I’ve decided to go easy on myself in 2025. I’m choosing two old favourites as my reading focus for the year: American novelist, short story writer, memoirist, (and one time snogger of Dylan Thomas), Shirley Jackson and English queen of the cardigan epic, Barbara Pym.
Read MoreI’m a day late but I’ve finally been able to sit down with my diary to have a good think through my reading year. It’s been an absolute cracker. Lots of travel time to read in transit, a brilliant reading project -working my way chronologically through the complete works of Toni Morrison and Kurt Vonnegut- and the ongoing brilliance of Mexico and Below Book group, (which meets monthly in No Alibis to read translated literature from countries below Mexico- you can follow us on Instagram), have all combined to make it the best reading year I can remember.
Read MoreI don’t think 2023 was a great year for films. NOW, this may be my fault as I feel like I spent so much of the year out of the country I didn’t spend my usual inordinate amount of time in the QFT, (which, needless to say, continues to be the world’s best cinema). It speaks volumes that my film of the year isn’t technically released until next year.
Read MoreAs 2023 drags to a close, I’m finishing up my reading project for the year. It’s been an amazing 12 months reading the collected works of Toni Morrison and Kurt Vonnegut in chronological order. If you want a little overview of what I’ve learnt from this project you can read my Irish Times article here. Next year I’ll be reading two more American writers, whose careers overlapped: James Baldwin and Carson McCullers.
Read MoreFor the last four weeks I’ve been on a writer’s residency in the Varuna Writers’ House in Katoomba, New South Wales. I was part of an international author’s exchange arranged with the good folks in Cove Park, Scotland, (also a wonderful and stunning place to write for a month; what Cove lacks in kangaroos and koalas it makes up for in Highland cows and enormous slimy toads). I’ve been fortunate enough to have taken part in quite a few writers’ residencies over the years, but Varuna was such an outstanding experience, I wanted to jot down my highlights and say a huge thank you to everyone who made this residency possible before the jetlag befuddles my brain.
Read MoreI was just compiling a wee list of some good writing craft books for my students and thought it might be worthwhile sharing them on here. Not everybody finds craft books helpful and that is absolutely fine. I don’t like workshops. I know they’re immensely beneficial for many writers but they don’t work for me. When it comes to making art of any kind a huge part of the journey is working out your own process and letting yourself be ok with it.
Read More2022 was a great reading year. It shall henceforth be known as the year I discovered Barbara Pym, Annie Proulx and Barbara Comyns about a million years after everyone else. The year I tried to get into Patricia Highsmith and Virginia Woolf and ultimately decided life was too short. And also the year I devoured Graham Greene and found all the Catholic Guilt felt oddly comforting.
Read MoreHurrah, it’s once again that time of the year when people make lists definitely declaring books, albums and movies the best of the year. Sure, it’s all just a matter of personal opinion, not to be taken too seriously. However, it is a good excuse to think back through all the things you’ve filled your brain with over the last 365 days.
Read MoreI’m spending this Christmas by myself in France. It is quite strange, but mostly ok. There’s only so much Netflix and napping I can stomach so I’ve spent this afternoon compelling a list of what was meant to be the hundred best books i’ve read in the decade since I first started keeping a diary of everything I read. Before sharing my list, let me outline how I’ve managed to narrow it down.
Read MoreIt’s almost the end of 2022. It’s been a brilliant reading year. I’ll post my annual round up of my favourite reads in about a week’s time because I hate to end the reading year too early. The Christmas hibernation period is such a great time for curling up with a good book I often find a couple of brilliant reads sneak in right at the end of the year.
Read MoreI think I was possibly a bit deluded after completing Agatha Christie in a single year, but I lost the run of myself last December and though I could manage two authors in 2022. I had intended to read all of Graham Greene AND all of Virginia Woolf.
Read MoreYesterday evening I arrived in France to take up a four month writer in residence position attached to the Université de Lorraine.
Read More“In the Beginnings” is a special collaboration between Northern Irish author Jan Carson and the Ulster Orchestra.
Read MoreI’ve compiled a list of the most prevalent Greene features here so you can all play Graham Greene bingo. You’ll need a Greene novel or one of the many onscreen adaptations of his books. Watch or read along and each time you come across one of these features take a generous swig of single malt or pray a decade of the rosary, (or for added authenticity, do both and instantly succumb to a wave of guilt). A full house entitles you to a long weekend in a stiflingly hot country, only recently de-colonised.
Read MoreTo live with dementia is to develop extraordinary and various new ways of being – linguistically, cognitively and practically. The storyteller operates similarly, using words and ideas creatively to reveal a slightly different perspective of the world.
Read MoreAs promised, I’ve found some time to pull together a list of non-fiction books which are in conversation with The Raptures. For the most part this is a collection of books which explore ideas of faith and doubt within the Christian tradition.
Read MoreWhen it came to writing “The Raptures” I was mostly drawing on lived experience, but I also had a huge collection of books and other cultural references tucked away at the back of my conscience. Reading over the novel now, I can clearly see all the other writers and artists who’ve helped to shape how it turned out and I wanted to share a list of some of the books which I think are in conversation with my own novel.
Read MoreI’ll be reading the work of my lovely friend and fellow EUPL Laureate, novelist Haska Shyyan who has kindly shared some of her thoughts about the situation in her home land. I may not be able to read her full statement on Sunday evening, but I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to read her powerful words in full.
Read MoreI’d thoroughly recommend launching a book two months after it’s actually been published.
Read MoreI’m guessing the idea time to compose a list of your favourite caravans in fiction would be the week you publish a collection of linked short stories set in a North Coast Caravan park, or even the week these stories begin airing on Radio 4, or even, (at a pinch) when they’re subsequently repeated on Radio Ulster. I had good intentions. I started a list at the back of my diary. I never quite got round to finishing it.
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