Maurice Casey (Hotel Lux, 2024) about writing across the academic/commercial publishing boundary. Mark O'Connell is the author of A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, which was awarded the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize, the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The Guardian. He lives in Dublin with his family. Dr Maurice J. Casey is a Research Fellow in Queen's University Belfast, where he is a postdoc on a project exploring histories of queer sexuality in Northern Ireland. An expert on the history of international communism, he studied English and History at TCD before completing his MPhil at Cambridge and his DPhil in Oxford. He also held a Fulbright scholarship at Stanford and was the Historian in Residence at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum. His first book Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism's Forgotten Radicals, which was based on his PhD thesis, was published by Footnote Press in August 2024. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub
The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker
Hugo Hamilton reads his story “Autobahn,” from the September 23, 2024, issue of the magazine. Hamilton, a winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, is the author of the memoir “The Speckled People” and ten novels, including “Dublin Palms” and “The Pages.”Share your thoughts on The Writer's Voice. As a token of our appreciation, you will be eligible to enter a prize drawing up to $1,000 after you complete the survey.https://selfserve.decipherinc.com/survey/selfserve/222b/76152?pin=1&uBRANDLINK=4&uCHANNELLINK=2
Simon and Rachel speak to Kevin Barry, a novelist and short-story writer. Kevin is the author of four novels and three story collections. His awards include the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta and elsewhere. His novel, "Night Boat to Tangier", was a number-one bestseller in Ireland, was longlisted for the Booker Prize and named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times. Kevin also works as a playwright and screenwriter. We spoke to him about forcing himself to become a novelist, writing short stories and screenplays, and about his latest book, "The Heart in Winter." “Always Take Notes: Advice From Some Of The World's Greatest Writers” - a book drawing on our podcast interviews - is published by Ithaka Press. You can order it via Amazon, Bookshop.org, Hatchards or Waterstones. You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.
Michael Magee talks about his early life, finding the path to becoming a writer, and the influence of Hemmingway and Chekhov—and much more—for this special live recording of Burning Books at the West Cork Literary Festival. Michael Magee's debut novel Close To Home won the Rooney Prize for Literature, the Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction and the Waterstones Irish Book of the Year in 2023.
A woman tells her son about his early life. About the months and years that he will by now have forgotten. When he was a baby, then a toddler, and when she was going into battle every day. For him first, and only then for herself. It's a battle fought on many fronts. Against exhaustion, against time, against the loss of selfhood, against an increasingly absent husband, and against a society that values women less than men, and perhaps mothers least of all. And with no guarantee that she, that they, will come out on top. Between a testimony and a confession, between a lesson and a warning to the man her boy will become Soldier Sailor is devastating, uplifting, punishing, galvanising, vertiginous, infuriating, honest, raw, painful, and illuminating…in short, as close a representation of the early days of parenthood that can be committed to words. Bu Soldier Sailor here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/soldier-sailor-2Clare Kilroy's debut novel All Summer was described in The Times as compelling... a thriller, a confession and a love story framed by a meditation on the arts', and was awarded the 2004 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her second novel, Tenderwire was shortlisted for the 2007 Irish Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. It was followed, in 2009, by the highly acclaimed novel, All Names Have Been Changed. Educated at Trinity College, she lives In Dublin.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel of sorts to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman's latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Claire was shortlisted for the Woman's Prize for Fiction this year. She also won the Rooney Prize, Ireland's longest standing literary award, and been nominated for the Irish Novel of the Year Award and the Kerry Group Award for fiction. Her latest work Soldier, Sailor has received international praise from The Independent, The Times, The New York Times, The Irish Times, The Boston Globe, The Hindu, Kirkus Review and The Guardian. You can find in every bookshop, displayed front and centre. She's been listed by The Times & The Bookseller as one of Ireland's leading contemporary writers and her book The Devil I Know was a bestselling hit. She also lectures in Creative Writing for NYU's Dublin Program. Get her book here, or at your local seller.
Deirdre Madden (winner of a 2024 Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction) joins Michael Kelleher to talk about Marilynne Robinson's classic novel Housekeeping, siblings, writing with a density of language, and the unacknowledged humor present even in hard times. Reading list: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson • Moby-Dick by Herman Melville • Carl Jung • William Shakespeare • Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson For a full episode transcript, click here. Deirdre Madden is a writer from Toomebridge, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The author of eight acclaimed novels, she has twice been a finalist for the Women's Prize for Fiction (2009, 1996) and has received numerous other awards and honors, including the Hennessy Literary Awards Hall of Fame (2014), the Somerset Maugham Award (1989), and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (1980). Madden holds a BA from Trinity College, Dublin and an MA from the University of East Anglia. She has been a member of Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland, since 1997, and is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Co-Director of the M.Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin. The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast is a program of The Windham-Campbell Prizes, which are administered by Yale University Library's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
5x15 and The Writers' Prize present a powerhouse line-up of international writing talent to speak with host, literary critic, and journalist Alex Clark about their recent works, all in contention for this year's Prize. Paul Murray, The Bee Sting Paul Murray, born in Dublin in 1975, authored An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Skippy Dies, The Mark and the Void, and The Bee Sting. An Evening of Long Goodbyes was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award. Skippy Dies was shortlisted for the Costa Novel award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and longlisted for the Booker Prize. The Mark and the Void won the Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2016. The Bee Sting was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023. Paul Murray lives in Dublin. Zadie Smith, The Fraud Zadie Smith, born in northwest London, authored White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, Swing Time, The Embassy of Cambodia, and collections of essays and short stories. The Fraud is her first historical novel. Laura Cumming, Thunderclap Laura Cumming has been the art critic of the Observer since 1999. The Vanishing Man was longlisted for the Baillie-Gifford Prize, shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, and won the 2017 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography. On Chapel Sands was shortlisted for several prizes. Naomi Klein, Doppelganger Naomi Klein authored international bestsellers including This Changes Everything, The Shock Doctrine, No Logo, No Is Not Enough, and On Fire. She is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia and has launched a regular column for The Guardian. Liz Berry, The Home Child Liz Berry, an award-winning poet, authored collections including Black Country, The Republic of Motherhood, The Dereliction, and The Home Child, a novel in verse. Liz has received the Somerset Maugham Award and Forward Prizes. Mark O'Connell, A Thread of Violence Mark O'Connell authored A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, awarded the Wellcome Book Prize and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His work appears in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The Guardian. Jason Allen-Paisant, Self-Portrait as Othello Jason Allen-Paisant is a Jamaican writer and academic at the University of Manchester. He's the author of Thinking with Trees, winner of the OCM Bocas Prize, and Self-Portrait as Othello. His non-fiction book, Scanning the Bush, will be published in 2024. Our Host Alex Clark, a seasoned critic and broadcaster, chairs the discussion. Winners will be announced on March 13th, 2024.
