While erudite and illuminating, the Irish University Review hasn't exactly blazed up the bestseller lists of late. Editor Anthony Roche of UCD's English department hopes to acquire a wider audience through dedicating an entire volume to contemporary Irish fiction. Thus, we find him at the publication's launch at Belfield on Wednesday enthusing over its meaty ponderings on authors such as Roddy Doyle, Pat McCabe and John Banville. One of those laid beneath the microscope, writer Mary O'Donnell, reveals she is limbering up a follow-up to last year's acclaimed The Elysium Testament. With no formal title yet (and she's not giving away the working title, thank you very much), the tale takes 1970s inner-city Dublin as its backdrop and promises to overflow with the usual grit and urban angst. Another attendee, poet/academic Gerald Dawe tells of the launch at Stormont last week of a new essays collection, Strong Dogs and Dark Days. An exploration of Northern Ireland's cultural rebirth, the book was launched by Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine. British scholars James Murphy and Andrew Hamilton trundle in.