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Eason offer <\/p>\nIn The Irish Times this Saturday, Vona Groarke, the new Ireland Professor of Poetry, talks to Edel Coffey; Peter Guralnick tells Peter Murphy about completing his biographical trilogy with The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley and the Partnership that Rocked the World; Breand\u00e1n Mac Suibhne uncovers the inspirations for some of Brian Friel\u2019s characters; and there is a Q&A with writer Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick. <\/p>\n
Reviews are Paschal Donohoe on Nature Capital: The Value of the World Around Us by Partha Dasgupta and Slow Down or Die: The Economics of Degrowth by Timothee Parrique, translated by Claire Benoit; Andrew Lynch on The Colonialist: The Vision of Cecil Rhodes by William Kelleher Storey; Siobh\u00e1n Long on Beating Time: the Story of the Irish Bodhr\u00e1n by Fintan Vallely; Vona Groarke on the best new poetry collections; Miriam Balanescu on Pan by Michael Clune; Emily Formstone on News of the World and An Aran Keening by Andrew McNeillie; Declan Burke on scifi; Ruby Eastwood on Wolf Moon by Arifa Akbar; Paul Gillespie on Etain Tannam\u2019s British-Irish Relations in the Twenty-First Century, The Good Friday Agreement, Brexit and the Totality of Relations; Brigid O\u2019Dea on Migraine by Samuel Fisher; Matthew O\u2019Toole on The Root of All Evil by Cormac Moore; and Seamus Martin on The World of the Cold War by Vladislav Zubok.<\/p>\n
This weekend\u2019s Irish Times Eason offer is Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan, just \u20ac5.99, a \u20ac6 saving. <\/p>\n
Eason offer <\/p>\n
Lucy Steeds was named winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2025 for her novel The Artist, tonight at the Waterstones flagship bookshop in Piccadilly.<\/p>\n
Set over one sweltering summer during the 1920s, The Artist focuses on an enigmatic painter, the young British journalist set on penning a piece on him, and the artist\u2019s seemingly unworldly niece. As the young man sets out to write his piece on the great and terrifying painter, tensions between the three come to a dramatic conclusion.<\/p>\n
The prize consists of \u00a35,000 and the promise of ongoing commitment to the winner\u2019s writing career. Last year\u2019s winner, Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon, shot into the bestseller charts after the announcement and the Irish author went on to be nominated for the Waterstones Book of the Year, the Nero Book Awards, the BAMB fiction award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. The book also featured on the BBC\u2019s Between the Covers, won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and The Authors\u2019 Club 2025 Best First Novel Award.<\/p>\n
Bea Carvalho, Waterstones Head of Books, says: \u201cIt is a great pleasure to announce that Waterstones booksellers have chosen Lucy Steeds as the winner of the 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for her novel The Artist. From a shortlist of six stunning books, The Artist stood out for its atmospheric, sensory prose, and its headily evocative sense of time and place. It is a stylish, elegant treat of a novel which seamlessly transports the reader to sun-soaked southern France, weaving mystery with romance, while delving into the complex nature of artistry. <\/p>\n
\u201cLucy Steeds is a writer of staggering, rare talent: she is able to conjure vivid brushstrokes, sticky heat, and the smells and tastes of Provence, through words on the page. This is a gorgeously claustrophobic novel to be fully swept away by: The Artist has something for readers of all taste and heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice. We can\u2019t wait to see what Lucy Steeds does next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steeds said: \u201cMy inspirations were twofold: firstly, I was fascinated by the concept of Art Monsters. These tyrannical figures who act abominably to the people around them in order to create great art. I was less interested in the art we\u2019ve gained from these monsters, and more interested in the art we\u2019ve lost. What could have been created if these tyrants weren\u2019t crushing everyone around them? Secondly, how much colour, texture, smell, and taste was it possible to convey on a page? How intensely could I evoke heat? Was it possible to create a painting using words instead of a brush? I wanted to write a book that felt alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also shortlisted were Confessions by Catherine Airey and Ordinary Saints by Niamh N\u00ed Mhaoileoin.<\/p>\n
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Trinity College Dublin’s Icarus magazine launch <\/p>\n
On August 27th, The Irish Writers Centre will host the launch of Icarus magazine\u2019s 75th anniversary issue. <\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s oldest active arts magazine will celebrate the occasion by featuring work from prominent former contributors and editors, while also promoting the work of Trinity College\u2019s brightest student writers and artists. <\/p>\n
