Literature

Re-reading The Great Gatsby felt like revisiting an experience that made a good impression on me first time round, only to find the new experience empty of pleasure, meaning or purpose. There are beautiful sentences, a blizzard of expensive…

Social Boats, Sinking By Maeve McKenna I am screened, polished, mimicked by dumb  mouths in artificial mirrors, talking back. The scent of my body, its pungent genetics, lingers on thin bandages of light peeling free …

2020 has been another great year for Irish fiction. Whether you are interested in crime or literary fiction or genre fiction (I am not even sure what that is) there has been a constant stream of reading material to keep us going through the…

The Abolition of What's Next By Kevin Higgins It is ten to whenever  and must remain so. The living room door will remain ajar at exactly that angle. The cat will forever have just opened its eyes having heard something…

Exciting Times is the debut novel from Irish writer Naoise Dolan (and one of the Headstuff Picks of 2020). In addition to appearing in best selling lists in the original English, it has also been translated into Italian where it has got…

Bioluminescence By Clare Mulvany The waves of West Cork are dancing with light.  They hide under the canopy of darkness,  growing in their secret.  In this lake: liquid lore.  In these waters: tincture of stars.  We wait until…

The early days of Covid were tough for everyone. We were all stuck at home, learning remotely, working remotely and trying to get used to the new normal that was the year of Covid.  In those early days, one of the highlights was the New…

Daragh Fleming burst onto the literary scene with his debut collection of short stories in 2019. The Book of Revelations was an engaging and readable collection with a distinct voice that made it such a memorable collection. Fleming's…

Dancing with Lyme By Cathy Donelan It took the life out of me. Cold sweats with a shiver of something new –  a ‘ningle’, if that’s even a word. It doesn’t sit right on the flat of my tongue but I can feel it in my stomach. They…

It is not possible for anything good to come from polystyrene cups.  It is also not possible for anything good to come from the people holding the polystyrene cups. They feel unnatural, cheap, fake and flimsy. Cups and people can be…