The December Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Mike McCormack about his novel 'The Plague of Souls'. Mike McCormack comes from the west of Ireland and is the author of two collections of short stories Getting it in the Head and Forensic Songs, and three novels Crowe's Requiem, Notes from a Coma and Solar Bones. In 1996 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature and Getting it in the Head was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In 2006 Notes from a Coma was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award. In 2016 Solar Bones was awarded the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bord Gais Energy Irish Novel of the Year and Book of the Year; it was also long-listed for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. In 2018 it was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award. He is a member of Aosdána.
With two of Ireland's leading writers: recipient of the Rooney Prize, Dublin Literary Award and the Goldsmith Prize, Mike McCormack tells us about his latest book This Plague of Souls, while Paul Lynch, brings us into the frighteningly recognisable world of his Booker Prize Shortlisted novel Prophet Song. With music from singer songwriter Krea.
On this month's episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Colin Barrett to read and discuss David McGrath's short story, ‘The Untameable Donkey', originally published in our All New Writers issue, Winter 2022/23. Colin Barrett grew up in County Mayo. His stories have been published in The Stinging Fly, Granta, Harper's and the New Yorker. His first book, the short story collection Young Skins, won the Guardian First Book Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His second collection, Homesickness, made the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year and was a Book of the Year in Oprah Daily and the Irish Times. His first novel, Wild Houses, will be published in early 2024. David McGrath is from Baltinglass. His stories at the moment centre around a fictional pub in rural Ireland, of which ‘The Untameable Donkey' is a part. He has won the Bryan MacMahon Short Story Competition and the Bare Fiction Prize with them, as well as being placed in several other competitions. He has been awarded a residency in Cill Rialaig Arts Centre in November 2023 to finish his novel, The Crack is Barred, which is also set in the world of the pub. Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was recently published by Bloomsbury. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast's theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes', by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.
5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Mark O'Connell is the author of A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, which was awarded the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize, the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The Guardian. He lives in Dublin with his family. In his new book A Thread of Violence, about a shocking double murder in Ireland in the 1980s, O'Connell is pushed into a confrontation with his own narrative: what does it mean to write about a murderer? Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories
5x15 welcomes Colm Tóibín, novelist, critic, essayist and one of the most highly acclaimed writers of our time. In his new essay collection A Guest at the Feast, Tóibín traverses life in all its complexity, capturing moments that are both melancholy and amusing, rich and strange. Travelling between the streets of Buenos Aires and a deserted Venice, and the works of writers such as John McGahern and Marilynne Robinson, these essays uncover the places where life and fiction overlap. Don't miss the chance to hear this most erudite and important storyteller, live in conversation with award-winning poet and author Seán Hewitt. Praise for Colm Tóibín and A Guest at the Feast 'The clarity of the novelist's descriptive ability shines through essays on topics ranging from his treatment for cancer to the joys of an empty Venice . . . On every subject, Tóibín's writing is what people these days inevitably describe as nuanced, a word that has become a kind of shorthand for expressing a person's rare ability to understand . . . the foibles of others' - Rachel Cooke, Observer, Book of the Day 'I love everything Colm Tóibín has written' - Nicola Sturgeon, New Statesman 'I wanted to read out loud, to fully savour writing that is so careful and so lyrical' - Laura Hackett, Sunday Times Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of ten novels, including The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary; and Nora Webster, as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York. Seán Hewitt is the author of the memoir All Down Darkness Wide, winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (2022), and the poetry collection Tongues of Fire, winner of the Laurel Prize (2021). He lives in Dublin, where he teaches at Trinity College. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories
Mark O'Connell's new book A Thread of Violence is the writer's attempt to understand Malcolm MacArthur, the figure at the centre of one of Ireland's most notorious crimes, and — to quote Taoiseach Charles Haughey — the “grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented” events that led to the perpetrator's eventual arrest in the home of the Irish Attorney General. It is a crime that has haunted O'Connell for decades and which leads him to meeting and getting to know the now elderly, long-freed MacArthur. As this unlikely acquaintance grows, however, O'Connell not only comes to question the possibility of ever coming to any conclusion about what actually drove this previously law-abiding local eccentric to murder two strangers in the summer of 1982, but also calls into doubt his own motivations for embarking on the project in the first place, and the risks he is taking in his own life to complete it.Buy A Thread of Violence: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/a-thread-of-violenceMark O'Connell is an award-winning Irish writer. His first book, To Be a Machine, won the 2018Wellcome Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. In 2019, he became the firstever non-fiction writer to win the prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His second book,Notes From an Apocalypse was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. He is a contributor to the NewYork Review of Books, and his work has appeared in the New Yorker.Listen to Alex Freiman's Play It Gentle here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this month's episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Kevin Power to read and discuss Eimear Ryan's short story, ‘Body Clock', originally published in our Winter 2009/10 issue. Kevin Power is the author of two novels, Bad Day in Blackrock (2008) and White City (2021), as well as a book of criticism, The Written World (2022). He is the winner of the 2009 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Irish Times, and many other places. He teaches in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. Eimear Ryan is the author of a novel, Holding Her Breath (2021), and a memoir, The Grass Ceiling (2023). She is a founder of the literary journal Banshee. She lives in Cork. Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was recently published by Bloomsbury. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast's theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes', by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.
