Dublin breakout writer Colin Barrett talks to Julia Brodsky about his angst- and anguish-ridden debut short story collection, Young Skins. Colin Barrett’s debut collection of short stories, Young Skins (Black Cat), hit the Dublin scene in 2013 and earned the 32-year-old Mayo native a score of major accolades, including the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the … [Read more...] about Buried Anguish: An Interview with Colin Barrett
December January 2016 Issue
Review of Books
FICTION The Dunning Man By Kevin Fortuna The characters in The Dunning Man are your friends, your wives and husbands, your acquaintances you see too seldom and when you see them again you remember why you hadn’t seen them in a while. They are both better and worse versions of the people we could be and the people we know. This duality is possible because Kevin Fortuna has an … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Séan Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize Goes to Evelyn Walsh
The winner of the 2015 Séan Ó Faoláin short story prize is Evelyn Walsh, a first-generation Irish American living in Atlanta, Georgia. ‘White Rabbit,’ her winning short story, was selected from over 900 entered in this year’s competition. When judge Danielle McLaughlin recalls reading Walsh’s entry, she says the story “grabbed her from the very beginning and didn’t let go.” … [Read more...] about Séan Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize Goes to Evelyn Walsh
Shelley’s Irish Poem
A long-lost poetical pamphlet by Percy Bysshe Shelley was unveiled at the Bodleian Library in Oxford on November 10th. Shelley wrote the pamphlet, Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things, in 1811 to protest Britain’s involvement in the Napoleonic war and, in particular, the jailing of Irish journalist Peter Finnerty, who had been accused of libel after critiquing British … [Read more...] about Shelley’s Irish Poem
Literarian Award for James Patterson
Novelist James Patterson, who grew up in a large, working-class Irish family in the Bronx, won the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award, which honors individuals for a lifetime of achievement in expanding the audience for books and reading. The prolific and best-selling author was recognized for donating books – more than 250,000 books for children to children in the … [Read more...] about Literarian Award for James Patterson