The Irish Times

The debut books and authors to look out for in 2019

We asked some writers to tell us about their debuts ahead of their publication

Thu Jan 17 2019 - 05:00

Blindboy Boatclub book: A mixed plastic bag of mad ideas

This debut collection is big on creativity but, overall, short on satisfaction

Sat Oct 28 2017 - 06:00

New fiction review: Room Little Darker by June Caldwell

It is fifty shades darker as submissive sex and rubber-clad gimps vie for attention

Sat Jul 01 2017 - 06:00

New fiction: Joanna Walsh’s short story collection

In ‘Vertigo’, the writer highlights familiar worlds as they are about to fracture

Sat Mar 26 2016 - 01:00

Giving voice to the short story in ‘a sad, twisted melancholy sort of night’

Anne Enright champions short-story writers at Galway International Arts Festival

Thu Jul 30 2015 - 04:00

Claire-Louise Bennett on writing Pond

‘I began to write – not to make sense of things, the opposite in fact. I wrote in order to keep rationality and purpose at bay, to prolong and bask in the rhythmic chaos of existence, and luxuriate in the magnificent mystery of everything’

Tue May 26 2015 - 15:31

Michael Longley shortlisted for $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize

Seven Irish authors longlisted for 2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; Ruth Frances Long wins Best Creator of Children’s Science Fiction and Fantasy

Wed Apr 29 2015 - 12:18

Claire-Louise Bennett’s exquisite words and dark thoughts

Bennett’s form-twisting debut collection, Pond, is daring, intense and exhilarating

Wed Apr 29 2015 - 06:00

Sara Baume: ‘I actually hate writing. It’s really hard’

The winner of the 2014 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award gave herself two years to write her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither. But she remains torn between fiction and visual art

Thu Feb 12 2015 - 01:00