Buy Up Late: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/up-lateReeling in the face of collapsing systems, of politics, identity and the banalities and distortions of modern living, Nick Laird confronts age-old anxieties, questions of aloneness, friendship, the push and pull of daily life. At the book's heart lies the title sequence, a profound meditation on a father's dying, the reverberations of which echo throughout in poems that interrogate inheritance and legacy, illness and justice, accounts of what is lost and what, if anything, can be retrieved. Laird is a poet capable of heading off in any and every direction, where layers of association transport us from a clifftop in County Cork to the library steps in New York's Washington Square, from a face-off between Freud and Michelangelo's Moses to one between the poet and a squirrel in a Kilburn garden. There is conflation and conflagration, rage and fire, neither of which are seen as necessarily destructive. But there is great tenderness, too, a fondness for what grows between the cracks, especially those glimpses into the unadulterated world of childhood, before the knowledge or accumulation of loss, where everything is still at stake and infinite, 'the darkness under the cattle grid'.Nick Laird was born in County Tyrone in 1975. A poet, novelist, screenwriter, critic and former lawyer, his awards include the Betty Trask Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and a Guggenheim fellowship. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We're joined by Irish author Mark O'Connell (A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, which won the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish literature) to discuss a John Banville novel, The Book of Evidence, a fictionalized account of a famous Irish murder. O'Connell's newest book is actually a nonfiction exploration of that same murder, which took place in the early 80s and made headlines around the country, in part because the murderer was a well-known Dublin socialite. We talk to O'Connell about why he became so obsessed with that murder, his approach to writing and researching nonfiction, and why he's not worried about AI taking any of our jobs. You can find more about O'Connell--and his books--at his website: https://mark-oconnell.com/ If you like our show, and want to support it, we're offering two bonus episodes each month for only $5. Most recently those include our ongoing Summer of Shorts, in which we read short stories and talk about short pants: https://www.patreon.com/BookFight
On this month's episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Lucy Caldwell to read and discuss Niamh Prior's short story, ‘Peter and Jane'. ‘Peter and Jane' was originally published in July 2021 as part of our online fiction series. Lucy Caldwell was born in Belfast in 1981. She is the author of four novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, and two collections of short stories: Multitudes and Intimacies. She won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2021 for ‘All the People Were Mean and Bad'. Other awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the George Devine Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018 and in 2019 she was the editor of Being Various – New Irish Short Stories. Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was recently published by Bloomsbury. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast's theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes', by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.
Claire Kilroy talks about the genesis of her new novel Soldier, Sailor which took over a decade to emerge, how early motherhood affected her creativity, and the profound rewiring that happens to you as an artist and as a person when you have a child. Claire Kilroy won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2004, and is the author of All Summer, (Faber 2003), Tenderwire, (Faber 2006), All Names Have Been Changed, (Faber 2009), and The Devil I Know (Faber 2012), which was described by The Guardian as “a satiric danse macabre of brio and linguistic virtuosity.” Her new novel, Soldier, Sailor (Faber) is out now.
The March Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Philip Ó Ceallaigh about his book 'Trouble'. “Philip Ó Ceallaigh is a brilliant, uncompromising and ambitious writer who has long been resident in Bucharest. Of his collection of stories ‘Trouble', the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote: ‘Ó Ceallaigh writes with such immediacy, such confessional intensity, that when the narrator leans in close and says, “Look — there lies trouble,” it is impossible to look away.” - Colm Tóibín Philip Ó Ceallaigh has published over fifty short stories, most of them gathered in his three collections. The most recent is Trouble, from the Stinging Fly Press. He has been described by John Banville as “a master” of the short story form and named by Rob Doyle as his “favourite living writer of short stories”. His work has appeared in Granta, The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Irish Times and has been translated into over a dozen languages. He was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for his first book, Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse. He is also an essayist and critic with a particular interest in Jewish-European history, and his translation of Mihail Sebastian's interwar novel For Two Thousand Years was published by Penguin Classics. He lives in Bucharest, Romania. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/
What's the state of criticism in Ireland? Who needs reviewers and critics and are they even worth reading in any case? Well, one man who is worth reading is Kevin Power, novelist, whose The Written World, just published by The Lilliput Press, gathers some of the reviews and essays he's written over the last decade. I'll be talking to Kevin about his book in this, the last Books for Breakfast of the current season; we hope you've enjoyed the journey so far and hopefully we'll be back with more in the autumn. In the meantime feel free to enjoy the now extensive back catalogue of breakfast bites …Kevin Power established his reputation early, with the publication of Bad Day at Blackrock, which told a fictionalised version of a story that had gripped the country, the death of Brian Murphy in Dublin in 2000 as a result of a violent assault outside a nightclub. That novel was subsequently made into the award winning film What Richard Did directed by Lenny Abrahamson in 2012. He was the winner of the 2009 Rooney Prize and last year his much anticipated second novel White City was published and won a lot of attention and praise. A darkly funny book, it revisits the same sort of terrain occupied by Bad Day at Blackrock, set in the word of Celtic Tiger Ireland among the city's privileged and in this case ruthless upper classes, and it's in the voice of the seriously shattered son of a South Dublin banker desperately trying to piece his life together. Praise for The Written World'Kevin Power's glorious collection reveals a writer to depend upon.' Declan Hughes in The Irish IndependentThe elegant and intelligent essays in The Written World will appeal to anyone with an interest in literary criticism.– Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time'The Written World is a testament to Power's well-deserved status as one of Ireland's most reliably engaging writers. Oh, and did I mention he's often hilarious, too?'– Totally Dublin'...his book is metropolitan and cosmopolitan in word and spirit, enlightening and amusing, and across its pages art is happening too.;– drb.ieSupport the show
In this episode I chat with Irish author Sara Baume about her visual artwork, writing, the financial difficulties of living as a creative, and her new book, Seven Steeples. SARA BAUME studied fine art before earning a master's in creative writing. Her first novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither, won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and was short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award. She is also the recipient of the Davy Byrnes Short Story Award and the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award. Sara's latest novel Seven Steeples is about a couple, Bell and Sigh, who move with their dogs to the Irish countryside, immersing themselves in nature and attempting to disappear from society. Sara lives in Cork, Ireland.Sara BaumeSeven Steeples, Sara BaumeSeven Steeples: A Minister and Her People, Margaret K. HenrichsenThe Raptures, Jan CarsonThin Places, Kerri ni DochartaighSupport the show
Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses by James Joyce
Pages 396 - 407 │ Cyclops, part III │ Read by Mark O'ConnellMark O'Connell is the author of Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, which was awarded the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize, the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He is a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and The New York Review of Books. He lives in Dublin with his family.Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrkocnnllBuy Notes from an Apocalypse here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781783784073/notes-from-an-apocalypse-a-personal-journey-to-the-end-of-the-world-and-back*Looking for our author interview podcast? Listen here: https://podfollow.com/shakespeare-and-companySUBSCRIBE NOW FOR EARLY EPISODES AND BONUS FEATURESAll episodes of our Ulysses podcast are free and available to everyone. However, if you want to be the first to hear the recordings, by subscribing, you can now get early access to recordings of complete sections.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/channel/shakespeare-and-company/id6442697026Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/sandcoIn addition a subscription gets you access to regular bonus episodes of our author interview podcast. All money raised goes to supporting “Friends of Shakespeare and Company” the bookshop's non-profit.*Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.comBuy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulyssesFind out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/homeAdam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Find out more about him here: https://www.adambiles.netBuy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-timeDr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco.Original music & sound design by Alex Freiman.Hear more from Alex Freiman here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1Follow Alex Freiman on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alex.guitarfreiman/Featuring Flora Hibberd on vocals.Hear more of Flora Hibberd here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EFG7rqfVfdyaXiRZbRkpSVisit Flora Hibberd's website: This is my website:florahibberd.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/florahibberd/ Music production by Adrien Chicot.Hear more from Adrien Chicot here: https://bbact.lnk.to/utco90/Follow Adrien Chicot on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/adrienchicot/Photo of Mark O'Connell by Rich Gilligan See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The playwright Mike Bartlett is busy. The 47th, his dark comedy about the next presidential race, with Bertie Carvel giving an uncanny performance as Donald Trump is about to open at the Old Vic in London. So too is Scandaltown, his modern day Restoration comedy about social ambition, featuring characters with names such as Hannah Tweetwell and Freddie Peripheral. And he has another play, a love triangle, Cock, in the West End. Mike talks to Tom Sutcliffe about the appeal of writing gags, blank verse and characters who take control. Hannah Hodgson's latest volume of poetry is '163 Days' in which she looks back in verse over her six months in hospital as teenager suffering from a severe and undiagnosed disease. Her poems are juxtaposed with her medical notes. The illness, which later proved to be mitochondrial encephalopathy, is incurable and she explores, in her poems, living with a terminal condition. To mark the BBC's Art That Made Us season, Front Row invites artists from across the nations of the UK to choose the piece of art that made them, by shaping their artistic and cultural identity. Today we hear from the winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, poet Nick Laird who has chosen the 1935 poem Snow, by Louis MacNeice. Ryan Marsh and James Thomas, two of the people involved in Europe's first Non Fungible Token gallery, the Quantum Gallery, give us an insight into NFT Art and how it works. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Julian May
The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker
Claire Keegan reads her story “So Late in the Day,” from the February 28, 2022, issue of the magazine. Keegan is the author of four books, including the novella “Foster,” which appeared in abridged form in *The New Yorker*, and, most recently, the novel “Small Things Like These,” which was published last year. She is a winner of the William Trevor Prize and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, among others.
