NEWS FROM THE BLOG

I recently facilitated an eight-hour course in Creative Writing for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Libraries. Most of the participants had never written anything before. Some had, but had reached an impasse and were unable to work their way around it.

Easter has come and gone and it seems as though the winter is determined to hang on until it’s worn us all down to shreds. It’s just as well that this is Dublin’s One City One Book month – it means there are lots of indoor activities to dispel the gloom of grey skies and […]

It’s a beautiful, light-filled morning when I arrive in Asti. I’ve been a guest of the Fuori Luogo Festival once before, when it was held in the tranquil surroundings of San Damiano.

Each April sees the launch of the One City One Book choice for that year.

In the run-up to Saturday’s match against Scotland, and the one against England on St Patrick’s Day: here are the reflections of a reluctant rugby fan.

And then, I returned to Livorno. I had been there once before, after the Pisa Book Festival in 2016, and fell in love with it. I have good friends there, and that always makes a difference.

Right at the beginning of February, I held a weekend course called ‘An Introduction to Creative Writing’ in Verona. More specifically, we were located in a wonderful ‘co-working space’ called Mero and More, in Via Gianbattista Morgagni.

Janus: the two-headed Roman god, who looks to both the future and the past; he who presides over transitions; who symbolises duality and the passage of time.

Gender violence and literature: ‘In Her Shoes’ event, Librerie Universitarie Novoli, Florence, February 9th 2018.

Heathrow Airport, May 1973. I make my way through the crowds, following scribbled notes about Tube stations, where to change lines, which exit to look for. My brother’s instructions are on a now-grubby piece of paper that has been folded many times, tucked away into the pocket of my jeans. I am nineteen. I’m coming […]