4th of July: Eileen Battersby’s best short stories for Independence Day
From Cheever to Ron Rash, Carver to Eudora Welty, O’Connor to Richard Ford, some of the finest American writing is to be found in the short form
Harper Lee obituary: ‘Mockingbird’ author remained an enigma
After success of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee retreated from public view
Stephen Rea: ‘I can’t imagine teams of loyalists rolling up to watch it’
Stephen Rea stars as a paranoid loyalist in ‘Cyprus Avenue’ at the Abbey
Lucinda Williams: ‘My stuff is so much more than country’
Recognition came late for the Americana musician, but when the accolades came they were big ones: Grammys and having a strand of marijuana named after her
Edna O’Brien: ‘I was lonely, cut off from the dance of life’
The controversial author’s latest novel sees a woman fall for an outsider with a dark past
Redemption song: what’s eating Tommy Lee Jones?
The actor and director has been in fiery form of late. His latest film, a feminist take on the high plains yarn, stars Hilary Swank as a brave frontierswoman. But don’t dare call it a western
Colin Barrett wins Rooney Prize for ‘Young Skins’ short story collection
‘A shimmering debut’ from a ‘dazzling writer’
Flannery O’Connor was ‘possibly the most theologically alert writer of the 20th century’
Opinion: She felt a strong solidarity and compassion for searching unbelievers
Brought to Book: Joseph O’Connor on why reading is a more creative act than writing
‘If there is a Hell being prepared for me, it will be a dinner party. But I’d like to be in a bar, late at night in New York, with Colm Toibin, Patti Smith, Dickens, St John of the Cross, Toni Morrison, Keats and Emily Bronte, with her brother Branwell leading the singsong while arm-wrestling’
Rural stories of isolation and dark humour
Growing up in Co Mayo helped Colin Barrett shape wild visual narratives written in local voices
Ron Rash: Smoky Mountain darkness: ‘There’s that physical sense of not getting enough light’
The Appalachian writer Ron Rash brings his dark southern tales to the Kilkenny Arts Festival
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