Our first guest of 2022 is the novelist Keith Ridgway, author of, among other works, 'the Long Falling' (1998), 'the Parts' (2003), 'Animals' (2006), 'Hawthorn and Child' (2012) and, most recently, 'A Shock' (2021), which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. Keith was awarded the Rooney Prize in 2001. Our chat with Keith took us through the daily fight with the concept of routine, specificity of place, giving up writing and returning, and experiencing a reading crisis - followed by being knocked off the wagon by Georges Simenon. Keith's books are available through Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/contributors/keith-ridgway - or your local book shop... Keith is on Twitter: @rid9way Find us on Twitter: @UnsoundMethods - @JaimieBatchan - @LochlanBloom Jaimie's Instagram is: @jaimie_batchan We have a store page on Bookshop, where you can find our books, as well as those of previous guests: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/unsoundmethods Thanks for listening, please like, subscribe and rate Unsound Methods wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is: https://unsoundmethods.co.uk/ We have loosely teamed up with the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Now that some form of normality has (possibly temporarily) returned to the U.K., why not check out their Literature in Lockdown page? : https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/ies-virtual-community/literature-lockdown
Monday, 22 November 2021, 7 – 8:30pm ‘Work is a necessary evil', wrote the American author Mark Twain. But as we emerge from the pandemic, during which working life for many changed dramatically, do we need to reconsider our attitude to the culture of work? As we transition to remote and flexible working arrangements, is there a nostalgia for the collective rotas and routines of industrial capitalism? How do we value ideas of employment and labour within contemporary society, and how are conventional historical definitions, such as ‘the working class' or ‘white collar occupations', changing with the times? In this Behind the Headlines, our panel of experts will consider the function and representation of work from a variety of perspectives, to address the shifting landscape of modern employment and the prospects for our working culture in the future. Speakers: Caitríona Lally, Rooney Writer Fellow at the Trinity Long Room Hub Caitríona Lally's first novel Eggshells, was published in the US by Melville House (2017) and in the UK by Borough Press (2018). Caitríona lives in Dublin and divides her time between her young children, her writing, and working in the housekeeping department at Trinity College Dublin. Wunderland is her second novel. When Caitríona was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish literature in 2018, she received international media attention for being both a writer and a cleaner, with some comparing her to “a real-life Good Will Hunting.” Ryan Shanks, Managing Director, Accenture, The Dock Ryan has been working for over 20 years at the coal face of industry around the globe, implementing new technologies, restructuring organisations, and developing talent with global organisations. His experience ranges from corporate innovation and organisation design, to culture change and leadership development. The Dock, Accenture's Flagship R&D Innovation Centre, hosts a diverse team of over 250 creative problem-solvers and allows design, technology and business to meet under one roof. Ilse White, Corporate Learning Researcher at Learnovate, TCD Ilse consults and collaborates with clients to improve practices in learning design and employee development. Over the past 15 years, she has gained extensive experience in learning design, learning strategy & program management and technology-enhanced learning across a wide range of topics like onboarding and management/leadership development. She holds a MSc in Business Communication from Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) and a Graduate Diploma in Education & eLearning from Dublin City University (DCU). Dr Carole Holohan, Assistant Professor in Modern Irish History, TCD Carole is a social historian whose research examines the social history of the sixties, with publications on the history of youth and the history of poverty in modern Ireland. Her book Reframing Irish Youth in the Sixties (Liverpool University Press, 2018) also explores Irish attitudes to welfare and employment, economic growth, and emigration. Prior to her arrival at Trinity College, Carole held an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral fellowship at University College Dublin and a teaching fellowship at St. Patrick's College Drumcondra. The Trinity Long Room Hub Behind the Headlines series is supported by the John Pollard Foundation.
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 by the Northern Irish writer Lucy Caldwell. As read by Louise Parker (The Northern Bank Job.) Lucy Caldwell is the award-winning author of three novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, and most recently two collections of short stories: Multitudes (Faber, 2016) and Intimacies (Faber, 2021). She is also the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber, 2019). Awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the George Devine Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Imison Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Irish Writers' and Screenwriters' Guild Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Award (Canada & Europe), the Edge Hill Short Story Prize Readers' Choice Award, a Fiction Uncovered Award, a K. Blundell Trust Award and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Reader: Louise Parker Writer: Lucy Caldwell Producer: Michael Shannon Exec Editor: Andy Martin A BBC Northern Ireland production.
Doireann Ní Ghríofa has published in both Irish and English and has written six acclaimed collections of poetry. Her most recent, To Star the Dark was described by The Irish Independent as ‘playful, serious, joyful, and moving'. Her book of prose called A Ghost in the Throat received Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and had phenomenal reviews across the word. Doireann has also received many other awards and accolades including a Lannan Literary Fellowship, Italy's Ostana Prize, a Seamus Heaney Fellowship and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.A Ghost in the Throat dives into all manner of subject from bees and breastfeeding to anatomy and what happens to bodies when they're given over to science. Many scenes are grounded in the minutiae of a woman's life, as Doireann both celebrates and documents motherhood, rearing children and the joy and messiness of it all. At the heart of the story is one of Ireland's great poets, a woman named Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill and her iconic poem or keen of lament. A Ghost in the Throat is part obsession, part honouring and it is not actually classifyable, which is also part of the appeal. To use Doireann's own term, this is a female text.
On this month's episode of the podcast, editor Danny Denton is joined by novelist Niamh Campbell, to read and discuss Kevin Power's darkly surreal story 'The Dead Hotel', which first appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of the magazine. Niamh Campbell's debut novel This Happy was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in 2020, and nominated for the An Post Irish Book Awards, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, and the John McGahern Book Prize. In 2020 she also won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for her story 'Love Many'. Her short work can be found in The Dublin Review, 3:AM, Banshee, Tangerine, Five Dials, Granta, and gorse. She has been funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and is 2021 Writer in Residence at University College Dublin. Her second novel We Were Young is forthcoming with Weidenfeld and Nicolson in 2022. She lives and works in Dublin. Kevin Power's first novel, Bad Day in Blackrock, was published by Lilliput Press in 2008 and filmed as What Richard Did, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, in 2012. His second novel, White City, was published earlier this year by Scribner. He won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2009 and the Hennessy XO Award for Emerging Fiction, also in 2009. Kevin is currently Assistant Professor of Literary Practice in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin, and he holds a PhD in American Literature from University College Dublin. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Irish Times, The Dublin Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast's theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes', by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available for everyone to read during the coronavirus crisis.
In this episode of The Dublin Review Podcast, Aingeala Flannery talks to Mark O'Connell about an essay he wrote called Self Portrait in Five Fears, which appeared in The Dublin Review NUMBER 52 | AUTUMN 2013. Mark O'Connell is a writer from Kilkenny. His non-fiction debut To Be A Machine won the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2019. His second book Notes From An Apocalypse was published by Granta in 2020. He has been contributing to The Dublin Review since 2012.
