❛ One of the things I’ve been doing recently is I’ve gotten interested in chickens. Hen-keeping. I could see how I could easily become a chicken farmer. An interview with poultry enthusiast and poet, Paul Muldoon, originally from Issue 12 🐓 → bit.ly/pastmoths

An after work treat... American painter Zoey Frank's 'Blueberries', from Issue 36 #MothArchives 🫐

❛ Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax... bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do ― to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street. Author Stephen King, born #OTD in 1947. 🎈

A classic, from the #MothArchives, Sarah Tsiang's Forward Prize shortlisted poem, originally from Issue 40. 🍆

Beautiful, award-winning poem featured in @themothmagazine.bsky.social newsletter today. A treat to hear Ann Gray read "My Blue Hen." www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rjO...

Less than two weeks left to enter! You could win a cash prize or a week at The Moth Retreat in rural Ireland – and see your work published in the Irish Times online... We want to hear from you. 🌷 bit.ly/mothnature25

Here's 'Go Player' from Issue 44, by oil painter Jeffrey Chong Wang, who relocated from China to Canada in 1999 – his work reflects the history of Western oil painting techniques, with contemporary themes in Eastern culture. 💚 #MothArchives

It's #SharingSunday again! And already halfway through the month, so let's share our favourite pieces of art that remind us of the month of September. 🎨 Vincent van Gogh, The garden of Saint Paul’s Hospital (‘Leaf-Fall’), 1889

Saturdays are for Swedish flat-pack furniture stores. #MothArchives (from Issue 44) 💙

‘An edition of The Moth is as much a finely weighted collage of text and image as it is a sturdy literary journal of international standing and aspect.’ Adrian Duncan Interviews, poems, art and short stories, this way - a welcome distraction from reaching for your phone... ☎ bit.ly/pastmoths

❛ Good poems are the best teachers. Perhaps they are the only teachers. I would go so far as to say that, if one must make a choice between reading or taking part in a workshop, one should read. Poet Mary Oliver, born #OTD in 1935.

⏳️ THREE WEEKS TO GO! ⌛️ Don't miss out on entering this year's Moth Nature Writing Prize – judged in 2025 by multi-award-winning author and naturalist Mark Cocker. €1,000 up for grabs, plus a trip to the Moth Retreat in beautiful rural Ireland. 🌸 bit.ly/mothnature25

❛This is a story, told the way you say stories should be told: Somebody grew up, fell in love, and spent a winter with her lover... Who expects small things to survive when even the largest get lost? Short story writer Ann Beattie, born #OTD 1947, photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

For #SharingSunday, here's a treat from the Moth Archives – 'In The Depth Of My Gardens, 2016–2017' by Victor Ma, originally from Issue 40. 🌱

❛I think it's very hard for many people to really look at something and not try to put words into it... to really let themselves go with something visual and feel something visual just for the hell of it. Just for the beauty of really looking... Artist Elizabeth Murray, born #OTD in 1940.

‘A gorgeous flea-market of poems and stories and artwork’ — Conor O’Callaghan Mix and match, from just €5 for one issue or €20 for a bundle of 5, including P&P. 🪩 bit.ly/pastmoths

❛ If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making. Poet e.e. cummings, who died #OTD in 1962.

❛ Against windmills / and microwaves, against suede shoes / and season tickets to anything... Today's #ThrowbackTuesday goes out to our 2023 Moth Poetry Prize-winning poem, 'Things I'm Against' by Lance Larsen. Today we're against Tuesdays..

Four weeks left to enter The Moth Nature Writing Prize 2025! You could win a cash prize of up to €1,000 and a week at The Moth Retreat in beautiful rural Ireland, plus there's the chance to see your work published in the Irish Times online... 💐 bit.ly/mothnature

For #StillLifeSunday, Russell Dorey's gorgeous painting, originally from the cover of Issue 2.

❛ We go to poetry, we go to literature in general, to be forwarded within ourselves. Poet Seamus Heaney, who died #OTD in 2013.

As Gaza’s universities crumble under relentless bombardment, its students – separated from campuses, futures and safety – continue to write. A new book of poetry, edited by Professor Jacob Norris and Zahid Pranjol seeks to give voices to the voiceless. darajapress.com/publication/...

