‘It is hard to think, that’s Kelman’s point, but you have to. Your freedom depends on it. The problem is that when you start to think, which is usually when the bad stuff starts to happen, when you fuck up or you get fucked, and who can say which comes first, you realise that the words you use to think are not your own, they have been shoved down your throat. You have to learn to think for yourself. In your own terms.’
Sean O'Reilly Criticism 23rd February 2023
Sean O'Reilly on the reissue of Thomas Kinsella's ‘Butcher's Dozen’ to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday: “a timely reminder that the past has to be fought for and poetry is not beyond lending a hand.”
Sean O'Reilly Criticism Essay 25th January 2022
How a ‘blockbuster sci-fi contagion plot’ has caused one teacher to question the meaning and value of the traditional writing workshop.
Sean O'Reilly Essay 26th June 2020
Embarrassment, unease, discomfort – these are the building blocks of a new language; the first steps on a path beyond the consoling myths of the everyday.
Sean O'Reilly Essay Issue 39, Volume 2: Winter 2018-19
Sean O'Reilly Fiction Issue 31, Volume 2: Summer 2015 (The London Issue)
Sean O'Reilly Editorial 15th May 2015
Sean O'Reilly Essay 3rd November 2014
Sean O'Reilly Essay 12th June 2014
Sean O'Reilly Criticism Issue 27, Volume 2: Spring 2014
Sean O'Reilly Fiction Issue 26, Volume 2: Winter 2013
Sean O'Reilly Essay 11th April 2012
Sean O'Reilly Fiction Issue 20, Volume 2: Winter 2011 (The New York Issue)
Sean O'Reilly Criticism Issue 15, Volume 2: Spring 2010
Sean O'Reilly Criticism Issue 14, Volume 2: Winter 2009
Sean O'Reilly Criticism Issue 11, Volume 2: Winter 2008-09
Sean O'Reilly Criticism Issue 9, Volume 2: Spring 2008
Sean O'Reilly 1st June 2005