Glittering lines, fine lyricism and sharp wit in three new poetry collectionsPoetry: New work from Vona Groarke, Maureen McLane and Gabriel FitzMauriceFri Aug 2 2019 - 06:00
I Wouldn’t Start From Here: Hilarious, heartbreaking diaspora talesBook review: a collection of fiction, poetry and essays by writers of the Irish diasporaTue Jul 23 2019 - 06:00
To dye for: The violent, greed-filled history of colourBook review: David Coles’s illustrated history details the brutal origins of dyes and pigmentsTue Jun 11 2019 - 06:00
Poetry about intense heat, the unsaid and an orang-utan in a suitReviews of poetry collections by Pat Boran, Moya Roddy and Anne CaseySat Jun 1 2019 - 06:00
Elsewhere: Rosita Boland takes us to glorious, faraway placesBook review: The writer’s passion for words and travel shines through in this essay collectionSat Jun 1 2019 - 00:00
Mama’s Last Hug review: Entertaining insight into animal emotionsFrans De Waal blends meticulously researched arguments with common sense and humourSat Apr 13 2019 - 06:00
Poetry round-up: McCarthy delights with second collection in two yearsPlus new poetry from Julia CopusSat Apr 6 2019 - 06:00
Constellations review: Dazzling essays about a woman’s bodySinéad Gleeson’s book tells of how a life can be saved despite great obstaclesSat Apr 6 2019 - 06:00
Figuring by Maria Popova review: A musical, poetic modern classicIn Popova’s thrilling world of mathematics, nature and more, everything is connectedSat Mar 9 2019 - 06:00
Poems about life forces, Magdalene laundries and birds, and reflections on SpainNew publications from Jessica Traynor, Maureen Boyle and Patrick KehoeSat Feb 9 2019 - 06:00
A River in the Trees review: Gripping page-turner depicts hardships old and newIn Jacqueline O’Mahony's debut novel, common themes and qualities links protagonists living a century apart inSat Jan 12 2019 - 06:00
From There to Here by Ciaran Carson review: Vividly inked verseIt is impossible to do justice to breadth and depth of Carson’s work, but this is a good stabSat Jan 5 2019 - 06:00
Martina Evans: A Christmas memoirThe author on choosing traditions, and remembering the indiscretion of Sister FifiSat Dec 22 2018 - 06:00
If Cats Disappeared From the World review: Japanese magic taleGenki Kawamura’s novel is a mixture of humour and life lessonsSat Nov 17 2018 - 06:00
Roar review: Cecelia Ahern’s fairy tales get realHard times and humour in 30 life-lesson stories featuring 30 womenSat Nov 3 2018 - 06:00
Decline of post office network inevitable in a changing worldIrish post offices no more insulated from technological progress than UK equivalentsSat Sep 1 2018 - 06:00
Martina Evans: My life without televisionI saw very little television as a child for two reasons. First, Mammy didn’t approve of itSat Aug 18 2018 - 06:00
Notes to Self: Essays by Emilie Pine – Startling essays on addiction, infertility and rapeReview: Emilie Pine’s shocking force shines through in the kind of book you want to give to everyoneSat Jul 21 2018 - 06:30
‘Mallow called to me like the ghost town in a Western waiting for the shoot-out’Award-winning poet Martina Evans delves into the ancestral experiences, memories and revolutionary encounters that led to her collection ‘Now We Can Talk Openly About Men’Sat Jun 23 2018 - 05:14
‘Mind on Fire’ by Arnold Thomas Fanning: Triumph out of tragedyReview: This memoir of mental illness is shocking but ultimately humanisingSat Jun 9 2018 - 06:00
Catholic Boy review: Author’s own sense of Belfast shines through short storiesHurricane Higgins, sectariation tour guides and the Disappeared all feature in Rosemary Jenkinson’s collectionSat May 12 2018 - 06:00
The Language of Kindness: A Nurse’s Story review: brilliant and life-changingChristie Watson's journey to the underworld exerts the power of a gripping novel threaded with science, philosophy, history and ethicsSat May 5 2018 - 06:25
Follow the Old Road review: evocative rambles down Ireland’s many routesJo Kerrigan and Richard Mills explore rivers, canals, tracks, railways and sea roadsSat Apr 21 2018 - 06:00
Autonomy edited by Kathy D’Arcy, Repeal the 8th edited by Una Mullally review‘People could could learn surprising things about their fellow Irish women if they opened these books’Sat Apr 7 2018 - 06:00
From a Low and Quiet Sea review: a writer who has never met a boreDonal Ryan can blow attractive life into a character no matter how compromised, mean or drearySat Mar 24 2018 - 06:00
Brit(ish) review: dazzling stories about race and identityAfua Hirsch explores evolving racism in tales of history, politics and AfricaSat Feb 3 2018 - 06:00