Nick Laird reads his poem A Mixed Marriage. Nick Laird is the recipient of many prizes for his poetry and fiction, including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. He is on faculty at New York University and Professor of Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University in Belfast.
Nick Laird's fiction & poetry have won awards including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Award, the Betty Trask Prize, a Somerset Maugham award, and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University in Belfast.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland. Claire Kilroy was born in Dublin, where she lives and works. She has written four novels, All Summer, Tenderwire, All Names Have Been Changed and The Devil I Know, which was described by The Guardian as “a satiric danse macabre of brio and linguistic virtuosity,” and by the New York Times as “savagely comic... and great fun.” Claire has been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year three times, and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2004. The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council in partnership with University College Dublin and New York University.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, hosts a series of brief conversations with fellow writers asking what is writing. What is its purpose and mystery beyond the pragmatic notions of academia and journalism? This series will form part of a visual archive highlighting the golden age of writing in Ireland. Sara Baume was born in Yorkshire. She won the 2014 Davy Byrne's Short Story Award, and in 2015, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Rooney Prize for Literature and an Irish Book Award for Best Newcomer. Her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Warwick Prize for Writing, the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Kate O'Brien Award. Her short fiction and criticism have been published in anthologies, newspapers and journals such as the Irish Times, the Guardian, Stinging Fly and Granta magazine. In autumn 2015, she was a participant in the International Writing Program run by the University of Iowa and received a Literary Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She lives in West Cork. The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council in partnership with University College Dublin and New York University.
Stephen Sexton is announced as the 2020 winner of the prestigious Rooney Prize for emerging young Irish writers, Ruth Barton & Justin MacGregor review new films, Patrick & Possession, Lauren Murphy & Eamon Sweeney review new albums from Smashing Pumpkins & Ane Brun
Critically acclaimed Irish author Colum McCann gives us a rare insight into his latest novel and the power of storytelling. When you listen to this powerful conversation, you will not be surprised to hear that Colum has won the Rooney Prize, the Novel of the Year Award, the National Book Award and International Dublin Literary Award. His Man Booker Prize longlisted book Apeirogon has lead critics to ask if a book can bring about peace in Israel. Jarlath digs deep into the experience that lead Colum to writing this game changing work. We how his time spent working as a wilderness educator for young offenders Texas changed his path and his recollection of living in New York during 9/11. As Professor of Creative Writing in the Master of Fine Arts program at Hunter College, New York his views on the art of teaching are truly inspiring for anyone trying to spark the interest of young students. In its essence, this is a conversation about the power of listening and telling one's story and it could not have come at a better time. This is just a taster. To hear this episode in full and to gain access to the entire back-catalogue of over 400 Irishman Abroad episodes that are not available on iTunes for just the price of a pint every month visit www.patreon.com/irishmanabroad Supplementary research provided by John Meagher. Our charity partner is jigsawonline.ie. In these tricky times, Jigsaw provides a range of resources, advice and care for your people to help them strengthen their mental health and the skills needed to navigate life. Please visit their website and consider making a donation. For updates on future episodes and live shows follow @jarlath on Twitter, visit www.jigser.com or email the show directly on irishmanabroadpodcast@gmail.com. Disclaimer: All materials contained within this podcast are copyright protected. Third party reuse and/or quotation in whole or in part is prohibited unless direct credit and/or hyperlink to the Irishman Abroad podcast is clearly and accurately provided.
In this episode of The Dublin Review Podcast, Aingeala Flannery talks to Doireann Ní Ghríofa about an essay she wrote called The Dissection Room, which first appeared in NUMBER 73, the WINTER 2018 issue of The Dublin Review. Doireann writes in English and Irish, she has published six collections of poetry. In 2016, she was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. She is a member of Aosdána. In August 2020, Tramp Press published her debut collection of prose called A Ghost in the Throat.
The Seamus Heaney Centre Podcast is produced in a small back room by Ian Sansom, Stephen Sexton, and Rachel Brown. With thanks to our producer Chantal Ailsby, and to Nick Boyle for his music. This is one of a series of masterclasses with novelists, poets, playwrights and screenwriters, designed to support a life of writing. Special thanks to the Queen's Annual Fund. Lucy Caldwell (b. 1981, Belfast) is the multi–award winning author of three novels, several stage plays and radio dramas and, most recently, two collections of short stories: Multitudes (Faber, 2016) and Intimacies (forthcoming, Faber, 2020). She is also the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber, 2019). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. Awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the George Devine Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Imison Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Irish Writers' and Screenwriters' Guild Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Award (Canada & Europe), the Edge Hill Short Story Prize Readers' Choice Award, a Fiction Uncovered Award, a K. Blundell Trust Award and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Mark O'Connell, author of To Be A Machine and Notes from an Apocalypse, joins Ian Maleney to read and discuss 'Bland God: Notes on Mark Zuckerberg', an essay from our Summer 2018 issue written by Roisin Kiberd. Mark O'Connell is a writer based in Dublin. His books, To Be a Machine: Encounters With a Post-Human Future, and Notes From An Apocalypse, are published by Granta in the UK, and Doubleday in the US. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker's “Page-Turner” blog; his work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Observer, and The Independent. He has a PhD in English Literature from Trinity College Dublin, and in 2013 his academic monograph on the work of the novelist John Banville, John Banville's Narcissistic Fictions, was published by Palgrave Macmillan. He was an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow from 2011 to 2012 at Trinity College, where he taught contemporary literature. He won the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize for To Be A Machine, and the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Roisin Kiberd is a writer and journalist from Dublin who has written several pieces for the Stinging Fly, and her writing about modern technology has been published in The Guardian, The Dublin Review, and Vice's Motherboard, where she wrote a column about internet subcultures. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast's theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes', by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available for everyone to read during the coronavirus crisis.
