"They can transport you from the darkest places..." We loved speaking with Pádhraic Quinn after his win at this year's awards. For his short story "All The Birch Trees Were Waving", he took the award for New Irish Writing Best Short Story, in association with the @independent.ie.

Over the moon to win New Irish Writing Best Short Story at the 2025 Irish Book Awards. A huge thank you to Ciaran Carty, Eoin McNamee, @independent.ie & @irishbookawards.bsky.social

Delighted to win New Irish Writing Best Short Story at the 2025 Irish Book Awards. A huge thank you to Ciaran Carty, Eoin McNamee & @irishbookawards.bsky.social

The WINNER of the 2025 New Irish Writing Best Short Story, in association with the Irish Independent is... "All The Birch Trees Were Waving", Pádhraic Quinn #APIBA #StoriesMakeUs

Delighted to see my short story 'all the birch trees were waving' in today's Irish Independent as the December feature of New Irish Writing. Big thank you to Ciaran Carty and to @irishindependent.bsky.social #fiction #books #shortstories m.independent.ie/entertainmen...

See more here - www.shiromasuyama.net/borderline

We're launching Issue 10 at @molimuseum.bsky.social First Fridays on the eve of 5 December 🎺 Featuring an editorial conversation, and readings from seven amazing contributors 🔥 Time tbc, and registration will open soon 👀

Honoured and thrilled to make the shortlist for The New Irish Writing Best Short Story Award at the 2025 @irishbookawards.bsky.social

Noel Dorr: ‘To understand the Troubles, you must go back much further’

Tonight! The Irish Studies@LivUni presents the 2025 Seamus Heaney Lecture on the topic: ‘Politics and the Poet' by Sir Simon Schama The evening will open with a reading of Seamus Heaney poems by Liverpool-born actor Leanne Best Book your free spot👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-2025-s...

Honoured and thrilled to make the shortlist for The New Irish Writing Best Short Story Award at the 2025 @irishbookawards.bsky.social

Just a few hours to go! This evening, we’re announcing the shortlists for the 2025 An Post Irish Book Awards. Who do you want to see on the shortlists? #APIBA #StoriesMakeUs

Colm Tóibín on The Poems of Seamus Heaney: For those familiar with Heaney’s work, the new poems will keep them going well beyond Christmas. But soon, the core of the book will matter more – the 12 volumes Heaney published in his lifetime placed in sequence. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

New blog post: an up-to-date list of Irish literary journals anneolearyblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/05/i...

Banshee Press is open for book submissions from 1-15 October! 📚 Guidelines are at the link below. We look forward to reading your work! bansheepress.org/read/banshee...

Scotland is to protect a further 60,000 km² of sea from bottom trawling 👏 When, if ever, will we see any action in Ireland? oceanographicmagazine.com/news/scottis...

People’s natural skills have started to atrophy due to technology. I get asked, "What do you do when you’re out of the house without a mobile phone and you get lost?" Well, I don’t get lost. As long as you’ve got a tongue in your head, you’ll find your way. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

First time in Private Eye. I just wish it was for something a bit more positive.

“An unintended effect of the dominant state model is to obscure an understanding of mid-twentieth century Irish migrants’ lives.” Máirtín Mac an Ghaill @birminghamnewman.bsky.social on anti-Irish racism, black-white dualisms and the limits of British sociology. #OpenAccess buff.ly/PVU07hR

Tomorrow evening, we are launching Old Irish: A Beginner’s Guide. Authored by Dr Rebecca Shercliff this volume offers a step‑by‑step introduction to the language and literature of medieval Ireland and is written with absolute beginners in mind. ‪@department-asnc.bsky.social‬

A great piece examining how creative industries reward privilege over talent and originality. "Younger adults from working-class backgrounds are 4 times less likely to work in creative industries compared to their middle-class peers."

Congratulations to Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, the new Laureate for Irish Fiction www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

In case you miss it amongst the news, we're delighted that @saraband-books.bsky.social will be continuing the Inklings series and they open for submissions in August! The process is very similar to our own but check out the guidelines and get your pitches ready. saraband.net/2025/07/11/i...

