In The Irish Times this Saturday, Brian McGilloway tells Fiona Gartland about his new novel, The One You Least Suspect. Mary Ann Kenny tells Deirdre Falvey about her book, The Episode: : A True Story of Loss, Madness and Healing. And there is a Q&A with Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin about her debut novel, Ordinary Saints.
Reviews are Paschal Donohoe on How Feminist Economics Can Change the World by Emma Holten; Making Sense of Chaos by J Doyne Farmer; and Why We’re Getting Poorer by Cahal Moran; Malachy Clerkin on The Last Ditch by Eamonn Sweeney; James Hanrahan on Abortion: A History by Mary Fissell; Claire Hennessy on the best new YA fiction; Conor O’Clery on The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine by Alexander Vindman; Adam Wyeth on Writers Anonymous by William Wall; Huda Awan on Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp; Naoise Dolan on Gunk by Saba Sams; Henrietta McKervey on The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon; Andrew Roycroft on Dazzling Darkness: The Lives and Afterlives of the Christian Mystics & The Magic Theatre by James Harpur; Paul Clements on local history books; and Michael Cronin on Ghost Wedding by David Park.
This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent, just €5.99, a €6 saving.
Gustav Parker Hibbett has received the 2025 John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize for their debut poetry collection, High Jump as Icarus Story (Banshee Press) at an award ceremony in Trinity College Dublin this evening, Thursday, May 8th.
This is the seventh year of the prize, which is awarded annually for an outstanding debut collection of poetry in the English language. Valued at €10,000, the prize is sponsored by the John Pollard Foundation and administered by the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre in the School of English at Trinity.
Parker Hibbett is a poet and essayist. Raised in New Mexico, USA, they are currently based in Dublin where they are the 2025 Commissioned Writer for Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. They are also pursuing a PhD in Literary Practice at Trinity College Dublin.
Parker Hibbett said: “Since publishing High Jump as Icarus Story, there have been so many small ways, almost daily, that I’ve been disarmed or humbled or bowled over by other people’s care and generosity, by the time so many people have taken simply to sit with my writing. With this award, I’m bowled over in a really big way.
“This year’s other shortlisted collections, which create the context of what this award means, all share what is one of my favourite qualities in poetry: the ambition and ability to expand the boundaries of what language can do, what it can hold and remake and conjure. It has been an honour to be here next to them, just as it is a honour now to see my collection next to the impressive lineage of winning collections. I’m very aware that we can choose how we engage with art—what we bring with us when we meet it, how willing we are to take it on its own terms—and that each kindness my book receives is a choice.
“The whole team at Banshee—in particular Jessica Traynor, Eimear Ryan and Laura Cassidy—were the first to meet this book with kindness. They received it with exceptional care, and they joined, with enthusiasm, in the project of helping it grow. The support of my friends and family, particularly my partner Abbie, has been another great kindness that I wouldn’t be able to write without. Thank you, of course, massively, to the judging panel—Eoin McNamee, Una Mannion and Tom Walker—for coming to my book with such generosity, and thank you as well to Stephen Vernon, Provost Linda Doyle, and Trinity College Dublin at large for your belief and investment in poetry. What an incredible honour this is. I am endlessly grateful.”
Previous winners are Patrick James Errington, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Gail McConnell, Diane Louie, Isabel Galleymore, and Hannah Sullivan.
Prof Eoin McNamee, director of the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre, said: “Gustav Parker Hibbett’s debut is a collection of remarkable range and in their own words, unlikely magic, the poet as Icarus falling through selves or rising up to meet them. At once exalted and humble this is work of the highest order.”
High Jump as Icarus Story was also shortlisted for the 2024 TS Eliot Prize and the 2025 Farmgate Café National Poetry Award.
Colm Tóibín, Joseph O’Connor, Donal Ryan, Niall Williams, and Christine Dwyer Hickey have been shortlisted for the 2025 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, unveiled today by Listowel Writers’ Week. The winner will be announced at the festival’s opening night on 28th May.
Sponsored by Kerry Group, the award carries a total prize fund of €22,000, with €20,000 awarded to the winner and €500 for each shortlisted author.
“Kerry Group’s 31-year partnership with Listowel Writers’ Week stands as a testament to our enduring belief in the power of storytelling to inspire and connect,” Catherine Keogh, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Kerry Group, said. “Each year, the calibre of literary talent and vision among the shortlisted writers astounds us, and this year is no exception. We extend our congratulations to all of this year’s nominees and eagerly await the announcement of the winning work later this month.”
This year’s adjudicators, authors Carol Drinkwater and Paul McVeigh, reviewed 48 submitted novels and carefully selected five outstanding titles that reflect the strength, imagination, and storytelling brilliance of contemporary Irish fiction.
The shortlisted titles are:
Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey; The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor; Long Island by Colm Tóibín; Time of the Child by Niall Williams; and Heart, Be At Peace by Donal Ryan.
Ned O’Sullivan, chairperson of the Board of Listowel Writers’ Week, said, “The Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award is a valued part of our festival’s celebration of Irish writing. We are sincerely thankful to Kerry Group for their continued and generous support. Congratulations to the five shortlisted authors, your novels reflect the richness and diversity of contemporary Irish fiction, and we’re proud to honour your work here in Listowel.”
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What is Wild? a talk by Mark Cocker, award-winning author of creative non-fiction, naturalist, columnist and broadcaster will take place in St Patrick’s Church, Curtlestown, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow at 5.30pm on Saturday, May 17th as part of the Dawn ‘til Dusk events in the Shaking Bog festival. Also concert & readings featuring poet, Jane Robinson, violinist, Lynda O’Connor and cellist/composer, Ailbhe McDonagh at 7.30pm on Saturday, May 17th in the same venue. Shakingbog.ie/riverscapes
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Olga Dermott-Bond has won the Strokestown International Poetry Competition 2025 as part of this year’s Strokestown International Poetry Festival for her poem René Laennec Remembers the day he dreamt a stethoscope.
Judge Jane Clarke said: “The winning poem is a sparkling tribute to the French physician and musician René Laennec who invented the stethoscope. Through gorgeous imagery, rhyme and rhythm the poem conveys the compassion, empathy and commitment that inspired his discovery. The metaphor of the patient’s heart beat as ‘distant muffled hooves’ is surprising, yet perfect for this standout poem that pulses with life.
“Among the 700-plus entries, many poems stood out and warranted rereading. The five shortlisted poems shone in their exploration of relationships with both intimacy and restraint, bringing diverse people, times, and places to life through a deft use of language that evokes music and imagery.”
Now in its 24th year, the winner receives €1,000 while the following four shortlisted poets receive €250: Paul McMahon; Winifred McNulty; Judy O’Kane; and Matthew Wimberley.
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Considering the colossal shadow cast by Jonathan Swift over Irish literature for 300 years, it seems surprising how little he or his work have appeared in Irish theatre.
WB Yeats brought Swift, and his long-time lady friend Stella, into his largely forgotten one-act play The Words Upon the Window-Pane. There has been little else of Swift before or since.
That is, until Dublin writer Gerry Mullins wrote Jonathan Swift: Savage Indignation, and premiered it to a full house and a standing ovation at St Patrick’s Cathedral last November.
Adapting poems by Swift and Stella, and angry letters by Swift’s other lady friend, Vanessa, Mullins has written a very entertaining musical about the tumultuous time in each of their lives when the two women found out about each other.
Jonathan Swift: Savage Indignation plays next during the Swift and Vanessa Festival in Celbridge, Kildare, on May 31st (SwiftandVanessa.com); and The Lark in Balbriggan, Dublin, on July 5th (thelark.ie).
