Teaching at the College of New Jersey today where it’s unbelievably cold and blustery but also really beautiful

On the extremely unlikely off chance that you find yourself in the vicinity of Mystic, Connecticut next Tuesday evening, I'll be reading and talking at Bank Square Books at 5pm on 18th. Here's the details, feel free to share. banksquarebooks.com/event/2025-1...

Trenton, New Jersey - where the carpets are clearly possessed and the hotel locked me out so I had to bang on the front door until two tiny nuns let me in.

Lovely news and very deserved. Congratulations Ferdia

If you don’t derive any benefit from the act of writing, no pleasure or catharsis or satisfaction, why are you doing it? This isn’t meant to be an aggressive question, I’m not demanding an answer, but it’s a thing you may want to ask yourself. Life is short and you could do something else?

I’ve been in Stonington for a week now and I have to say I could get used to this - the writing time, the reading time, the stunning scenery slapping me in the face, every time I stick my head out the door.

74. The Innocents. Genuinely one of the creepiest movies I've ever seen. Terrifying and brilliant with four amazing child actors. Thanks to @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social for the recommendation

Anyone else have this issue with DMs? Granted they’re two years old and I’ve worn the life out of them but I didn’t think they’d just split like this.

…always a tavern

At the Textual Intersections conference at DCU where Neil Morrison is unpacking the brilliant engagement with evangelical Protestantism in @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social's writing

Immediately considers changing name…

Delighted to reveal the beautiful cover of my next novel, Few and Far Between designed by the brilliant Irene Martinez Costa. Proofs are arriving next week. Preorders open now. Can’t believe I sat down 20 years ago to have a stab at writing a short story and now I have nine books in the world.

Touché Walter Mosley. Today was not the day to read this.

One of these things is a nightmarishly complicated puzzle, the other is a 1,000 piece jigsaw of France. When your novel isn’t working, sometimes you have to cut it up into hundreds of pieces and put it back together a different way.

Huge thanks to Bergin for these beautiful photos taken in the James Merrill apartment yesterday. It’s an honour to be the James Merrill house writer in residence for November here in Stonington. If you see me wandering round the place please say hello.

Thoroughly enjoyed “Miss Pym’s Day Out” on the IPlayer. More than enough provincial vicars and jumble sale loving spinsters to satisfy even the most hardcore Barbara Pym fan #MyYearWithBP

There were some absolute standout reads in October. Here are the nine books which stayed with me long after I put them down.

Home to a much anticipated proof of #TheWomanInTheWater Henrietta McKervey’s new novel which takes a sideways look at one of the subplots in du Maurier’s Rebecca. Publishing March 2026. Very very excited to dive in.

God bless the pilot who just managed to get us landed safely at Belfast City. The three minutes prior to the safe landing I saw my whole life flash in front of me.

Always nice to swing by Foyles and see they have more of my books than the last time I looked

By happy coincidence, I found myself in Agatha Christie’s old stomping ground this morning so I thought I’d track down her first London house on Cresswell Place. It was a lot cuter than I’d anticipated.

Are they never going to leave Harper Lee alonev

First time in the big BBC to record Front Row and I was so excited, a nice man gave me an impromptu tour of the whole building. Even got to peak into the studio where Radio 1 was going out live though I’m so old I haven’t a clue which presenters I was looking at.

I’ll be on Front Row on Radio 4 this evening talking about all things uncanny and unsettling in literature. Tune in after 7 or catch up later on BBC sounds.

I can’t believe this is my penultimate Shirley Jackson or the year. It’s a collection of odds and sods, non-fiction and recently refound shorts. It’s a bit patchy in places but the good parts, especially the humorous tales of domestic life are top notch #MyYearWithSJ

Today's #IrishBookWeek prompt is: Share a book set in Northern Ireland📚☘ The fragmentary nature of the Evangelical Protestant community in the early '90s might not be an obvious backdrop for a gripping novel but The Raptures was pitch-perfect, absolutely adored it.

Imagine if they labelled light switches in hotel rooms so you didn’t have to work your way through every single combination every time you wanted to turn off the weird under sink light.

