A form of literary autobiography, the personal essay allows us to ruminate on truths from our own life experiences. Every Wednesday this month, the Irish Essayist series will see writers test the continually-expanding essay format to…

A form of literary autobiography, the personal essay allows us to ruminate on truths from our own life experiences. Every Wednesday this month, the Irish Essayist series will see writers test the continually-expanding essay format to…

Welcome to this fortnight's Lit Review, packed with competitions and submission calls. Don't forget that the closing date for this year's Listowel Writers' Week competitions is 1st March. Competitions & submission calls The Stinging…

News Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards From a small base of three categories in 2007, the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards have grown over the years to include fifteen categories spanning many literary genres. Every year readers have the…

The Lit Review – your round up of all things literati. News Leonard Cohen's New Book of Poetry The Flame - a book of Leonard Cohen’s unpublished work and final poems is to be published next year by Canongate. According to Canongate,…

It is well-documented that Irish writer James Joyce once said, “No self-respecting person wants to stay in Ireland.” Although the automatic and unthinking response of many to such a claim would be dismissal, the long, broad narrative of…

2015 was indeed a bumper year for books, so when asked to compile a list of the best books of 2015 I went with the lovely tradition we started last year on HeadStuff and asked a broad selection of Ireland's top writers and ‘bookish folk’…

Brian O'Doherty (aka Patrick Ireland) What better way to start this St. Patricks Day list of inspirational Irish artists than with Brian O'Doherty (aka Patrick Ireland). Brian O'Doherty was born in 1928 in Ballaghaderreen, County…

When given the task of picking the best books of 2014 I didn’t realise how vast and daunting a task it would turn out to be… So I scratched my head for a minute and then decided to enlist the help of some experts… So with huge gratitude to…

Women Across Borders – Irish Writers Centre 7th March 2020 Women Across Borders is the Irish Writers Centre’s International Women’s Day event in conjunction with Women Aloud NI. Although I had been aware of it in previous years, I had…