Attempted Rescues: Notes on Writing

‘We are many selves, and often these selves have rival needs. Some kind of truce must be established, if the work is to get written.’

Essay 2nd November 2022

Normal Sheeple

"We love Ross O'Carroll-Kelly! Should we?" — Kevin Power considers the evolving fates and functions of the Ross O'Caroll Kelly novels, which to date have sold over a million copies.

Criticism 30th October 2021

Acts of Desperation

As an "informal experiment", Kevin Power examines Megan Nolan's debut novel – and its reviews – and reflects on the purpose and meaning of literary criticism.

Criticism 23rd June 2021

Can’t Get You Out Of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World

To sit through Adam Curtis's latest offering is to experience a work of art that is alternately lush, oneiric, austere, startling, thrilling, amusing, persuasive, shocking, glib, beautiful.

Criticism 15th April 2021

Mantel Pieces

To watch Hilary Mantel go to work on the world is one of contemporary literature’s unalloyed pleasures.

Criticism 10th February 2021

MFA v NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction

Criticism Issue 28, Volume 2: Summer 2014

The Enchantress of Florence

Criticism Issue 10, Volume 2: Summer 2008

The Dead Hotel

Fiction Issue 4, Volume 2: Summer 2006

The Spider

1st June 2004

Kevin Power

Kevin Power is the author of two novels, Bad Day in Blackrock (2008) and White City (2021), as well as a book of criticism, The Written World (2022). He is the winner of the 2009 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Irish Times, and many other places. He teaches in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin.