Taking your work out across the Red River
There’s a popular line about writing: you do it for yourself. And it’s true, up to a point. It would be difficult to sustain the long hours and the figuring out merely on the faint promise of producing a bestseller.
From the body of the room to the front of it
I’m usually part of the body of the room at the monthly Open Mic in the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar, wondering, in a last-minute surge of self-doubt, if I should change what I’m planning to read. Last night, however, I was temporarily promoted from the ranks and installed at the front as the featured reader. It felt like being called up from the subs’ bench, but thankfully there was no major deficit to be rescued.
Róisín’s World Book Day 2026 promotion
Today is World Book Day - the parents of my young neighbour Róisín sent me these pictures before she left for St Joseph's Primary School, Ballinrobe, this morning.
My gradual truce with conflict
For a long time, the use of the word ‘conflict’ in writing advice bothered me. Stories tend to need conflict, we're told. Otherwise, they can wither and die.
Poetry and prose, close to home
For writers and readers in this part of the world (Co. Mayo, west of Ireland), the next few days offer two good reasons to leave the house and sit in a room with people of similar disposition.
