New poetry: Frank Ormsby’s tremendous poems loom out of darkness, shot with stars, lit with sound
Plus collections by Nessa O’Mahony, Lily Blacksell and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch reviewed
The Salt King by Natasha Pulley: Overwhelming darkness leavened by shining dialogue
‘It’s really warping, all these people who don’t know you, who feel like they do’
Reds: A Global History of Communism by Paul Mason – the problem of revisionism and working-class awareness
Books in brief: The Princess of Connemara, The Judges of Ireland 1866-1921 and Alone in Japan: A Journey to the Future
The Fate of the World: A History and Future of the Climate Crisis: A sobering narrative
Sunrise by Téa Obreht: Timelines converge successfully in absorbing novel
Poem of the Week: Dublin Bus Hours Before Cork Win the Camogie Final
SHORT STORIES
POETRY
Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction – elegant, ambitious and very smart
By Mei Chin
The World’s Reformation: A story combining academic authority with gripping readability
By Andrew Roycroft
Bytes and Bullets: Study of AI arms race is meticulously researched and deeply disturbing
By Tom Clonan
How to Train Your Dragon author: ‘I have always liked the idea of an animal you could talk to’
By Martin Doyle
Fiction in translation: How trauma interrupts the flow of a life, to devastating effect
By Sara Baume
The Writer’s Writer: A dive into John McGahern’s literary archive shows his huge impact
By Eamon Maher
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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