I’m a Brexit-era ‘citizen of nowhere’, trying to settle in IrelandIf I have a family tradition, it’s moving, being an outsider, starting againMon Nov 18 2024 - 06:00
I was taught to avoid the ‘trap’ of cooking but I take pleasure in domestic lifeI long for ways of thinking and writing and cooking that admit in the most serious and simple way, food is loveMon Nov 11 2024 - 06:00
I had my kids in my mid-20s, which was unheard of among women of my class and generationI’m making friends who are much younger and much older than me, because many women of my age are still ferociously juggling work and childcare and not free for coffee or a filmMon Nov 04 2024 - 06:00
Men are deemed more masculine for taking up more space, women more feminine for taking up lessBinary categories hurt everyone, especially those whose natures or physiques are non-compliantMon Oct 28 2024 - 06:00
Only mothers who find recognition in professional life seem to be guilty of ‘having it all’ Society considers mums suspected of working by choice to be playing a zero-sum game where career ambition comes at the cost of motherly loveMon Oct 21 2024 - 06:00
Some say you’re not a writer if you’re not willing to sacrifice your family to your art. Not meSarah Moss: Writers have the same responsibilities to family, friends and community as everyone elseMon Oct 14 2024 - 06:00
Being English in Ireland, I often sense I’m being too frankAn English person in Ireland speaks with eight centuries of history gesticulating over her shoulderMon Oct 07 2024 - 06:00
I’m a university professor but I’ve never been greatly invested in my own kids’ gradesIt’s hard to see how training students to concentrate on their own fear of inadequacy and desire to beat their neighbour is likely to open paths out of the death spiral of climate change and capitalism.Mon Sept 30 2024 - 06:00
It was only after moving to Ireland from England that I had deep conversations about emigrationIt was only after moving to Ireland that I had deep conversations about emigration with Irish friends who’d moved to EnglandMon Sept 23 2024 - 06:00
As a teenage girl in the 1990s there was a level of harassment that I hope is unthinkable nowI’m a parent, tolerating worry is in the job description, and so is the gradual handover of physical safety from parent to childMon Sept 16 2024 - 06:00
My friend’s effortless joyful incompetence sets an example that’s difficult to matchIt’s an interesting challenge to start something without the aim of mastering itSat Sept 07 2024 - 06:00
I’m not against HRT but are we once again medicating women for being angry?It is horribly regressive to say that all women lose their minds in midlife. Did you know that men have hormones too?Sat Aug 31 2024 - 06:00
Friends said that I’d ‘let’ my hair go grey. That’s not what happenedIt’s interesting to think about the difference between ‘letting go’ and ‘letting yourself go’Sat Aug 24 2024 - 06:00
Changing your mind is more interesting and more useful than changing your bodyFennel, yellow and yoga: Liking food or colours or activities I once disliked reminds me that preferences aren’t fixedSat Aug 17 2024 - 06:00
Sarah Moss: I do the same thing and expect different resultsTime continues to pass, the world of next time is not the same as the world of last time for anything we doSat Aug 10 2024 - 06:00
If you’ve read the literary canon, you know how to think like a bourgeois white manPart of the work of art is to allow us glimpse worlds we don’t inhabit, or see worlds we inhabit through others’ eyesSat Aug 03 2024 - 06:00
Sarah Moss: Until recently, I assumed everyone had infinite worlds of light, sound, scent, taste and touch in their headsIt was a surprise to find other people had such different experiences of being consciousSat Jul 27 2024 - 06:00
The problem isn’t me and my sourdough and my kale. Access to nourishing food should be a rightWe have accepted the baseline that what we all deserve is highly processed foodSat Jul 20 2024 - 06:00
Sarah Moss: I find the phrase ‘first world problems’ deeply objectionableIt suggests that humans live on different planets, determined by economic conditions, which lets us off many hooks we would have to discuss if we accepted that all global resources are inequitably sharedSat Jul 13 2024 - 06:00
I fly too much and I feel guilty about it, but I keep doing itOn a burning planet with limited resources, we need more international understanding, more curiosity about other lives in other placesSat Jul 06 2024 - 06:00
I’ve always been suspicious of writers’ block. Nurses don’t get nurses’ blockThere is a time to count and a time to be counted; the work is to know when that time comesSat Jun 29 2024 - 06:00
The man I met while out running thought I was wrong not to track my milesCounting time and distance when I run would quickly turn joy to punishmentSat Jun 22 2024 - 06:00
I don’t use social media. There is a cost but I don’t want to see the world through the lens of a phoneIt’s mostly comfortable for me to be away from my phone because I don’t use social media, which means that probably not much has changed since I last lookedSat Jun 15 2024 - 06:00