Icarus has been a platform for many notable Irish writers since 1950, with past editors including David Norris, Brendan Kennelly, Derek Mahon, Eile\u0301an Ni\u0301 Chuilleana\u0301in, Vona Groarke, Michael Longley and Sebastian Barry. <\/p>\n
The magazine has also featured work from Eavan Boland, Seamus Heaney, William Burroughs, Paul Durcan, Thom Gunn, Colm Toibi\u0301n and Simon Armitage over its long and decorated history. <\/p>\n
Icarus has appeared frequently in Irish Times coverage, for example, in 1994, David Norris stated \u201cIcarus was and has remained an important forum for literary talent\u201d, speaking to a legacy that continues to be fulfilled. <\/p>\n
Icarus Issue 75.3 will mark the anniversary by including an exciting variety of new and unseen work by some of the biggest names in Irish writing and poetry, while republishing many of the greatest works contributed by student writers over its history, some of whom went on to define a generation of Irish life and culture. <\/p>\n
The special edition will, as always, spotlight the most engaging work by current student writers and artists of Trinity College as well. Icarus has always been at the cutting edge of Irish literature, encouraging many students to begin their writing journeys, something the editors, Cat Grogan and Louise Norris, wish to continue with this exciting issue. <\/p>\n
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Mary O\u2019Malley has been shortlisted for the 2025 Derek Walcott Prize with her collection The Shark Nursery, along with fellow Carcanet authors Gillian Clarke, who is shortlisted with The Silence, and Christine Roseeta Walker with Coco Island. <\/p>\n
The full shortlist is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Honouring the work of St Lucian Nobel Prize poet Derek Walcott, the prize is offered annually for a book of poetry by a non-US citizen published anywhere in the world. It includes a $2,000 honorarium. This year\u2019s winner will be announced in October. The judge for this year\u2019s award is Ishion Hutchinson.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Literature Ireland and Atelier Samuel Beckett have announced a pilot literature residency for French and Irish artists at Atelier Samuel Beckett, supported by Literature Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in conjunction with the Centre National du Livre in Paris and the Irish Embassy, France.<\/p>\n Atelier Samuel Beckett is an artist residency founded by Judy Hegarty Lovett and Conor Lovett, set in a country house on the banks of the river Seine just outside Paris.<\/p>\n The shared residency will take place from October 13th until November 7th and includes return travel from Ireland to France, living expenses, and self-catering accommodation.<\/p>\n Details on how to apply are here<\/a>. The closing date for applications is August 20th.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The Banagher Bront\u00eb Group, founded in 2023, is hosting the Irish launch of Let Me In: The Bront\u00ebs in Bricks and Mortar, by Ann Dinsdale and Sharon Wright. Kay Sheehy, recently retired RT\u00c9 Radio 1 presenter and producer, will launch the book. Dinsdale is the principal curator of the Bront\u00eb Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire, home of the Bront\u00ebs, as well as author of many books on the literary family and Sharon Wright is the author of The Mother of the Bront\u00ebs, the biography of Maria Bront\u00eb.<\/p>\n The launch, on August 16th, is part of a gala garden party in Charlotte\u2019s Way, Banagher, formerly Hill House, home to Arthur Bell Nicholls, husband of Charlotte Bront\u00eb. Tickets are available on Eventbrite and included in your ticket is a signed copy of the book, a buffet meal, musical entertainment and a great Bront\u00eb day out. <\/p>\n The group has a three-day programme of events celebrating the Bront\u00eb\/Irish connection as part of Heritage Week, August 16th-18th. This festival is a must for Bront\u00eb enthusiasts and would be a great introduction for you to the Banagher Bront\u00eb Group. If you would like to find out more, visit the website<\/a>.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The literary strand of Clifden Arts Festival 2025 offers a powerful programme of talks, readings and conversations from 17\u201328 September in the heart of Connemara.<\/p>\n Historian Diarmaid Ferriter reflects on Ireland\u2019s transformation since the 1990s in his lecture The Revelation of Ireland 1995\u20132025. Branding expert John Fanning, former MD of McConnells and UCD lecturer, explores advertising, identity and storytelling in The Making of an Irish Icon: Barry\u2019s Tea.<\/p>\n Broadcaster John Creedon shares stories from his bestselling memoir This Boy\u2019s Heart, while Irish Times GAA columnist Ciar\u00e1n Murphy presents Old Parish, his witty account of learning hurling later in life.<\/p>\n Poetry features strongly with Luke Morgan, winner of the 2025 Lawrence O\u2019Shaughnessy Award, S\u00e9amus Ruttledge, and guests from Gallery Press.<\/p>\n Together, these voices offer insight, humour and reflection\u2014celebrating the richness of Irish experience through the written and spoken word.<\/p>\n