Mary Ruefle… and breathe

“Whenever you see elephants flying, don’t laugh, take notes. Because if you see elephants flying, something very different is going on that you don’t understand but you and your readers need to.” Thomas Friedman via George Saunders georgesaunders.substack.com/p/a-deep-que...

NEW EPISODE: Acclaimed fiction writer and long-time creative writing professor Elizabeth McCracken joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and @sugi.bsky.social to discuss her ninth book and first volume about craft, A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction. @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/elizabeth-mc...

Two slots have opened up at the Novel Writing Intensive I’ll be co-leading at Writers.com— if you’d like to talk novels, and get feedback on your novel, for nine months next year, click here for more: storyenergies.substack.com/p/novel-writ...om

Want to know how to write a good short story? Read my post over on Writers.com. Featuring flying pigs in grimy kitchens. writers.com/how-to-write...

Dublin small press fair on 28 & 29 November at Pearse St library. Free and open to the public. dublinsmallpressfair.com

Still not too late to sign up to write 30 scenes in 30 days with me at Writers.com. What better way to have a productive October? open.substack.com/pub/storyene...

Good writing advice from Marilynne Robinson.

One more day to apply to my Advanced Short Fiction class at GrubStreet. We'll be taking deep dives into stories by Katherine Anne Porter, Raymond Carver, Weike Wang, Kathryn Scanlan, Etgar Keret—and maybe you? grubstreet.org/workshop/adv...

Just stumbled across this here. Hope it's going well!

My 6 Weeks 6 Essays class returns to GrubStreet next month. Get productive, blow my mind, and give yourself something else to look forward to every Wednesday morning... storyenergies.substack.com/p/6-weeks-6-...

The owners of Manchester United have already reacted to the defeat at Grimsby by sacking two canteen staff, a cleaner and a trainee who works in the ticket office.

Take your short stories from ‘could be published’ to ‘must be published’. Send in your best ten pages—applications close Sept 1. grubstreet.org/workshop/adv...

Just a few more days before the deadline for my Advanced Short Fiction Workshop at GrubStreet. Get your applications in by Sept 1! storyenergies.substack.com/p/advanced-s...

Last day to apply for my Advanced Revision Strategies class @ GrubStreet. Take your stories from 'could be published' to 'must be published'. grubstreet.org/workshop/adv...

Because some people were already doing it, I compared The Last of Us to Game of Thrones... (beware, there be spoilers...) storyenergies.substack.com/p/the-last-o...

He’s a bestie, so I’m biased, but I think @russellbrakefield.bsky.social is writing some of the best stories out there rn, and this one might be my new fave. “We had nearly made it back to camp when the beast came upon us. This is how I think of it now, and how I tell the story at parties…”

In Episode Thirty-Seven of The Dublin Review Podcast, Aingeala Flannery talks to Cathy Sweeney about her personal essay ‘Relapse’. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc. Or visit the podcast section of our website 👇thedublinreview.com

Dublin, Written in Our Hearts, edited by Declan Meade: A gloriously evocative and meandering trip through the city Anne Enright, Sarah Gilmartin, Kevin Barry and Paula Meehan are among the writers who contributed to this beautiful collection www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Publishing has a serious class problem. It is one of the most socially exclusive of all creative industries. Please, if you can, read this. @thebookseller.com @ipghq.bsky.social thebeemagazine.com/publishings-...

Fresh and useful take on 'reading like a writer' from @mdbell79.bsky.social here: mattbell.substack.com/p/50-write-b...

Where I promote the benefits of extremist views and radical ideologies (as inspired by @juliust.bsky.social's How I Won a Nobel Prize) storyenergies.substack.com/p/free-your-...

Welcome to the cast of The Cave by Kevin Barry This summer @abbeytheatre.bsky.social Get those tickets now #excited www.abbeytheatre.ie

There’s still time to sign up for “Roads to Revelation: Write 6 Essays in 6 Weeks” on writers.com. There are no zoom meetings, so you can do all the reading, writing, and watching of craft lessons at your own pace. Sign up now, it starts tomorrow! writers.com/course/roads...

Life imitating genre.

Colm Tóibín's recent New Yorker story got me dwelling on worries, the windows into the souls of our characters... storyenergies.substack.com/p/im-worried...

We're delighted to reveal the #InternationalBooker2025 shortlist – a feast of fiction from around the world that offers ‘a miraculous lens through which to view human experience’. ➡️ Discover the full list: thebookerprizes.com/ibp2025

How can one make one's existential crisis maximally crushing? Read my latest post to find out!

Reading 'Would You Rather Have Married Young?' by Lillian Fishman on the Metropolitan Review got me thinking about DNA... New post Explore/Protect up on Substack!

Etymology of the day: ‘prevaricate’, meaning to act in an ambiguous or evasive way to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself, is from the Latin ‘praevaricari’, meaning to ‘walk crookedly’.

Are you an emerging writer? Apply for GrubStreet's Emerging Writer Fellowship by March 10. grubstreet.org/write/emergi...

Word of the day is ‘lickspittle’ (17th century): a person who fawns upon someone in power for personal gain.

Want to make a Writer's Sketchbook in March? 30 Scenes in 30 Days, my first class for Writers.com, begins March 1. Here's a preview...

Hi, just a reminder that when you use Libro.fm for your audiobooks, you support independent bookshops vs. large corporations that drive them out of business. We also pay taxes. And so do indie bookshops.

The deadline is today at 5pm. If you would like to nominate someone for the next Ireland Professor of Poetry fill in this form @poetryireland.bsky.social docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

✒️ Closing date for Bryan MacMahon short story comp is 10th March: writersweek.ie/bryan-macmah...

This week, I get serious about satire, with help from @ginnyhogan.bsky.social, Substack's Serious Literary Author Daniel Piper, and Eugène Ionesco.

One of the greatest Wikipedia openings of all time 🤯

Playing around with AI for an upcoming post on satire. OpenArt can't spell Make America Great Again.

Happy Valentine’s Day, BlueSky! Hope you’re all feeling lots of Electrical Energy today… storyenergies.substack.com/p/open-hearts

Delighted to say that ‘Only One Word for Love’, a short play I’ve co-written with Peter Souter, will air on R4 tomorrow afternoon at 14.15. It stars the wonderful Jessica Raine and Rupert Evans too. We’d all love it if you gave it a listen. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Instead of whatever it is you’re doing right now, would you rather be having in-depth discussions of the craft of fiction, and workshopping your own stories? My ’Story Workshop: Develop Your Short Fiction’ GrubStreet class starts next Tuesday morning—sign up here: grubstreet.org/workshop/dev...

Including Wendy Erskine @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social Five debut female authors to read in 2025 www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/c...

I got a bit carried away with this one. But it's probably not really my fault?

A professor was lecturing to his English class: “In English, a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, a double negative is still a negative. However, there's no language where in a double positive can form a negative.” A voice from the back of the room piped up, “Yeah, right.”

“the strong showing from writers in Ireland makes sense when you hear them talk about the subsidised literary magazines and development agencies that helped them grow” - Róisín O’Donnell, Garrett Carr, Wendy Erskine, John Patrick mcHugh, Catherine Airey www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...