Arts Council announces longlist for Irish laureate awardEligible writers include Anne Enright, Roddy Doyle, Donal Ryan and Eimear McBrideMon Oct 20 2014 - 09:36
Don’t you know it’s different for girls?: Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys BoysReview: This is not just a punk journal: it’s a story of femaleness, of feminism and of a fascinating life, which shows Albertine to be a memoirist of great skill and witSat Oct 11 2014 - 01:00
Review: A Girl is a Half-Formed ThingTo adapt Eimear McBride’s unconventional book can’t have been easy, but they’ve pulled it offWed Oct 01 2014 - 17:07
Who should become the first Laureate for Irish Fiction?Eimear McBride, Jennifer Johnston and Kevin Barry are some of the names that have been suggested in response to the Arts Council’s call for nominees for its new three-year, €150,000 role. The judges will announce their decision in JanuarySat Sept 13 2014 - 01:00
Mash and grabThe eclectic mix you’ll hear at Kaleidoscope music nights, at Odessa in Dublin – everything from solo accordionists to saxophone quartets and baroque music – has won the attention of a growing audience of fansSat Aug 30 2014 - 01:00
Live review: Kate BushKate Bush’s live show is an arresting act of theatrical imagination and nerve – well, what else did you expect?Thu Aug 28 2014 - 12:58
Caitlin Moran’s rebel yell: How to Build a GirlReview: The journalist’s semi-autobiographical novel brilliantly captures the complexities of teenage lifeSat Aug 16 2014 - 01:00
Will Arnett: back in the saddleThe ‘Arrested Development’ star is about to hit Netflix as the hard-drinking washed-up actor BoJack HorsemanSat Aug 16 2014 - 01:00
The final word: an agent can get your book over the lineHow to Write a Book: In the conclusion to our 12-part series, agents give advice about what they look for in a book and how to attract a publisher. An agent is not the sole route into publishing, but the experience of a good one can be pivotalMon Aug 04 2014 - 01:00
Greg Baxter’s traumatic novel: ‘It caused real health problems’When writing his latest book, Munich Airport, Baxter put everything he had into it. The journey into a horrible death, scattered family and a search for meaning took its tollTue Jul 29 2014 - 01:00
Kill your darlings: the importance of editingNo editor has time to look at a novel twice. Leading editors offer advice to help writers make the most of their one shotMon Jul 28 2014 - 01:00
Mind your language, it’s the gateway to your storyJessie Burton, Eimear McBride and John Kelly on the importance of style and linguistic vitality in your workMon Jul 21 2014 - 01:00
Never let research get in the way of a good storyAuthors Joseph O’Connor, Jo Baker, Niamh Boyce and Justin Cartwright on the importance and pitfalls of researchMon Jul 14 2014 - 01:00
Tone control: ‘Give yourself permission to fail’John Banville, Rachel Kushner and Peter Murphy share their wisdom on tone, voice and point of viewMon Jul 07 2014 - 01:00
Review: The PriceThis isn’t Arthur Miller’s finest work, but this Gate production doesn’t leave the audience short changedThu Jul 03 2014 - 17:37
Know your place: how to get perspective on a book’s settingWilly Vlautin, Catherine O’Flynn and Paul Lynch discuss the importance of a novel’s settingMon Jun 30 2014 - 01:00
Funny and philosophical: Dept of SpeculationJenny Offill’s brilliant, risk-taking novel portrays the conflict between routine and obligation pitched against all the other things we’d rather be doingSat Jun 28 2014 - 01:00
Review: AristocratsHow does Brian Friel’s 1979 play about a Troubles-era dysfunctional family hold up?Wed Jun 25 2014 - 16:10
Something to build on: good structure can give a story breathing spaceDeciding on a shape for your book can give you confidence and freedomMon Jun 23 2014 - 01:00
Michael Cunningham’s altered states of realityIn his new novel, the author of The Hours set out to avoid the tropes of fictional drug-taking. He talks about how Aids created new gay families, the power of three, and why he loves Joyce’s The DeadThu Jun 19 2014 - 00:05
Book talk: ‘Good dialogue doesn’t necessarily mean accurate dialogue’George Saunders, Paul Murray and Irvine Welsh on dialogueMon Jun 16 2014 - 01:00
The plot thickens: no spoilersTightly wound or free-flowing? Well charted or twists and turns? Jojo Moyes, Sam Lipsyte, John Connolly, Lia Mills and Tana French on plotting your bookMon Jun 09 2014 - 01:00
The Miss World who gave a voice to rape victimsThe rape of Linor Abargil propelled her on a quest for justice, culminating in the documentary ‘Brave Miss World’Fri Jun 06 2014 - 01:00
Jimmy McGovern: ‘We should be in a golden age of drama but we’re not’Ahead of an appearance at the Galway Film Centre, Jimmy McGovern, writer of TV dramas Cracker, Hillsborough and Sunday, is frank about being a ‘troublesome leftie’, meeting Martin McGuinness and bad writingThu Jun 05 2014 - 16:30