My story ‘Small Bad Things’ which came third in @themothmagazine.bsky.social short story prize is published in @irishtimes.com today 🎉 There is a small paywall - (£1 for first month) 👇

If you are tall enough to see over the paywall, my story 'Bee Box' is up on the @irishtimes.com now, after coming second in @themothmagazine.bsky.social The Moth Short Story Prize. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

In case you missed it – yesterday we announced Evie Wyld's winners of The Moth Short Story Prize 2025. Catch Clare Roche's first prize-winning story '(Un)Tethered' as part of The Irish Times' Summer Fiction series – in print and online: bit.ly/untetheredroche

Every issue of The Moth is crammed full with beautiful art, two great interviews, short stories and new poetry on familiar and surprising subjects – in the case of Issue 45, meatballs, neck braces, and conceiving in the Aldi carpark... 🌷bit.ly/pastmoths

❛ I am a completely horizontal author. I can't think unless I'm lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch. Truman Capote, who died #OTD in 1984.

Dive into a new week with this beautiful bit of painting from American artist Tracey Sylvester Harris, originally from Issue 21. 🌊 bit.ly/pastmoths

❛ Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for. Writer Ray Bradbury, born #OTD in 1920.

The Moth Nature Writing Prize - open now - is our annual celebration of the art of nature writing, awarded to unpublished pieces of prose or poetry combining literary merit with a writers' exploration of their relationship with the natural world. 🌾 bit.ly/mothnature25

❛ I haven't left the house today / because there's only one reason / to do that, and I've already got goat cheese. #MothArchive, Issue 35 — Erik Kennedy's 'Another Beautiful Day Indoors' 🐐

Just heard tomorrow is Monday... ⛈️ 'Troubled Mind, 2017' by Jenni Hiltunen from #MothArchives Issue 50

It's #SharingSaturday again! 🎨 Show us your fave 'August' art in the comments – here's Ivon Hitchens' 'August Flowers' to start things off...

❛ I’m obsessed with the concept of the connectedness of life. We are simply the inheritors of 4 billion years of living heritage. – Mark Cocker There's still time to start your Moth Nature Writing Prize entry! 🦋 bit.ly/mothnature25

❛The guy who lived across the river was a shark-catcher. He knew that I really loved them... thought it would be a treat to take me out to pull up the sharks and hit them on the head. An insight into the artist's early work, from our interview with Evie Wyld. 🦈

❛ Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was. Jackson Pollock, who died #OTD in 1956.

From Issue 27 of The Moth, Dominican painter Gustavo Peña's beautiful 'Fallen Angels'. 💐 #MothArchives

❛ Poetry should begin with emotion in the poet, and end with the same emotion in the reader. The poem is simply the instrument of transferance. Poet Philip Larkin, born #OTD in 1922.

'Underscores the power of creative works and their potency in the environmental crisis; to offer attention, compassion, connection, grief and hope.’ – former Moth Nature Writing Prize winner, Anna Selby We want to hear what you have to offer! Closing 30 September. Open now. 🌟 bit.ly/mothnature25

Woof.. what a line up for a little Irish magazine …. 👏

Each issue features two interviews – with the likes of Sally Rooney, Simon Armitage, Evie Wyld, Kamila Shamsie, Gary Shteyngart, Helen Oyeyemi, Colm Toibin, Lionel Shriver, Tom McCarthy and Eimear McBride. Sit down for a chat with some of your creative inspirations... ⚡️ bit.ly/pastmoths

To welcome in the month, we want you to share your favourite poems that remind you of August in the comments. We'll start with a Seamus Heaney classic...

From the archives, popping on our Sunday Best - a painting from Vincent Xeus, originally from the cover of Issue 38. 💎 #MothArchives

❛ He's made it past the painful, awkward stage / and now he's really swimming, heading bobbing / for apples... Take a dip in the cool waters of 'The fish I would like to meet' by Catherine Ayres, originally from Issue 19. #MothArchives 🪼

Hello August! We're now just 8 weeks away from our deadline for this year's Moth Nature Writing Prize. There's still time to get out there and find something to write about... There's €1,000 + a trip to the Moth Retreat up for grabs. Closing 30 September. 🌷bit.ly/mothnature25

❛ The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do. Sculptor Henry Moore, born #OTD in 1898.

❛ As a feminist, I feel sometimes conflicted about writing about situations that are not pleasurable for women, drawing a lot of good things creatively from unpleasant experiences. An excerpt from our interview with writer Joanna Walsh, from Issue 32: bit.ly/pastmoths

❛ There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you. Happy birthday to Beatrix Potter, born #OTD in 1866.

❛ My intention is to present the reader with a pleasant surprise, not an unpleasant one, not a non-surprise. I think this is the way pleasure happens when you are reading poetry. Poet John Ashbery, born #OTD in 1927.

A painting for your Sunday scaries... 🎨 Markus Åkesson (Issue 20)