Write By The Sea, the boutique literary festival in the seaside village of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, returns from September 25th to 27th. Now in its 11th year, the volunteer-led festival once again gathers big international names and the best of contemporary Irish writing for a weekend of readings, conversations and workshops by the sea.
Headlining this year’s festival is Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford, who will appear in two special events, opening the festival in conversation with John Banville and Alex Clark, before returning for the festival finale on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday morning opens on a European note, marking Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the EU, with a programme spanning fiction, poetry, memoir, translation and history. Events include Michael Fortune exploring the folklore linking Brittany and south Wexford; translator Laetitia Devaux discussing literary translation with Sheila Armstrong; Éilís Ní Dhuibhne in conversation with Mary Costello; and poetry readings from Jane Clarke, Eoin Devereux and Moyra Donaldson.
Other highlights include Molly Hennigan, Kate Phelan, Sinéad Gleeson and Arnold Thomas Fanning celebrating An Asylum for My Affections: Sketches of Maeve Brennan; Anne Enright discussing her first essay collection with Aoife Barry; debut novelists Neil Tully and Orla Mackey examining rural life and community; Natasha Brown in conversation with Kevin Power about her acclaimed novel Universality; Rosaleen McDonagh discussing her debut novel with Emilie Pine; and Carlo Gébler reflecting on family, memory and his mother Edna O’Brien with Sinéad Gleeson. Saturday concludes with crime writers Sam Blake, Andrea Carter and Rebecca Hannigan discussing the art of suspense and what draws them to the darker side of Irish life.
Sunday features readings from Margaret Galvin, Philip Quirke and Paul Hennessy, accompanied by local musicians. Paul Cullen discusses his memoir Outsider with Róisín Ingle; Órfhlaith Foyle and Dermot Bolger celebrate the short story; Francis Spufford and Ferdia Lennon explore historical fiction with Peter Murphy; while Louise Nealon, Patrick Freyne and Sarah Maria Griffin make the case for friendship as fiction’s most underrated love story.
The festival also reunites Oscar-winning film-maker Neil Jordan with Pat McCabe, whose novels The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto Jordan adapted for the screen, for a conversation with film-maker Alan Gilsenan about storytelling across page and film. Rosamund Taylor and Andrew Cunning discuss their debut novels with Neil Hegarty, while Sara Baume and Danielle McLaughlin join Gemma Tipton to discuss their latest books and creative collaboration.
Workshops and masterclasses with festival writers run across the weekend.
Festival chair Anne O’Brien said: “There’s a wonderful energy around Irish writing at the moment, and this year’s programme reflects that. We’re delighted to welcome writers and readers from near and far to Kilmore Quay, and – as Ireland holds the presidency of the Council of the EU – especially proud to present readings in a number of European languages across the weekend.”
Tickets are on sale now at writebythesea.ie
Tomorrow’s pages
In The Irish Times tomorrow, Jan Carson reflect son what she learned from a year reading the complete works of Shirley Jackson. Eamon Maher, co-editor of the John McGahern Companion, discusses the influence of McGahern on other Irish writers. And there is a Q&A with Cressida Cowell, best known for the How to Train Your Dragon series.
Reviews are Tim O’Grady on John Berger: From Life by Tom Overton; Tom Clonan on Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Private Tech and the Future of Modern Warfare by Steve Feldstein; Henrietta McKervey on Captain’s Dinner by Adam Cohen; Sara Baume on the best new fiction in translations; Greg Londe on Where are the Kings by Donal Ryan; Helen Cullen on Sky City by Jacqueline Crooks; Lucy Sweeney Byrne on A Little Bit Bad by Cassandra Neyenesch; Andrew Roycroft on The World’s Reformation: How Protestantism Became a Global Religion by Alec Ryrie; Rachel Andrews on Claudia Rankine’s Triage; Andrew Lynch on Stealing Hitler’s Rocket by Guy Walters; Mei Chin on Knives and Spoons by Alasdair Gill; Nicholas Allen on Seamus Heaney and Catholicism by Gary Wade; and Adam Wyeth on Gaining Ground by Joan Barfoot.
Heaney-Miłosz Residency
The Heaney-Miłosz Residency, a writer-in-residence programme celebrating the friendship between Nobel laureates Seamus Heaney and Czesław Miłosz, is open for applications.
The residency offers the chance for an emerging or mid-career writer – resident on the island of Ireland or an Irish citizen living abroad – to spend up to six weeks next year in Kraków, Poland. For the first time, the residency is now open to applications from Irish citizens living abroad. Following a competitive selection process, the selected writer will stay in the apartment adjacent to the former home of Polish poet and writer, Czesław Miłosz (Bogusławskiego Street). The resident will also have the opportunity to visit Miłosz’s apartment.
Launched in 2022, the residency is a partnership between the estate of Seamus Heaney, the Kraków Festival Office and the Irish Embassy in Poland. Further details on the application process can be found here. The deadline for applications is September 28th.
Look North
Four award-winning picture-book makers have come together to launch Look North, a grassroots campaign celebrating the wealth of picture-book talent in the North.
The campaign brings together Paddy Donnelly, Ashwin Chacko, Colleen Larmour and Clive McFarland, whose new books will be published throughout the autumn.
Inspired by the original Look North campaign for young adult fiction, the initiative shines a spotlight on four new Northern Irish picture books. Throughout the autumn, posters and postcards will appear in independent bookshops across Northern Ireland and Dublin, alongside a co-ordinated social media campaign led by the creators themselves.
