Books Ireland

08/07/2024

Incredible emotional range and formal inventiveness—High Jump as Icarus Story, by Gustav Parker Hibbett 📕
Banshee Lit Jess Traynor Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann

incredible emotional range and formal inventiveness—High Jump as Icarus Story, by Gustav Parker Hibbett.

05/07/2024

'Trimalchio in West Egg' was the original title of which novel?

Test your book knowledge in our new book quiz, starting today!
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Our new book quiz is here! Test your book knowledge in The Books Ireland Quiz.

03/07/2024

New books out this month? Check out First Flush for July!

Browse all upcoming Irish published, Irish authored, and Irish interest books this month in First Flush—or dig into our archives all the way back to 2021 📕

New Island Books The O'Brien Press Merrion Press O'Mahony's Booksellers Books Upstairs thebookshop.ie Nielsen

Browse all upcoming Irish published, Irish authored, and Irish interest books this month in First Flush.

02/07/2024

📕The team at Discover Irish Children’s Books pick their favourite titles for July📕

Children's Books Ireland Nosy Crow Little Island

The team at Discover Irish Children's Books pick their favourite titles for July.

01/07/2024

🔥 Burning Books is coming to the West Cork Literary Festival! 🔥

Join author Michael Magee as he tells Ruth McKee about the books which have marked his life 📕

Recorded live on July 15 at 5.00pm.
West Cork Literary Festival

Michael Magee features in a special live recording of the Burning Books podcast at the West Cork Literary Festival this July.

27/06/2024

In her foreword to Wild-Looking but Fine by Ciara O’Dowd (UCD Press), Jane Brennan wonders why so few biographies have been written about women in Irish theatre. This book traces the theatre careers of Ria Mooney and Aideen O’Connor from their stage debuts to performing in New York, and the lives they made for themselves beyond the stage. — Read an extract here📕

This book traces the lives of Irish Abbey actresses Mooney and O'Connor from their stage debuts to performing in New York, and the lives they made for themselves beyond the stage.

24/06/2024

"To say she is haunted by nostalgia would be wide of the mark. It would, perhaps, be more accurate to say she owns it."

Neil McCarthy reviews The Dark Art of Darning, by Moya Roddy

Salmon Poetry Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann

Roddy's past is a jigsaw of memories and raw emotions that poetry allows her to revisit.

22/06/2024

"The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry is an exhilarating read, a forbidden love story at once tender and violent."

—read this fine review by Eoghan Smith📕

Eoghan Smith Canongate Books

The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry is an exhilarating read, a forbidden love story at once tender and violent.

21/06/2024

⭐️We have our winners!!⭐️

Huge congratulations to Alison Wassell, Kik Lodge, and Emma Lee for their sparkly words 🔥

And thank you to the fabulous National Book Tokens
for their wonderful prizes, celebrating !
Books Are My Bag 📕📗📘

To celebrate Independent Bookshop Week, we are very pleased to announce the winners of our Flash Fiction Competition!

18/06/2024

Jessica Traynor is the 2024 recipient of the Field Day Tundish Award for contribution to the arts in Ireland, which was presented to her on Bloomsday by Theo Dorgan and Stephen Rea at a ceremony in the Merrion Hotel, Dublin.

Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann Bloodaxe Books Dedalus Press: Poetry from Ireland Banshee Lit Publishing Ireland Irish Writers Centre Jess Traynor

Jessica Traynor is the recipient of the Field Day Tundish Award 2024 for her contribution to the arts.

17/06/2024

It’s Independent Bookshop Week, so what better way to celebrate than by popping down to your local bookshop, or going online to order a book for the young reader in your life?

The team at Discover Irish Children’s Books choose their favourite titles for June ❤️📕❤️

Books Are My Bag Bookselling Ireland O'Mahony's Booksellers Kennys Bookshop Children's Books Ireland Sarah Webb Gill Books Little Tiger Books Little Island Nosy Crow Futa Fata

The team at Discover Irish Children's Books choose their favourite titles for June.

14/06/2024

Award winners for 2024 include Paula Meehan, Arnold Horner, and Darragh McKeon 📕

Wordwell Books History Ireland

Award winners for 2024 include Paula Meehan, Arnold Horner, and Darragh McKeon.

13/06/2024

Congratulations to the 39 writers selected for this year’s National Mentoring Programme with the Irish Writers Centre!

The chosen writers will receive literary mentoring over the next eight months from an acclaimed Irish writer of their choice 📘

Irish Writers Centre Children's Books Ireland Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann Munster Literature Centre

39 writers have been selected from across the island of Ireland for the IWC Mentoring Programme 2024.

11/06/2024

"Congratulations are due to Diarmuid de Faoite and Arlen House for making these stories available in a bilingual version that should entice readers not already familiar with Padraic ó Conaire, or who wish to revisit stories that they may have read many years ago."—Cathal Póirtéir

Cathal Póirtéir Charlie Byrne's Bookshop

Translated with stylistic unity and authority, this bi-lingual edition of Scothscéalta should entice readers.