Walking Wounded, by Sheila Llewellyn review – a great sense of war-time ManchesterThe beauty and skill of her own writing is the best testament to her belief in the redemptive power of artSat Jan 27 2018 - 06:00
Rainsongs by Sue Hubbard review: A pilgrimage during the Celtic TigerAn English woman’s journey to her dead husband’s Kerry summer cottage leads to a series of discoveriesSat Jan 20 2018 - 06:00
Good Europe, bad Europe: great British responses to BrexitA varied collection from Afua Hirsch, Ian McEwan, Sarah Perry, Richard Herring et alSat Dec 2 2017 - 06:00
Michael Harding searches for the pulse of IrelandHarding’s latest attempt to find meaning in life is searingly honest, funny and self-deprecatingSat Nov 4 2017 - 06:00
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s heart-tugging, hilarious and masterful storiesSelected Stories displays Ní Dhuibhne’s gift at interweaving old and newSat Oct 14 2017 - 06:00
A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin: a fascinating and startling readThe author’s dazzling literary career was punctuated by many tragediesSat Sep 16 2017 - 06:00
Levitation review: Short stories that rise to the best of fictionSean O’Reilly’s new collection, many of them set in barber shops, is a cut above the restSat Sep 9 2017 - 06:00
‘He’ review: A complicated reimagining of Stan Laurel’s lifeThe reader can’t help questioning the verity of Laurel’s thoughts and opinionsSat Aug 26 2017 - 06:00
A dark, brittle satire of the English bullies who rise to powerThe Party by Elizabeth Day review: a rich exploration of the human conditionSat Jul 15 2017 - 06:00
Together, Closer review: Why we are a mystery to ourselvesGiovanni Frazzetto creates his own art – eight stories that run alongside the latest discoveries of neuroscience, exploring humanity’s relationship with connectionSat Jul 1 2017 - 06:00
Adrian Mole – The Collected Poems review: Unless you know Adrian, the poems can’t stand aloneSue Townsend’s genius was knowing how much of this doggerel to include – and how to position it within her memorable proseSat Apr 15 2017 - 06:00
The Clinic, Memory review: Elaine Feinstein’s passionate poetryThe distinguished writer tackles love, death and our new, unstable worldSat Mar 18 2017 - 06:00
What we talk about when we talk about loveMartina Evans reflects on the stories and poems that capture the intensity of yearningMon Feb 13 2017 - 15:29
Mountainy Men, a short story by Martina Evans12 Stories of Christmas - Day 5:Two children fend for themselves when their father takes to the drink and their mother to the bedSat Dec 24 2016 - 06:00
You Took the Last Bus Home review: short and tweetBrian Bilston, poet laureate of Twitter, proves he is just as powerful on the printed pageSat Oct 15 2016 - 05:00
Children of Las Vegas review: A modern day fairytaleTimothy O’Grady has written a chilling account of how children are affected by parental addictionsSat Aug 27 2016 - 05:00
Tongulish by Rita Ann Higgins review: political poet with a talent for loveHiggins’s latest collection is as intensively inventive and deliciously subversive as everSat Jul 9 2016 - 01:52
Paradise Lodge by Nina Stibbe review: a sequel packed with unforgettable detailThe author of ‘Man at the Helm’ draws from a golden seam of English comic writingSat Jun 4 2016 - 01:00
Pounded, dazzled, astonished, beaten and broken: Martina Evans on being a poetAs her Selected Poems are published, the poet reflects on her inspirations and obsessions (snakes in the bed, republican women and the Mammy of all Irish Mammies)Mon May 30 2016 - 12:39
The Lubetkin Legacy by Marina Lewycka review: tower-block novel falls a little flatAn ambitious novel which combines the Lewycka trademark family comedy with political satire but there are too many charactersSat May 14 2016 - 00:17
Writing Rights: Fine Gael and Labour form a Coalition, March 1973, by Martina EvansAs part of a series by Irish writers to mark Human Rights Day, the poet and author goes back to her schooldays to explore the right to educationThu Dec 10 2015 - 10:49
Poetry Bus Magazine: bang on the moneyWriting about money is like writing about sex: it has to be about something else as well, writes Martina Evans. The best poems here do that ‘something else’ over and over againThu Dec 3 2015 - 15:34
Good readers are rarer than good writersBefore creative-writing classes existed, writers began by being readers, says Martina Evans. I don’t think things have changed that muchSat Oct 24 2015 - 00:28