The creators will also celebrate the campaign through book launches, festivals, school visits and library events.
The featured books are Nowhere for a Ghost to Sleep by Erika McGann and Clive McFarland (The O’Brien Press, September 14th); Follow Me Moon by Colleen Larmour (Nosy Crow, October 8th); The Starmaker, written by Catherine Doyle and illustrated by Paddy Donnelly (Bloomsbury, October 22nd); and The Good Neighbourhood by Ashwin Chacko (Bad Book Press, November 5th).
The campaign is not only about celebrating the books themselves, but also about highlighting the creative community behind them and increasing visibility for Northern Irish picture-book talent.
Donnelly said: “It’s lovely to be a part of this campaign! We have such a range of talented children’s writers and illustrators here, and it’s so important to highlight and celebrate their work.”
Chacko said: “It’s time for creators to take ownership of their visibility and make sure great work doesn’t get lost in an increasingly noisy world. In an age of AI-generated content, it’s more important than ever for creatives to come together, support one another and champion the work they make. By building a stronger, more connected creative community, we can give original creative work the attention it deserves.”
Inaugural PFGi Poetry Award goes to Grace Wells
Grace Wells has been selected as the recipient of the inaugural PFGi Poetry Award 2026, receiving a €7,000 bursary and commission to create a new original poem exploring the relationship between engineering, creativity and human experience.
Facilitated by Business to Arts, the award reflects a shared belief that engineering and poetry, while often viewed as distinct disciplines, are both grounded in imagination, structure and the shaping of ideas into form. Through this initiative, PFGi, an engineering consultancy, and Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann aim to create space for dialogue between disciplines, inviting a poet to respond to themes that connect technical precision with human experience.
Wells is an award-winning eco-poet and environmental writer. Nature, spirit-of-place and the complexities of ecological crisis are the large themes of her writing. She has published three books of poetry with Dedalus Press, most recently in 2022, The Church of the Love of the World, which was shortlisted for the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award and the Laurel Prize. She is one of the co-creators of Hometree’s eco-arts project, Dinnseanchas, which is working to support community resilience in Ireland’s upland communities, and to restore temperate woodland landscapes across the west coast.
Wells said: “I’m honoured and deeply grateful to PFGI, Poetry Ireland and Business to Arts for this generous bursary. It offers an exciting opportunity to explore the meeting place between poetry, engineering and sustainability, and to bring different ways of seeing into conversation.
“I’m interested in how imagination, close attention, language and story can weave together with science, technology and industry as we respond creatively to the ecological and social challenges of our time and try our best to shape more resilient and meaningful futures for the entire community of life.”
Following a competitive open call process, Wells was selected by an expert panel of poets and engineering professionals, with the commissioned work to be developed over the coming months and a public unveiling anticipated in early 2027.
Callow reads Donleavy
Simon Callow narrates J.P. Donleavy’s The Unexpurgated Code, described by The New York Times as “possibly, the funniest book ever written”, in a new audiobook release from CalebANDKyle Audiobooks, out on September 9th. Callow, one of Britain’s most recognisable stage and screen performers, also knew the author personally.
Katriona O’Sullivan book deal
Little Island Books has signed a two-book deal with Katriona O’Sullivan, the author of the memoirs Poor and Hungry. The deal for O’Sullivan’s debut children’s books includes world rights in all languages and was acquired by publisher Matthew Parkinson-Bennett from agent Eleanor Birne of Rogers, Coleridge & White.
O’Sullivan’s picture book Be the Light, illustrated by Ulrike Mieke, will be published in September 2027, with another picture book to follow in 2028.
O’Sullivan said: “As a child growing up in poverty, books were my safe haven. They helped me dream of a life I couldn’t yet imagine. It is so important that the stories of children growing up in poverty are told, and that they are written by people who have lived those experiences. Every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the books they read, and every child deserves to know that their story matters.
“Be the Light is, in many ways, the story of me, and of so many other children whose lives were lived in the dark but who were illuminated by extraordinary teachers and adults who believed in them. It is a celebration of the profound difference one caring adult can make to a child’s life.”
Parkinson-Bennett said: “Katriona’s story has been one of the bookselling sensations of recent years because it has touched so many readers with its honesty, heart and hope. Those same qualities shine through in Be the Light. We know this book will mean so much to children, parents, teachers, and anyone else who needs to read this story.”
Celebrating Are You Somebody? 30 years on
To mark the 30th anniversary of Nuala O’Faolain’s memoir Are You Somebody?, New Island Books hosts a free programme of events celebrating memoir writing and women’s voices in Irish literature in Pearse Street Library.
The programme begins on Thursday, September 3rd, with a memoir writing workshop led by Molly Hennigan, introducing participants to the craft of memoir and helping them develop their own personal writing.
On Saturday, September 5th, a series of panel discussions will explore the legacy of Are You Somebody? and women’s life writing. The morning panel, Are You Somebody? Why it Remains Relevant 30 Years Later, chaired by Jackie Lynam, features Katriona O’Sullivan and Sinéad Gleeson discussing the book’s continuing relevance. At lunchtime, participants from Molly Hennigan’s workshop will read excerpts from their own memoir writing.
The programme concludes with Women Who Write: Women Writing Their Lives, moderated by Aoife Barry, with Julia Kelly and Caitríona Lally, examining women’s life writing and the relationship between memory and identity.
All events are free, with spaces limited. Tickets should be reserved via Eventbrite for each individual event.