06/06/2024

"Usually in this column I write about a work of Irish fiction that inspired a Hollywood film, but this time I’m writing about a factual account of a key episode of World War II that led to the making of the film The Longest Day."

On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Tony Canavan writes about The Longest Day.

The story of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France on 6 June 1944, that inspired a block buster movie.

05/06/2024

Keen to brush up your skills in proofreading and copy-editing?

Register for Publishing Ireland‘s two day course which runs on June the 19th and 20th, led by industry professional Dominic Carroll. 📕📗📒

Publishing Ireland

Publishing Ireland hosts a two day proofreading and copyediting course.

31/05/2024

"I think that we use humour to make our lives palatable, so when you find it in a book, the character that made you laugh often has some deeper tragedy or fear which their humour helps them float above. In my own writing comedy and tragedy often merge completely."

A fascinating Q&A with Catriona Shine📕
Lilliput Press Catriona Shine

"It will be quite a different book by the time they’ve finished it, not the one you lent them at all."

30/05/2024

“I’ll miss his honesty, his seriousness and his laughter."

Poet and scholar Gerald Dawe dies at 72.

The Gallery Press: Poetry & Drama from Ireland Merrion Press Publishing Ireland

Gerald Dawe, writer of 'inimitable charm and good grace' dies at 72.

27/05/2024

Congratulations to the winners of this year's KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards!⭐️
Such a worthwhile prize, supporting our authors and illustrators of books for young people☀️♥️☀️
Children's Books Ireland

The KMPG Children's Books Ireland Awards honour and promote excellence in books for young people by Irish authors and illustrators.

22/05/2024

"Each poem in The Risen Tree by Bernadette Gallagher is a meditation on a Psalm. This is a collection about the possibility of life overcoming death, about memory, mortality, and morality."

Orla Fay Bernadette GallagherPoetry Ireland / Éigse ÉireannRevival Press

We write to find out, to question—The Risen Tree, by Bernadette Gallagher.

21/05/2024

"I need a good kick up the arse every now and again. I’m very good at taking criticism. If it’s necessary, I want to hear it."

— a lovely, warm interview with Estelle Birdy talking to our Niall McArdle 📕

Lilliput Press

Estelle Birdy talks with Niall McArdle about socio-linguistics, The Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair, and becoming a writer.

17/05/2024

Fancy listening to Rónán Hession today?
He's our latest guest on the Burning Books podcast🔥
He talks about all sorts of things with Ruth McKee including the 'juice' in a good book💛
Find the full episode here, or wherever you listen

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https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/róndcast/r%C3%B3n%C3%A1n-hession/id1567609807?i=1000655879637

16/05/2024

Our flash competition is now open!

Help celebrate Independent Bookshop Week in June and send us your story 📕

It's FREE to enter, and there are some fab book gift cards as prizes!

Guidelines on our website www.booksirelandmagazine.com

National Book Tokens Books Are My Bag Bookselling Ireland writing.ie

15/05/2024

“Bookshops are so much more than places you can buy the latest bestseller. They’re community hubs and cultural venues, supporting Ireland’s writers and publishers and contributing massively to the Irish literary tradition.“—Dawn Behan, Chair of Bookselling Ireland
Bookselling Ireland

Bookselling Ireland are urging the government to introduce a culture voucher scheme to mitigate the impact of the retail giant.

14/05/2024

Very sorry to hear about the death of Alice Munro, one of the finest.

  There is no direct flight from New York City to Clinton, Ontario, the Canadian town of three thousand where Alice Munro lives most of the year. We left LaGuardia early on a June morning, rented a car in Toronto, and drove for three hours on roads that grew smaller and more rural. Around du...

13/05/2024

☀️Burning Books in the line-up at West Cork Literary Festival☀️

Author of Close to Home, Michael Magee will be chatting with Ruth McKee for a special live recording of our podcast in the beautiful old Methodist church in Bantry ♥️

Find your tickets here: https://westcorkmusic.ie/events/2024/burning-books-michael-magee/
West Cork Literary Festival Faber Books

Michael Magee features in a special live recording of the Burning Books podcast at the West Cork Literary Festival this July.

08/05/2024

Emma McKervey reads from her new collection, Highland Boundary Fault, which launches today📕

Turas Press

Emma McKervey reads from her new collection Highland Boundary Fault (Turas Press).

03/05/2024

⭐️Books Ireland Flash Fiction competition open for submissions⭐️

FREE to enter
Prizes from the fab National Book Tokens ♥️📕♥️

First Prize book gift card €150
Second Prize book gift card €100
Third Prize book gift card €50

Deadline 01 June

Books Are My Bag writing.ie

Books Ireland with National Book Tokens welcomes flash fiction submissions for Independent Bookshop Week.

02/05/2024

Publishing Ireland are running some great courses at the moment—check out what's happening in May📗

🔽🔽🔽
​ https://booksirelandmagazine.com/publishing-ireland-courses-in-may/

01/05/2024

"Seaborne, an artful novel of sublime imagination, tells the story of eighteenth century Anne Bonny, the pirate from Kinsale, Co. Cork."
New Island Books Publishing Ireland

by Patricia O'Reilly