‘Of course I’m bloody anxious, having grown up in a place that told me I wasn’t good enough’
The South African-born author on her murderous new book The Lover, moving to the west of Ireland, and the advice that has stuck with her for decades
Women writers
The Help author Kathryn Stockett on being fired by her publisher and feeling like a failure
Midway through writing The Calamity Club, her ‘difficult second novel’, the bestselling Mississippi author was fired by publisher. In retrospect, she says, it was a blessing
Dublin Literary Award 2026: Ali Smith wins €100,000 prize for Gliff
Novel follows young homeless siblings as they try to survive a bewildering new world
The art of children’s books: ‘The words and pictures are not necessarily telling you the same thing’
Author Patricia Forde and illustrator Paddy Donnelly have formed a special collaboration on The Island of Bees
Doireann Ní Ghríofa: ‘In the past someone like me would have been brought to an asylum’
Author Doireann Ní Ghríofa on her new novel about a derelict mental hospital and how she writes ‘really weird books that are hard to describe’
Sarah Gilmartin: ‘Even before relationships and infidelity, desire is a great driver’
The fiction reviewer turned writer on her new novel, Little Vanities, writing early and often, and novels versus short stories
The Things We Never Say: Elizabeth Strout taps into something very alive in the human psyche
Set just before the 2024 US presidential election, this work is Strout’s most political so far
Frida Slattery as Herself, by Ana Kinsella: It’s easy to see why this debut excited editors
This is an effortless, elegant and impressive debut from a promising young writer
Claire Fuller: I changed career in my 40s. You can make this big shift
The novelist on becoming a writer in her 40s, her interest in ‘feral children’ and new book Hunger and Thirst
When I was 38, a doctor told me my brain was unusually big. It wasn’t a good thing
When life challenges me, I turn to comforting books and cheerful TV
As a writer, I have a horror of upsetting someone I know by crossing a boundary
Kathleen MacMahon: Of all the difficulties I’ve experienced in writing fiction, this has been the most unsettling
Ruth McKee: ‘Pitching a novel about a suicidal middle-aged woman getting drunk on her birthday wasn’t easy’
The writer discusses her debut novel and what she’d like to do to Irish puppy farms
Hungry by Katriona O’Sullivan: Harrowing and uneasy in the same way as therapy
The author reaches heights of vulnerability in her writing, mercifully cushioned by humour
Katriona O’Sullivan: I live in the grip of the fat-girl algorithm
In an extract from her new book Hungry, the bestselling author of Poor explores how class shapes how women see their own bodies
Catholic? Protestant? Communist: An extract from Sinéad Morrissey’s new memoir
An extract from Among Communists: A Memoir by Belfast poet Sinéad Morrissey about growing up red, not orange or green
Rosemary Hennigan: ‘Fiction gives us space to explore life in all its multifarious complexities’
Author’s new novel, The Hotel Guest, is set in the French Alps
I’m in a WhatsApp group with female crime writers. It’s called the Irish Murderesses
Claire Coughlan, author of Among the Ruins, has decided to rebrand her fear around publication as excitement
I’ve been turned down for arts funding several times. There are unwritten rules
Making art is creating something out of nothing, which is expensive in terms of time and brain power
Rituals by Danielle McLaughlin: Working magic with the tiniest details
There are many poignant moments, but the main character’s inner monologue is often scathingly funny
Author Danielle McLaughlin: ‘I’m really interested in whether we are using rituals or they are using us’
Danielle McLaughlin’s new novel is inspired by her friend Siobhán Rea’s ritual of daily drawings
Author Caitríona Lally on cleaning Trinity: US tourists arrive, taking photos and shouting, ‘Look, the janitor!’
To buy time to write a novel, Caitríona Lally worked in the housekeeping department at Trinity College Dublin, where she had once been a student
Mary O’Donnell: ‘I’d happily sign off on a 10% Leaving Cert bonus for English, music and art’
A desire to ‘rip into a subject that has sat like a succubus on me’ inspired writer’s first novel since 2014
Author Emma Donoghue: ‘I grew up very normal, yet had this secret side that I thought everyone would consider foul’
The writer on literary reputation, emigration and ‘the crushing weight of being the only gay in the village’
Tayari Jones: ‘I used to be very suspicious of writers who said the story chose them’
The award-winning US author ‘refused to write historically’, but Kin, her new novel, is set in the 1960s. She explains why
Sarah Crossan: ‘Meeting amazing teenagers was a highlight of being Laureate na nÓg’
Author’s new novel Gone for Good is one of three verse thrillers and is based in the Adirondack mountains
Author Mary Costello: ‘Gaza has disabled me. I think, how could I go into a room and make up stories?’
As her latest novel is published, the acclaimed Irish author has turned her attention to non-fiction, still writing ‘what obsesses, consumes and distresses’ her
Author Henrietta McKervey: ‘I do like a good murder’
Author’s new novel, The Woman in the Water, is inspired by Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca
Irish myths for modern women: ‘I grew up thinking my name brings sorrow to all men’
Banshee is a new collection of stories by contemporary women authors that retell Ireland’s myths and legends through a feminist lens
Colm Tóibín on the writer Mary Lavin: She removed the props by which we might read her women easily
The great short-story writer’s female protagonists often do the opposite of what they intend. Being unmoored by loss affects their every thought
56 Days author Catherine Ryan Howard: ‘The premiere of the Amazon show ‘was just pure joy’
Prior to streaming, the trailer for Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Ryan Howard’s novel 56 Days had more than 78m views. It’s a ‘fever dream’ for her
Edel Coffey: ‘I didn’t touch my book deal money for a year. I was afraid they’d made a mistake’
Now three books in, as she says, the author and journalist spent many years as a ‘shadow artist’, circling the thing she loved
Elly Griffiths: ‘A magic trick is like a crime novel: lots of misdirection before the final reveal’
The author on new book The Killing Time, writing ‘kick-ass older women’, and her fascination with Victorian times
Madeleine Gray: ‘When I was a kid I was a real b**ch to my stepmother. Not because I didn’t like her’
The Australian author on her piercing coming-of-age novel Chosen family, nonbiological family bonds, and teenage queer identity
Madeline Cash: ‘Greater truths are often best articulated through humour. The fool can make real change’
The author on her debut novel Lost Lambs, tech billionaires, and the worst things about London
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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