You’re so brave, people say, to cycle in DublinThe danger is in the interaction of drivers and cyclists, almost exclusively to the disadvantage and sometimes to the death of the cyclistSat Jun 08 2024 - 06:00
My teacher told my parents I was ‘retarded’. My grandmother taught me to readLetting contradictions sit with you makes life more interesting, opens up the world a bit moreSat Jun 01 2024 - 06:00
I’m terrified of your dog and don’t want it to come anywhere near meSarah Moss: I know several men whose terror is just as deep and abject as my own but they lost their permission to be scared when they started primary schoolSat May 25 2024 - 06:00
Sarah Moss: As a bike-riding vegetarian feminist I can see why people might disagree with everything I think Sarah Moss: Naturally I have views, mostly of the sort you’d probably expect from a bike-riding vegetarian feminist academic, but I’m certain about very few of themSat May 18 2024 - 06:00
Why do I knit? I’m not patient, knitting helps me to wait, takes the edge off agitationI wouldn’t have the time, people say, usually while they sit beside me with hands at rest or on their phonesWed Sept 06 2023 - 06:00
Sarah Moss on Good Girls: A story and study of anorexia by Hadley FreemanA memoir of Freeman’s anorexia in adolescence and early adulthood, told with energy and sadnessSun Apr 16 2023 - 04:18
The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane: An exciting tale of Australia and European settlers A novel that whirls us through interior narratives and households of characters from across the social spectrumTue Mar 14 2023 - 04:30
A Line Above the Sky: Satisfying and intriguing to readBook review: Helen Mort explores risk-taking, gender, rock climbing and motherhoodThu Mar 31 2022 - 06:00
The Magician by Colm Tóibín: Beautiful, sweeping exploration of Thomas Mann’s lifeHistorical fiction carries its echoing questions about art and war with graceSun Sept 26 2021 - 06:00
Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin: Escaping from maternal controlBook review: Drama swirls around family trying to free themselves of Mammy’s influenceSun Sept 19 2021 - 06:00
Iron Annie: Love and tragedy from DundalkBook review: Luke Cassidy keeps a tight control on this story of crime and romanceWed Sept 01 2021 - 06:00
Shine/Variance: stories with a sure-footed delicacy rare in a debutBook review: Stephen Walsh’s stories are intimate studies of unspoken fear, longing and loveSun Jul 11 2021 - 06:00
Fallen by Mel O’Doherty: Intergenerational tale of institutional abuseThis non-linear novel centres on lives destroyed by Bessborough House in CorkFri Jul 02 2021 - 06:00
Holding Her Breath: A different take on the campus novelBook review: Eimear Ryan’s stylish debut is about filling in the gaps in family historySun Jun 20 2021 - 06:00
Panenka: An admirable and interesting second novelBook review: Rónán Hession creates a natural successor to Leonard and Hungry PaulTue Jun 01 2021 - 06:00
I Want to Know That I Will Be Okay: Damaged dolls, haunted housesBook review: Deirdre Sullivan’s short stories are creepy and cleverly pacedTue May 25 2021 - 06:00
Snowflake by Louise Nealon: A clever coming-of-age novelBook review: This college-life narrative has an eye for comedy even when the narrator is enjoying a moment of self-pityMon May 17 2021 - 06:00
Boys Don’t Cry: Hard choices growing up in a gritty DublinFiona Scarlett’s novel of two young brothers trying to get by is moving but never mawkishSun Apr 25 2021 - 06:00
Line by Niall Bourke: Where life is one long queueBook review: This sharply funny and astute novel centres around a line of people so long that generations have born and died hoping to reach the frontFri Apr 16 2021 - 06:00
Winter Papers 6: There’s nothing here that doesn’t earn its keepBook review: If you’re hungering for intelligent creative responses to 2020, Barry and Smith have what you’re looking forSun Nov 29 2020 - 06:00
That Old Country Music: Playful and beautifully crafted stories from Kevin BarryBook review: Kevin Barry’s latest collection displays the author’s talent for the formTue Oct 27 2020 - 06:00
The Art of the Glimpse: Endlessly interesting selection of short storiesBook review: This wide-ranging collection features old and new Irish authors – with a few surprisesMon Oct 12 2020 - 06:00
OK, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea: hilarity, pathos and midlife crisisIrish Times writer Patrick Freyne consoles and entertains but his essays work best when the stakes are lowTue Sept 15 2020 - 06:00
Sarah Moss: Exiting Britain, arriving in IrelandI remembered why we were leaving England every time I read the news, every time the nation stood on doorsteps and clappedSat Aug 22 2020 - 06:00
Sarah Moss: Brexit and Heaney’s bog bodiesAuthor’s novel Ghost Wall attempts to skewer English penchant for nostalgic writingSat Jun 08 2019 - 06:00
Sarah Moss: in defence of historical fictionThe ethics of fiction are about the ability to imagine what it might be like if things were different. Historical fiction is able to imagine the stories missing from popular historyWed Jul 20 2016 - 13:39