Mark O'Connell is the author of To Be a Machine, which was awarded the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize and short-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He is a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The Guardian. He lives in Dublin with his family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In a double length episode Sam Blake quizzes Literary Agent Sallyanne Sweeney from MMB Creative on what she looks for in a new manuscript and how she wades through often 300 submissions a week. Sallyanne answers the age old question of what agents' are looking for, what an agent's role is and how they work with authors. Discussing the importance of your covering letter, what works and what doesn't, what a difference a good title makes and how important voice is, Sam Blake asks her about the author agent relationship and discusses why passion is so important. Looking at some of the reasons why books have hit the bestseller list after their release, Sallyanne discusses trends and how publishing has changed since she started as an agent. Sallyanne Sweeney grew up in Dublin and studied English at Trinity College before completing an MPhil in American Literature at Queens’ College, Cambridge. After graduating she joined Watson, Little Ltd, becoming a Director of the company in 2011. She joined Mulcahy Associates in 2013 and is growing her list of authors and illustrators for children (picture books to Young Adult) and adults. Awards her clients have won or been shortlisted for include the Irish Book Awards, Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards. Passionate about the editorial side of agenting, Sallyanne enjoys both working with debuts and helping established authors take their careers to the next level. Her fiction tastes are wide-ranging, from the literary to the very commercial, but she is always excited by a distinctive voice, strong storytelling and a fresh premise. She will fight to champion anything that makes her laugh or cry (preferably both). Sallyanne is also interested in memoirs, food writing and thought-provoking non-fiction and works across both childrens and adult fiction. She is a regular speaker at writing festivals and events and was the Chair of the Children’s Agents’ Circle from 2014-2018. Behind the Bestseller is part of the HeadStuff Podcast Network (https://headstuff.org/behind-the-bestseller) Theme music by Tim Nerney
Anne Enright won the Booker Prize for her fourth novel, The Gathering, in 2007, and was appointed the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction in 2015. She has written seven novels, two collections of short stories and a book of essays about motherhood and her work has been widely translated. Born in Dublin in 1962, Anne is the youngest of five children. She was a voracious reader from an early age, finishing every children's book at her local library. When she was 16, she won a scholarship to study at a school in Canada, and then returned to Ireland for a degree in English and Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. After taking an MA in Creative Writing at University of East Anglia, with teaching from Angela Carter and Malcolm Bradbury, she worked for six years as a TV producer for the Irish broadcaster RTE. When her TV work left her feeling burned out, she began her writing career in earnest. Her book of short stories, The Portable Virgin, won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 1991, and she published her first novel, The Wig My Father Wore, in 1995. Her latest novel, The Actress, is published in February 2020. She is also now a Professor at University College Dublin and teaches creative writing. She met her theatre director husband, Martin Murphy, at university and they have two children. DISC ONE: Brahms Intermezzos: Op. 117, No.1 by Glenn Gould DISC TWO: Jersey Girl by Tom Waits DISC THREE: A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell DISC FOUR: Then You’ll Remember Me by Dé Danann DISC FIVE: The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash DISC SIX: Hiawatha by Laurie Anderson DISC SEVEN: Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen DISC EIGHT: Soave sia il vento from Cosi fan Tutte, composed by Mozart, conducted by Karl Böhm, performed by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Walter Berry, Christa Ludwig and Philharmonia Orchestra. BOOK CHOICE: 'In Search of Lost Time’ by Marcel Proust LUXURY ITEM: High thread-count cotton sheets CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Soave sia il vento from Cosi fan Tutte, composed by Mozart Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Cathy Drysdale
Nicole Flattery, author of the newly-published debut collection, Show Them A Good Time, joins Danny Denton in the studio to talk about 'Andy Warhol', a story by Keith Ridgway taken from the Winter 2011 issue of the magazine, and recently collected in the Stinging Fly Stories anthology. Nicole Flattery's stories have been published in The Irish Times, The Dublin Review, The White Review, Winter Papers, The Letters Page and The Stinging Fly. She is a recipient of a Next Generation Artists' Award from the Arts Council and The White Review Short Story Prize. Originally from Mullingar, Nicole now lives in Galway. Show Them A Good Time is published by The Stinging Fly Press, and Bloomsbury in the UK. Keith Ridgway is from Dublin. He is the author of The Long Falling (Faber, 1998, Houghton Mifflin, 1998), Standard Time (Faber, 2001), Horses (Faber, 2003), The Parts (Faber, 2003, St. Martin's Press, 2004), Animals (Fourth Estate, 2007), and Hawthorn & Child (Granta Books, 2012, New Directions 2013). His short fiction has been published in The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope, Stinging Fly, and others. He has reviewed fiction for The Irish Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. He has taught fiction writing courses in Dublin, and since 2013 at the Faber Academy. He has been awarded the Prix Femina in France and The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. He lives in south London.
Peter Sheridan is a playwright, Screenwriter and Director. His awards include the Rooney Prize for Literature. In 1980 he was writer in residence in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He has written several novels including “Forty Seven Roses” and “Forty Four; Dublin Made Me” and plays including “The Liberty Suit” and “Mother Of All The […] La entrada Episode 78 – Peter Sheridan se publicó primero en Headstuff.
In the second episode of our new podcast, Rooney Prize-winning author Sara Baume reads a story by Deborah Rose Reeves and discusses art, loneliness and quarter-life crises with Sorcha Kenny.