Jail time: a prison show that doesn’t feel like punishmentNetflix women’s prison drama ‘Orange Is the New Black’, a mould-shattering show that is as uncompromising as it is funny, is back with a second seriesTue Jun 03 2014 - 01:00
Character building: how to write believable peopleIf you doubt your characters, your readers will doubt them too, so it is important to understand characters’ motivation and make their behaviour and speech convincingMon Jun 02 2014 - 01:00
Don’t shoehorn yourself into the wrong form of writingNuala Ní Chonchúir, Ron Rash and Deborah Levy all feel it is important for beginners to try out different forms – poems, novels, short stories, plays – to see what suits them and what excites themMon May 26 2014 - 01:00
A good place to start: how to find the idea that can drive a novelIrish authors tell us how and where they find inspiration for an idea strong enough to sustain a book, and how they go about turning that into an extended narrativeMon May 19 2014 - 01:00
On the Vagenda: a satire of women’s mags turns into something biggerBloggers Holly Baxter and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett didn’t intend to get involved in the fourth wave of feminism, but two years after launching Vagenda, they are on a missionMon May 19 2014 - 01:00
Would you like to write a book?Over the next 12 weeks we’ll be getting the help of successful authors to explain everything would-be writers need to know. This is the first step to your debut novelSat May 17 2014 - 01:00
Tale with potential loses in its tellingOona Frawley’s debut novel, Flight, about a Zimbabwean woman who has just arrived in Ireland, and the elderly couple she cares for, is the first book from Tramp PressSat May 03 2014 - 01:00
Poison and intrigue in past and present ChinaWhen Yiyun Li left China, at the age of 24, she couldn’t speak English. Now, nearly two decades later, she is recognised as one of its most perceptive contemporary writersSat Apr 12 2014 - 01:00
Ruby Wax: ‘I love piecing people together like a Rubik’s cube’She used to be that mouthy comedian on TV. Now Ruby Wax is a mental-health advocate with a stage show about sanity in a mad worldSat Apr 12 2014 - 01:00
Paul Auster: a miscellany of the mindAutobiographical work feels like a grab bag of ephemera or an afterthought scrapbookSat Apr 05 2014 - 01:00
Books that define IrelandCan our country be summed up by one book? We ask some experts to nominate candidatesSat Mar 29 2014 - 01:00
Super sad, super true, super funny storiesChekhov meets Borat? Woody Allen when he was funny? Author Gary Shteyngart’s blackly humorous vision is all his ownFri Mar 21 2014 - 01:00
Hairy tale: a chimp joins the nuclear familyKaren Joy Fowler’s new novel is about a family with three kids, once of which, Fern, happens to be a chimpanzeeMon Mar 10 2014 - 01:00
Making this the year of reading womenAn online campaign wants to get readers to seek out women authors, whether new, overlooked or forgottenSat Mar 08 2014 - 01:00
Hanif Kureishi: ‘I’d like to be more difficult’Writing courses are a waste of time, writers need to be more economical, and disturbing books are a triumph – the British author is in typically combative formThu Mar 06 2014 - 01:00
Choice Music Album of the Year: who’s got their eye on the prize?Sinéad Gleeson checks the odds on the nominees for the 2014 Choice Music PrizeFri Feb 21 2014 - 00:00
Rebecca Storm: ‘I don’t know if I’d be able to start a career as a singer now’The singer reveals how she got the ‘Blood Brothers’ gig 30 years ago, and why she’s no fan of TV talent showsMon Feb 03 2014 - 01:00
‘This is a novel about how to be a good man’What happens when a champion athlete fails? The writer Christos Tsiolkas, author of ‘The Slap’ and, now, ‘Barracuda’, has some intriguing ideasSat Feb 01 2014 - 01:00
The best books you have never readThe ‘best of’ lists tend to narrow our reading habits – so what lost classics might have escaped readers’ attention?Mon Dec 16 2013 - 01:00
Elizabeth Gilbert: Finding fertile ground after ‘Eat Pray Love’Elizabeth Gilbert is infinitely proud of her bestselling memoir – but she says that her new novel, ‘The Signature of All Things’, is her best work yetSat Nov 16 2013 - 01:00
Rural stories of isolation and dark humourGrowing up in Co Mayo helped Colin Barrett shape wild visual narratives written in local voicesSat Nov 02 2013 - 01:00
Standing ovation for Elizabeth Gilbert in Dublin‘Eat, Pray, Love’ author says writers ‘forget how privileged they are’ at public talkThu Oct 24 2013 - 12:04
Oscars lite? Surprises on Emmy nightWise-cracking host Neil Patrick Harris’s tap-dancing and arch quips felt familiar, but the roster of winners on the night raised some eyebrowsTue Sept 24 2013 - 01:00
The world is your author: the Man Booker Prize broadens its reachNow the award is open to all English-language writers, will the big names inherit the literary earth?Sat Sept 21 2013 - 01:00