I’m hiring a reporter for London Centric, looking for someone smart who can use a phone, knock on doors and wants to cause trouble. Don’t care if you’ve got qualifications, just want evidence of caring about news. Initial six month contract, pay above national rates. www.londoncentric.media/p/jobs

So happy to announce that I am one of The London Library's Emerging Writers for 2025/26. Humbled and inspired by the chance to write where Dickens, Darwin, Kubrick and Woolf found inspiration. www.londonlibrary.co.uk/the-london-l...

On 11 June I'm giving a talk at The Fumbally Café in Dublin 8 to mark the launch of my new book, Ireland in Iceland: Gaelic Remnants in a Nordic Land. I'll be selling and signing this book, as well as all my previous ones. www.eventbrite.ie/e/ireland-in...

Bloomsday on the roof in Barcelona a few years ago. #bloomsday

Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a debate about the kinds of books our children are given to read. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j....

It’s publication day for The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories. It took 39 authors 100 years to write, and me about 4 years to compile and translate, with the help of 11 other translators. It aims to show the variety and brilliance of modern Polish literature.

Great to see progress on Free School Meals; a vital step in tackling child poverty. But we can’t stop here. It’s time for government to make auto-enrolment trending news too. No child should miss out because of red tape. #FreeSchoolMeals www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We're open for submissions! We'll be welcoming work in all forms, in English and Irish, for Issue 13 until 30 June ✨️ Full submissions guidelines at channelmag.org/submissions/

For many years, I've wanted to track down Jeremy Beadle's library, legendary in certain quarters. I did so for @thefence.bsky.social for their brilliant 23rd issue (the significance of the number will not be lost on Ken Campbell fans) www.the-fence.com/the-beadlean... @forteantimes.bsky.social

The best recent translated fiction – review roundup www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Here’s my latest mini 🧵 as part of my ongoing 2025 Reading 🧵: The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson.

Polish those manuscripts! We're delighted to be opening our submissions window for the whole month of June. Send us your best literary fiction, non-fiction, history, memoir, essays or biography. For full guidelines on how to apply, go to www.lilliputpress.ie

Lower speed limits save lives. Compelling evidence from Transport for London. tfl.gov.uk/info-for/med...

Academia in 2025: For weeks I’ve been working through botched copy-edits of my monograph, outsourced by the publisher to a company I’d never heard of, until it finally dawned on me the terrible job might be AI. A quick search confirmed the company recently launched new AI software, which now means..

Congratulations to @gphibbett.bsky.social‬ on their latest triumph: High Jump as Icarus Story has been shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for a First Collection! We're so proud of the incredible impact that this book has made ✨ www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seam...

Trying to get my head round how this could make it to print. Many warning signs for all of us

RIP Paul Durcan - a really incredible poet, simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreaking

Doesn't this look grand. BEAST by @luluallison.bsky.social Rabbit's, Demons & Desires. Publishing 31st July. @thebookseller.com @thetimes.com

Submissions for the Stinging Fly Climate Crisis issue (Winter 2025-26 issue) is closing in less than 7 hours⏰ Read the submission call: stingingfly.org/news/submiss...

Keir Starmer is my MP. This is the letter I wrote to him today. Subject: Island of Strangers? Mr Starmer, Let me tell you about this ‘stranger’.

London through the glass. #london #photography

When the review hovers in the glow of the music.

Poets and other writers. If you can: Please read your stuff at live events Please record yourself reading The human voice, with its mix of need, authority, hesitation & doubt, can’t be replaced by AI. AI is mere aggregation. It has no need, no wish to communicate. It’s scarcely a toy. It’s nothing

Tate Modern.

We’re thrilled to announce our guest judges for Issue 4 of The Four Faced Liar! Guest Judges: Mícheál McCann — Poetry Tim MacGabhann — Creative non-fiction Roisín O'Donnell — Short story Cathy Sweeney— Flash fiction

My very first London event! Do come along 🙇🏻‍♀️