Literature

Mark Fitzgerald is the author of two books of poetry, Downburst (Cinnamon Press, 2019) and By Way of Dust and Rain (Cinnamon Press, 2010, 2019).  His work has appeared in various periodicals, including Santa Clara Review, Slipstream, Crab…

Like almost everything brilliant in the world, Deptcon, Ireland’s biggest Young Adult fiction convention, is a simple idea, executed very well. Over the course of two days young people gather to see new and well-known YA authors in a series…

“It’s a better story. And life is about having a good story. Isn’t it?” I made my first visit to The Ireland Institute on Pearse Street to watch The Horror Writer a new play written by Emily Gilmor Murphy. it is easy to forget how closely…

What They Don’t Remember By Mari Maxwell We sit on silver-painted whiskey barrels, eat mashed banana sandwiches, chase around the apple trees. Bare slender limbs to pick the ripest fruit, always farthest out of reach. Hide in the crook of…

If you don't put up the photo... By Celia Parra Díaz If you don't put up the photo, you didn't go to Paris. Neither did you eat sushi on the most congested street in Tokyo nor cross the Vltava eighteen times in Prague. Your life doesn't…

Char March grew up in Scotland’s run-down industrial belt in the 1960s, lived in West Yorkshire for decades, and now divides her time between Loughborough and Lochaber. She is a multi-award-winning author, with five poetry collections, six…

Hunger By Orla Fay The aroma of frying food fosters appetite and curiosity of origin, some primeval response coded – the raising of a spear, the scattering of birds on a wide sun-scorched plain, a tree, silhouette acacia and a setting…

Outside of an LGBTQ-specific context I cannot remember ever hearing a poem about gay sex at a poetry event at home in Northern Ireland, and so when I arrive at the Irish Writers Centre for their regular open mic night, Takin’ The Mic, I…

3. morabito, By Kristoffer Ehrnström We're in the restaurant at Piazza Carmine. We talk about gender norms but it smells like woman. Behind the sounds and spices coming from the kitchen there is a scent of woman in her voice and I've missed…

The CBI conference is a real treat for anyone who writes for young people. The theme for this year’s conference was Belonging, a theme close to my heart and one which comes up frequently in my YA books. I was keen to hear from the writers…