Colin Barrett is an Irish short story writer and the author of the critically acclaimed Young Skins. He’s won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, The Guardian First Book Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His work has been published in The New Yorker, Granta, and The Stinging Fly. In 2015, he was named a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35.” He chats with us about his career, writing short stories, and the unconscious. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Listen to award-winning Irish author Sara Baume as she reads from her second novel a line made by walking, and discusses how she came to write this, and her debut novel, spill, simmer, falter, wither. Recorded at the Central Library on 9 March 2017, as part of the Contemporary Irish Literature Series. (See also: Hearts and Minds with Donal Ryan and Martin Dyar) 'A line made by walking' charts a young artist's search for meaning and healing in rural Ireland. Struggling to cope with urban life and life in general, Frankie retreats to her family's rural house on "turbine hill," vacant since her grandmother's death three years earlier. Sara Baume studied fine art before earning a Master's in Creative Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in the The Moth, The Stinging Fly, the Irish Independent, and others. She won the 2014 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award and the 2015 Hennessy New Irish Writing Award. Sara's debut novel, spill simmer falter wither received national and international critical acclaim and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and was short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award and is one of seven novels by Irish authors on the longlist for 2017 International DUBLIN Literary Award. Her second novel, a line made by walking was published in February 2017. Books Sara mentions, that like 'a line made by walking', are somewhere between novel, essay and ode to nature: The Outrun by Amy Liptrot, H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, The Lonely City by Olivia Laing.
Author Kevin Barry reads from his novel ‘City of Bohane’, and takes questions from the audience. With an introduction by Aoife Walsh. Recorded in the Central Library on 20 May 2011 as part of its 'Dublin Revealed' series. Kevin Barry was born in Limerick in 1969 and now lives in Sligo. His first collection of short stories, There Are Little Kingdoms, won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2007. Fellow Irish short story writer Philip Ó Ceallaigh praised them as 'vibrant, original, and intelligent short stories that deserve to be read and reread and to outlast the strange years that made them'. He won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his debut novel City of Bohane. The novel is set in 2054 in the fictional city of Bohane in the West of Ireland, which is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines. Irvine Welsh has described Barry as ‘the most arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years’.
Author Hugo Hamilton talks about his "strange life in translation" and reads from his novels ‘The Speckled People’, ‘The Sailor in the Wardrobe’ and 'Hand in the Fire', before answering questions from the audience. Recorded at the Central Library on 17 November 2010, as part of the series 'In Other Words . . .Irish Literature in Translation in Your Library'. Hugo Hamilton is a writer of German-Irish descent and a member of Aosdána. He is the winner of the prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Hamilton’s memoirs, The Speckled People (2003) and The Sailor in the Wardrobe (2006), have become bestsellers and have fascinated readers all over the world. The Speckled People won the prestigious Prix Femina Étranger in France, as well as the Berto prize in Italy and has been translated into 15 languages to date. His latest novel, Hand in the Fire, was published this year by Fourth Estate. Hugo’s works have been translated into Dutch, French, Italian, German, Romanian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Greek, Serbian, Norwegian and Danish.
Welcome to the Irish Times Book Club podcast, recorded earlier this month in association with the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin's Parnell Square. This month's title is Solar Bones by Mike McCormack, currently shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. It is 20 years since McCormack's debut collection of stories, Getting it in the Head, won him the prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Two years later came his fist novel, Crowe's Requiem, then a seven-year gap to its follow up, Notes from A Coma, described by John Waters as the best Irish novel of the decade, then another seven-year gap before his second collection, Forensic Songs in 2012.
Library Voices presented a poetry evening on Wednesday, November 5th with two of Ireland's major poets, Gerald Dawe and Brendan Kennelly, in the company of Leontia Flynn, recent winner of the prestigious Rooney Prize for Literature 2008. Leontia's latest collection from Cape is entitled Drives (2008). Gerald's is Points West from Gallery Press (2008.) Described by one critic as Ireland's "most endearing and reckless poet" Brendan Kennelly has been enchanting reading audiences for longer than he cares to remember.
Library Voices presented a poetry evening on Wednesday, November 5th with two of Ireland's major poets, Gerald Dawe and Brendan Kennelly, in the company of Leontia Flynn, recent winner of the prestigious Rooney Prize for Literature 2008. Leontia's latest collection from Cape is entitled Drives (2008). Gerald's is Points West from Gallery Press (2008.) Described by one critic as Ireland's "most endearing and reckless poet" Brendan Kennelly has been enchanting reading audiences for longer than he cares to remember.
This is part three of a series of interviews conducted with three acclaimed short storywriters: Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright. In each case we riff off those qualities which Flannery O'Connor thought best constituted a good short story. I've listed some of them here. Anne Enright was born in Dublin in 1962, studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to study for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She is a former RTE television producer. Her short story collection, The Portable Virgin was published in 1991, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Two collections of stories, Taking Pictures and Yesterday's Weather were published in 2008. Her novels are The Wig My Father Wore (1995); What Are You Like? winner of the 2001 Encore Award; The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (2002); and The Gathering (2007) which won the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. We met at the IFOA in Toronto to talk about the short story, and, in so doing , about Beckett's Happy Days, housewives with problems, ideology, awakenings, characters' voices, self deception, just doing it, James Joyce and women writers. Photo Credit Hpshaefer
Glenn Patterson was born in Belfast in 1961 and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury. He is the author of seven novels. The first, Burning Your Own (1988), set in Northern Ireland in 1969, won a Betty Trask Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. We met at the Blue Met International Literary Festival in Montreal to talk about reassessing the past, the development and urban topography of his home town Belfast, cities versus nations, Disney, Tolstoy's theory of history, human complexity, his latest novel The Third Party, apathy, public houses, the minor impact of books, and how happy he is with his oeuvre.