‘He knows his brother is driving. The two of them are in their mother’s car and his brother is next to him. He rests his head against the passenger window and closes his eyes. There are bumps in the road. His head bangs against the window but there is no pain.’
Grahame Williams Fiction 9th April 2025
“The children step forward one by one, and say, ‘I’m special because…’ and one by one they fill in why with brave, loud voices. They’re too young to hide who they are. The people watching them know them better than they’ll ever know themselves.”
Seán Farrell Fiction 6th March 2025
‘From inside this hell, in this dazed state of terror, I write to you about my adventure yesterday, offering a testimony of defeat from a man who longs for a hot bath like the ones he used to take before the war.’
Yousri Alghoul Fiction 7th January 2025
‘[N]one of us likes to think we live and have our days in a time more stupid than others we might have lived in. All previous ages were the dark ages, we like to believe, and we are the new and enlightened ones.’
Anne Haverty Essay 28th December 2024
For this month’s story, Nuala O’Connor takes inspiration from Elizabeth Bowen’s 1925 short story, ‘The Parrot’.
Nuala O’Connor Fiction 8th November 2024
‘What mattered most were the words on the page, and his precise, enthusiastic feedback when he liked those words was worth its weight in gold to the scores of writers whom he fostered.’
Anthony Glavin Essay 15th October 2024
This month’s story is co-authored by Eley Williams and Nell Stevens. It’s from Duets, a new anthology of co-authored stories, published this month by Scratch Books.
Eley Williams and Nell Stevens Fiction 3rd October 2024
A new story by Lucy Sweeney Byrne from her second collection of stories, Let’s Dance, which will be published next month by Banshee Press.
Lucy Sweeney Byrne Fiction 11th September 2024
'As she flew through the sky in the white clouds, Fatma agonised over the expectations placed on her. She thought about all the cars she was expected to bring back to her village, and the promises she had made to find people jobs – as if she could create opportunities in Bahari!'
Dennis Shonko Fiction 6th August 2024
‘I have tried everything. It is no use. I can write multiple paragraphs in advance, perfectly pleasant paragraphs. Pleasant and mild and safe is all my brain is interested in when I try to write something in good time.‘
Victoria Kennefick Essay 1st August 2024
A new short story from Wendy Erskine, written in 48 hours as part of our Great Big Giant Short Story Experiment.
Wendy Erskine Fiction 4th July 2024
‘A year into writing a second draft, I catch the first unsettling drift of unease, like something unpleasant and indefinable under the floorboards.’
Marianne Lee Essay 27th June 2024
‘Normally I hate swimming in the ocean, everything about it scares me deeply; but after a few drinks I dive in fearlessly, with abandon and hope.’
Alena Lodkina Fiction 5th June 2024
‘There’s nothing to compare to that satisfaction for a reader: reading as assent, when words close on their matter with such precision, such clean truth. Only if you’ve tried to write can you know how difficult it is to achieve that transparency and wholeness.’
Tessa Hadley Essay 24th May 2024
‘At the end of the corridor, through a door, Sylvester emerged into a games room. A skittles alley games room. It was a long room, whose centre was two brightly polished skittles alleys, and the boy. For there was a boy. There was.’
Jacob Parker Fiction 5th April 2024
‘Before I became a writer, I had already failed quite a lot. I like to think it was good practice.’
Declan Meade Essay 13th March 2024
‘There’s just something about the way you are together. It’s a quiet sort of thing, but I’d say it works, doesn’t it?’
Rebecca Ivory Fiction 5th March 2024
‘After a while he forgot he was dancing with his pen pal’s mother and he believed she forgot that he was the soft pouchy boy her daughter had brought home. That was the joy of it. They forgot themselves.‘
Mary Morrissy Fiction 7th February 2024
The text of our 2023 lecture, which was delivered by short-story writer and novelist, Evelyn Conlon.
Evelyn Conlon Essay 26th January 2024
So Gelon says to me, ‘Let’s go down and feed the Athenians. The weather’s perfect for feeding Athenians.’
Ferdia Lennon Fiction 10th January 2024
A chance to look back on our essay series reflecting on the pains and pleasures of writing and publishing – with a new Afterword by Series Editor, Olivia Fitzsimons.
The Stinging Fly Essay 13th December 2023
‘They may not realise it, but the positive impact queer people in progressive countries have on queer people across the world cannot be overstated. For those of us who live in countries where it is dangerous to express our identities, this connection means everything.’
‘Words slip on each other, he had thought. We get out from under what we know, we fail to get out from what we think. We never discover what thinking is.’
David Hayden Fiction 15th November 2023
‘When I say I am lonely, my friends tell me, “At least you have your book,” as if the publicity stands in for a partner.’
Sheena Patel Essay 9th November 2023
A story by Maeve Brennan to mark her 30th anniversary: ‘All that night, she lay awake in a panic, thinking of ways to break with him. It would be heartless to tell him straight out that she had no use for him.’
Maeve Brennan Fiction 1st November 2023
‘They go around the block, dancing in their seats, screaming the lyrics at the bewildered Chris, and she finds herself wishing that they’ll never get there—that they could keep driving around and around like this forever.’
Lisa Owens Fiction 11th October 2023
‘I watch myself and I know what I’m thinking. I watch myself and I also know what I’m not thinking. I watch myself and I know I’m thinking, a week ago we were together in that little cottage on the farm in Wales, and now she’s in A&E in the hospital down the road and I’m sitting here waiting for her laundry to finish.’
Colm O’Shea Fiction 13th September 2023
‘Thinking about friendship now, I think about the ways in which we are able to do things with others that we could never do on our own. The way that friends drag unknown parts out of our bodies, allowing us to be braver than we can feel by ourselves.’
Thomas Morris Essay 6th September 2023
‘I was not an open-minded person when I first began to publish books. Writers befriended and accepted me with all my fundamentalist baggage. They gave me the time and space to change. They did not judge me.’
Jan Carson Essay 16th August 2023
‘When I developed my illness and could no longer work, he took pity on me and gave me a room and an allowance.’
Camilla Grudova Fiction 9th August 2023
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