Exciting news. I’m at Penguin HQ this week recording an audiobook of #TheRaptures Soon you’ll be able to hear the good folk of Ballylack sounding the way they sound in my head.

We loved friend-of-the-podcast @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social's article following in the footsteps of Agatha Christie on the Isle of Man! 💃 www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p... You can hear Jan on The #SwingingChristies here: pod.fo/e/3090e9 @markaldridge.info

Being a writer nowadays is approximately 60% dragging a too full suitcase through train stations and city streets in a far too hot coat and the wrong shoes while the rain pisses down relentlessly

Had the nicest day with my @stingingfly.bsky.social writers @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social talking, laughing and furiously critiquing some great short stories. What an amazing bunch of folk.

I’ve got a wee essay in today’s Irish Times about my recent visit to the Isle of Man to follow in Agatha Christie’s footsteps. Big thanks to Mary Minihan for commissioning it.

It was an absolute pleasure to judge this year’s Francis McManus RTE short prize alongside @neil.hegarty.50 and Tristan Rosenstock. We had an amazing evening with @rickoshea.bsky.social and RTE Arena @paviliontheatre.bsky.social tonight celebrating all 10 shortlisted writers.

Spent a gorgeous afternoon inside the National Library recording a podcast with Zoe Comyns in response to their photographic archives.

Swung by @literatureireland.bsky.social HQ this afternoon to pick up the Arabic translation of #TheRaptures published by Alarabi Publishing

Responses to this are divided into Irish people posting things about the salmon of knowledge and non-Irish people utterly baffled.

This man on the train is pontificating to the women he’s with and she just said, “stop getting on like you’re the salmon of knowledge,” and I am so using this the next time a man tries to talk down to me.

Happy miracle day everyone. 9 years ago I lost my laptop with everything I’ve ever written on it not backed up in Waverley Station. Two days later, after hundreds of people tried to help, it came back unscathed. Today’s the day we remember good things can still emerge out of the bleakest situations

Thanks to everyone who joined us at Banbridge Library tonight for a lovely reading and chat to celebrate #bookweekni @librariesni.bsky.social

Second time in a week Radio 4 made a noise whilst I was driving at speed which made me certain the bottom had fallen off my car/the engine was about the explode. Petition to include a warning for drivers before they make broken car sounds.

I bought a chocolate brown silk shirt and now I feel like I’m made of Galaxy.

The finale of this year's RTE Short Story Competition is coming up: Friday 25 Oct at the Pavilion, Dún Laoghaire - and live at 7pm on Arena, RTE Radio One, with @rickoshea.bsky.social. What a pleasure it has been! - and thanks to fellow judges @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social and Tristan Rosenstock.

I don’t really know who I’m saying this to but around 1/3 of the proofs I agree to read never actually arrive so maybe if you’re a writer thinking another writer hated your book and didn’t want to blurb it, it’s just that they never received a copy

Tomorrow evening I’ll be in Banbridge library as part of @librariesni.bsky.social Book week. Info below.

This is a truly astounding bit of writing, so well-observed, so quietly devastating. Grateful to @maxjliu.bsky.social for drawing my attention to it.

First glimpse of #FewAndFarBetween as a real live novel in the new @literatureireland.bsky.social catalogue. Proofs are imminent. Publication date April 9th. Can’t wait to introduce you to Marion and Robert-John Connolly and the other inhabitants of the Ark.

It was such a pleasure to be involved in this wee programme celebrating the enormous legacy of Joan Lingard. It airs at 4pm tomorrow on Radio 4. Here’s the link and info www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Me encanta haber estado allí "de libro presente". Gracias a @literatureireland.bsky.social por su apoyo a la traducción de "Los incendiarios" (@hojadelataedit.bsky.social) y por todo lo que hacen (y lo bien que lo hacen) por la literatura irlandesa.

Glad to be home rather than trapped in Schiphol. Gladder still to arrive back to a new Lucy Caldwell short story collection. I already know these stories are going to be brilliant because they came from the pen of a genius - can’t wait to crack into them.

If crazy Cornish Folk Horror is something you're into, this is on 4OD at the mo