TSF summer school 2026 is now open for applications.

stingingfly.org/summer-school/

Ready to start making summer writing plans? 🌞

Our 2026 Summer School opens for applications on Monday, 23rd March.

More info on our website:

🔗 stingingfly.org/summer-school/

Great to see this from Ali Smith.

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Ah very glad you liked it, Jan.

The Essay - Winterreisen - Stevie by Wendy Erskine - BBC Sounds New short story by Wendy Erskine about a winter journey at Christmas, inspired by Schubert

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
A beautiful new story here from Wendy Erskine.

Coming soon…

Happy to have recently joined the board of Irish PEN and would encourage more writers to become members. Find out more here:

irishpen.com/become-a-mem...

Cork launch of Banshee issue 20 — Banshee Press Celebrate ten years of Banshee at the Cork launch of our speculative fiction-themed 20th issue. Join us at the Staff Common Room in the Quad, UCC , on Thursday 30 October at 6pm to raise a glass ...

Join us next Thursday 30 October in @ucc.ie at 6pm to celebrate the launch of Banshee issue 20! Hear readings from our brilliant contributors and raise a glass to ten years of Banshee 📚

bansheepress.org/events/cork-...

Submissions for issue 21 are open until midnight IST on Friday 31 October ✍️

Winter Papers Launch - Dublin Book Festival Volume 11 of Winter Papers, Ireland’s annual anthology for the arts, is published by Curlew Editions. It offers fiction, non-fiction, photography, visual art, along with craft interviews and in-conver...

WP 11 is almost ready - come say hello to the new volume @dublinbookfest.bsky.social All welcome, free entry, book tickets here:
dublinbookfestival.com/event/winter...

Well that was great fun! Thank you @hodgesfiggis.bsky.social and @declanmeade.bsky.social and everyone in Dublin who made it such a great evening!

Me and Tom from @scratchbooks.bsky.social and @declanmeade.bsky.social will be talking in @hodgesfiggis.bsky.social in Dublin in 24 hours.

Thank you to whomever put my mad book in the middle of the display 😚. Come see us here from 6pm tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd)

Sunday with Steven Rainey - What’s Elon Musk’s Endgame?, Video Nasty, Unstoppable, Maeve Brennan & The Rose Garden - BBC Sounds With Elon Musk’s interest in US and now European politics, what is his endgame?

Interview here towards the end of Sunday’s programme, 1hr 39 mins in, with Angela Bourke - talking to Steven about Maeve Brennan’s life, her work and her legacy.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

This is a promo image for creative writing workshops aimed at LGBTQIA + people and it has a picture of me on it with a rainbow background. All the other information is already in text on it.

Anyone LGBTQIA+ or a migrant to Ireland, Ennis Book Club Festival has a great new project of free creative writing workshops aimed at certain groups- I'll be facilitating these ones and to book just email info@ennisbookclubfestival.com

Editing Ireland: David Marcus - RTÉ Radio 1 This programme dedicated to the rich legacy of David Marcus is led by Paul Delaney and Deirdre Madden, editors of the 2024 book Editing Ireland and its publisher, Declan Meade.

Over the holidays, you may have missed this special programme celebrating the life and work of David Marcus and the recent publication of Editing Ireland @stingingfly.bsky.social - listen back here
www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Looking forward to talking to Claire next week.

Author Edna O’Brien, wearing a pale long-sleeved dress sits on a window sill with her left leg raised.

Two seated women face the camera. Edna O’Brien is on the left, wearing a black dress. Sinéad Gleeson is on the right wearing a green dress.

The great Edna O’Brien would’ve been 94 today. In 2015, I chaired an event with her, and hardly had to ask any questions. She spoke - as she wrote - in perfect paragraphs. Erudite, funny, and one of few writers I ever interviewed to get a standing ovation. Listen: m.soundcloud.com/dlr-soundclo...

Anne Haverty left us with plenty to think about and to savour when she delivered the @stingingfly.bsky.social Annual Lecture in October.
Full text here:
stingingfly.org/2024/12/05/w...

Dozens of tents set up outside Leinster House by asylum seekers who were housed in CityWest during the cold weather but were told no more accommodation would be provided for them.

The men say there were empty beds in CityWest when they were told to leave and have been protesting at the Dáil since

⏰Submission Deadline Alert⏰

There's one week left to apply to the 2025 poetry workshop.

This brand new workshop will help poets developing a project or manuscript over a four-month period (Jan-May 2025).

Deadline: 5pm Monday 9th December.

More info: stingingfly.org/poetry-works...

Three Maeve Brennan reissues in 12 months is a gift…

📗 The Long-Winded Lady, essays (Peninsula Press, foreword by me)

📗 The Rose Garden, short stories (The Stinging Fly, foreword by Angela Bourke, MB’s biographer)

📗 The Visitor, novella, (Peninsula Press, Jan 2025, foreword by Lynne Tillman)