🔥The 9th Round of Easy Loan, Earn $40 Reward is in progress❗️ ⏰ Promotion Period: January 15th - Feburary 15th, 2025 👉 Register now and check more details at gate.io/campaigns/358

I was so taken with this book by Samantha Harvey - little more than a hundred pages, dense, luminous, dreamlike, and so thought-provoking, just beautiful…

Playwright and novelist Lucy Caldwell, Lucy Caldwell, gives her powerful take on how to build a reconciled island that is open, outward-facing, and non-hierarchical. Click here to hear more: gov.ie/en/publication… #SharedIsland

A heads’ up! Next Friday 8th on BBC Radio 4’s Short Works series is a brilliant short story by Riley Johnston @RileyWords, the West Belfast writer you didn’t know you needed in your life. It’s read by Tara Lynne O’ Neill. You’ll be able to listen live at 3.45pm or at this link

In Florianópolis with deirdre flynn & Paul Delaney for the VIII Jornada do Núcleo de Estudos Irlandeses da UFSC, organised by the incredible Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos on Spaces, Places and Psychogeographies of Ireland. Work begins tomorrow but today a tour of the island, paradise even in the

Wonderful to see this fine, substantial review of David Marcus: Editing Ireland, Paul Delaney and Deirdre Madden’s The Stinging Fly anthology tribute to such an important editor. I never met him, but my essay (on the generous and generative spirit of his lineage, on voice, and on

Winter Papers 10! What a milestone - what a beauty. Winter Papers

If you’re in or near Folkestone, come and hear me talk with Naomi Wood and Yan Ge on Monday!

Hurray, the other place is really taking off all of a sudden! I’m here…

A brilliant event discussing motherhood & writing at Folkestone Book Festival last night - one of those conversations that spilled out so urgently into the audience, the bar afterwards, on into the night… (Also pictured: a proof of curstor Sophie Haydock’s forthcoming book!)

An electrifying night at Creative Folkestone Folkestone Book Festival last night - Sam McAlister & Lucia Osborne-Crowley were incredible, and Rebecca Watson & Jo Hamya both such sure-footed intelligent stylists. And a perfectly celestial end to the evening in… Folkestone’s

And we're off ... Yes it's the annual schadenfreude fest that is the C-B's "living on £1.00-a-day" challenge. This year with added Cost of Living Crisis. Only two of us at home now so ... no youngsters stealing cheese but no economies of scale either justgiving.com/page/frank-cot…

I was lucky enough to take part in one of Ann Morgan’s “Incomprehension” workshops as she developed her new book - it was mind-expanding and so much fun. RELEARNING TO READ will be out next year, the limited edition available now to pre-order from Renard Press - I thoroughly

Very grateful for this from James Patterson for RTÉ. @NOALIBISBOOKS published a ltd ed signed hardback of Openings (with an extra story!) if you want to order one just in time for Christmas 🎄

If I said this was a book-length poem written in the form of an email to a letting agent, it would be true, and yet not capture anything of Ella Frears’ incredible book’s propulsive force. I just couldn’t stop reading it. Loved its fierce, wild, scathing energy. Out now

A powerful new story about damage, abjection and the erotic in n+1 by Jill Crawford, who’s slowly building an impressive archive of meticulous and disturbing short fiction with the magazine. Link to the story here: nplusonemag.com/authors/crawfo…

Made a big house in the little woods. To be demolished on Christmas Day 🎄

We are heartbroken to hear of the death of Michael Longley, our dear friend of decades and one of the greatest poets Ireland has ever produced. He and SH were the closest of friends, sparring partners, brother poets. Our thoughts with Edna and his family. May he rest in peace.

This is one of those poems that taught me everything. We are all the lesser for the loss of Michael Longley yesterday. I’m grateful to have known his kindness and benevolence and to have been able to learn from him.

It’s official! THESE DAYS will be out in the US on 8 April with Sarah Jessica Parker’s imprint at Zando, SJPLit. I love the ethos of the imprint and I LOVE the US cover - a detail from a painting by Scottish artist Alberto Morocco.

The annual Mairtín Crawford Awards for emerging writers held by Crescent Arts Centre and the Belfast Book Festival are open for entry! Details here, and details also of the *free* online workshop Wendy Erskine & I will be running on Sat 15 Feb to help get you inspired, editing and