Happy Halloween! Here's a spooky war time anti-enlistment poster to mark the day.

A bit of news: This is the lovely front cover of the book I've written about my time as producer of Father Ted. It's affectionate & anecdotal and, yes, that's me on the front, going through Dermot's picnic lines with him... (Chris the Sheep is bottom R) It's out on February 20th

My first The Bookseller fiction preview is out today! and my book of the month is the mighty, funny, huge-hearted triumph that is The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr Picador Books 🌊

A heads’ up! Next Friday 8th on BBC Radio 4’s Short Works series is a brilliant short story by Riley Johnston @RileyWords, the West Belfast writer you didn’t know you needed in your life. It’s read by Tara Lynne O’ Neill. You’ll be able to listen live at 3.45pm or at this link

My essay on Irish Climate Fiction in The Irish Times yesterday. ‘We are living through the sixth extinction’: How contemporary Irish writers are pointedly addressing the climate crisis ⁦⁦Caoilinn Hughes⁩ ⁦UMass English⁩ ⁦UMass Amherst HFA⁩ irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

This is wonderful news! Congratulations Suad Aldarra, winner of the 2024 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her incredible book I Don’t Want to Talk About Home is published by Penguin Books Ireland. We loved meeting Suad Aldarra - سعاد and her family at WCLF2022 irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

Wow, what an impressive short list! Congratulations to all the poets and to the judges for such a terrific line-up. They're all winners of course, but we're excited to find out which one will be awarded the inaugural PEN Heaney prize on 2nd December - registration details below.

#EUNIC #Ireland Join us for the next European Book Club with French-Algerian Author Xavier Le Clerc at Alliance Française Dublin about his critically acclaimed third novel « A MAN WITH NO TITLE » published by Saqi Books Register👉 tinyurl.com/ycxsdctu #NewRelease #Immigration #LGBTQVoices

Almost 150 books about Northern Ireland/Ireland or set in Northern Ireland. Lots of well known authors here including Belfast Child - John Chambers, Máiría Cahill, Aaron Edwards and @martindoyleIT FREE UK tracked delivery when you spend £25 or more. belfastbooks.co.uk/collections/to…

Submissions to this year's Moth Poetry Prize – one of the world's biggest prizes for a single poem – are now open. There's €11,000 up for grabs if your poem catches the eye of this year's judge, Fiona Benson! Closing 31 December. 🌟 bit.ly/mothpoetry24

Safe House is stunning. Like a concept album brought to life. It’s running for another week so if you can, go see it. Kate Gilmore is superb and the words and compositions and vision of Enda Walsh and Anna Mullarkey are flawless. abbeytheatre.ie/whats-on/safe-… abbeytheatre.ie/whats-on/safe-…

Vona Groarke wins 2024 Michel Déon Prize for her immense book "The Hereafter" - It is one of the family archive/memoirs I wrote about in this article about unlocking family stories: Secrets and lies: memoirs that unlock Ireland’s past irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

In today’s beaut The Irish Times Mag, Sharon Horgan on life, loss and Bad Sisters; Paul Howard’s amazing new puppies; travel to Bangkok and a ‘God Pod’ in Ireland; food, fashion and great columns from John Boyne Books SeánMoncrieff and more. 🗞️🏃‍♀️🔥

All Bets Are Off | Joseph O’Neill | The New York Review of Books - “The Democrats must do everything in their power and influence to oppose, slow down, and attach political costs to the Trump agenda.” nybooks.com/online/2024/11…

Martinmas: saints, spiders’ webs, pagan pasts and prophylactics. November 11th is St Martin’s Day, sometimes known as Old Halloween, when your goose is traditionally cooked, writes Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire irishtimes.com/culture/herita…

An article I co-wrote on the life and work of Rachel Cusk is published in Irish Times Books today. Written with Roberta Garrett, it's extracted from our Cusk book published by Bloomsbury Literary Studies & Creative Writing. Thanks to Martin Doyle for publishing! irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

‘Small, strange, beautiful’ Orbital by Samantha Harvey wins 2024 Booker Prize. ‘A book about a wounded world’ set on International Space Station is one of the shortest to win £50,000 award irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

The ⁦Irish Times Books⁩ review of this year’s Booker Prize winner. Nathan Dunne on Orbital by Samantha Harvey: A sober meditation on climate catastrophe and existence. “not only a timely meditation but an essential one. Her best novel to date” irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

Johnny Dugan RIP. Spiritual inspiration after a nasty review drove me to write one of my best songs Rite & Reason: Melody and lyrics come to the musician in mysterious ways. And sometimes the humble pie of criticism can fuel great artistic triumph irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/0…

Reading through the many tributes to Poet Michael Longley in The Irish Times Martin Doyle an inescapable respect for him shines through. Miriam O'Callaghan Tom David Blevins Ted Smyth global_home_ireland Tara Mills William Crawley Colin Davidson Deric Henderson John Campbell