Olivia Fitzsimons

Friendly reminder📚

Applications for the in-person Six-Month Fiction Workshop are open until 5pm (Irish time) Tuesday July 22 ⏰

This is our first fully in-person workshop since the pandemic.

📸Patrick Fleming, Summer School 2025
@irishwriterscentre.bsky.social

🔗 stingingfly.org/6-month-work...

Fantastic review for Every One Still Here in @theguardian.com The collection is out now across UK with @grantabooks.bsky.social 📚

More readers for Liadan Ní Chuinn’s brilliant and important work! 💚

Book is also forthcoming in US with @fsgbooks.bsky.social 🙌

🔗 www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

New short story, The Lake by Juliana Adelman as part of our online fiction series.

"The day of the first accident wasn’t especially hot or sunny, I remember. We were having a barbecue in the car park for my son’s eighteenth birthday."

stingingfly.org/2025/07/02/t...

Brilliant.

If there's one thing you read today, read Camilla Grudova's essay on the precariousness of making a living from writing when you're from an underprivileged background and the ways that writers shift and adapt snd often have to make do. I felt so incredibly seen by it.

Camilla Grudova writes brilliantly about how precarious it is to live as a successful & dedicated writer who doesn’t come from money. Recommended reading especially for publishers, institutions & funding bodies

stingingfly.org/2025/06/25/t... @stingingfly.bsky.social

NEW essay by CAMILLA GRUDOVA, part of our ongoing series of reflection on the writing life edited by @oneflawediris.bsky.social

”Money matters: whatever other job a writer does, whether shop assistant or professor, it is subsidising the publisher.”

Read more: stingingfly.org/2025/06/25/t...

The first print issue of fallow magazine, based in Ireland and out soon, includes: Helen Charman, Oisín Fagan, Wayne Koestenbaum, Patrick Nathan, Ellen Dillon, Eva Griffin, Chris Beausang, and Greg Gerke, & interviews with Gabriel Josipovici and Pascale Sardin. fallowmedia.com/shop/fallow-01

Hello everyone! I'm making the move to Bluesky. Writing community people please follow! UL Summer Festival is on from April 9-11 with a fantastic lineup. And winter school is back too: details here: 617b1c91637ae.site123.me

Submissions open until 19 Feb 📚📚📚

The Wardrobe Department Q&A with Elaine Garvey An evocative debut novel by Irish writer Elaine Garvey, The Wardrobe Department is set in the seemingly glitzy world of West End theatre in 2002. However, behind the glamorous façade it’s a d…

New blog post: an interview with Elaine Garvey about her debut novel set in a West End theatre #TheWardrobeDepartment anneolearyblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/12/t...

Had a great evening at Prismatic Pages in Oslo chatting about writing, disability and related topics of community building. It's been a while since I spoke about writing my book Pacemaker & it was nice to revisit it, and those themes.

Word of the day is ‘arsle’ (19th century): to have a distinct sense of going backwards.

NEW on our website: Lily Ní Dhomhnaill reviews four Irish poetry collections from 2024:

'Vulgar Errors / Feral Subjects' by Fran Lock, 'The Conversation' by Jo Burns & Emily Cooper, 'STORM DRAIN' by Francis Jones, and 'The Electron-Ghost Casino' by Randolph Healy.

stingingfly.org/review/irish...

We're delighted to be collaborating with @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social on the Ten by Ten Workshop.

Are you working on a short-story collection or novel? Do you want to deepen your craft amongst like-minded writers?

Applications are now open. Find out more here stingingfly.org/the-ten-by-t...

Very thrilled to be the course tutor for Writing Literary Short Fiction for the Granta Writers’ Workshop this spring. The course has been developed and is convened by the incredible Eley Williams. workshops.granta.com/courses/shor...

Sublime.

Winter Readings: ‘Free Love’ by Lauren Mackenzie Lauren Mackenzie reads Free Love from Issue Twelve of The Lonely Crowd. The Lonely Crowd · Winter Readings: ‘Free Love’ by Lauren Mackenzie Image by Jo Mazelis.

thelonelycrowd.org/2021/02/20/w...

Writehawks at Books Upstairs | Books Upstairs *THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED. TO ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITING LIST PLEASE EMAIL SHOP@BOOKSUPSTAIRS.IE WITH YOUR FULL NAME* The Rick O’Shea Book Club presents: Writehawks at Books Upstairs Join broadcas...

Looking forward to taking part in a SOLD OUT* Writehawks this Thursday.

There's a waiting list, so if you booked but can't make it (1) I forgive you (2) do let them know, so someone else can sub in.

*Free event but you know what I mean.

booksupstairs.ie/all-events/w...

Putting together a -very- small stack of books that have been banned (in the U.S.) for a customer

I hope we see more of this kind of bravery in the weeks and months to come.

Do join us at Books Upstairs for Writehawks 2 on January 30th @ 6.30pm, hosted by @rickoshea.bsky.social Kevin Curran, Eithne Shortall and I will be offering live, in-person book chat and reading recommendations.

It's free but you need to book (link in Rick's post below).

Do come!

Delighted for Brian Durnin and Split Milk. First time out. Four nods - Best Film, Best Director, Best Script and Best Costume.

Kneecap film and Cillian Murphy’s Small Things Like These lead Ifta nominations Irish Film and Television Academy awards: Kneecap lands 17 nominations while Small Things Like These bags 10. In TV, Searing tale of the Troubles Say Nothing and popular comedy-drama Bad Sisters top TV list

Kneecap film and Cillian Murphy’s Small Things Like These lead Ifta nominations

Novel competitions 2025 I’m actually quite surprised at the amount of novel competitions on the go at the moment. While a good number have yet to confirm their details for this year, there’s certainly plenty h…

New blog post: a list of novel competitions for 2025 anneolearyblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/11/n...

We're open for submissions next month (5 Feb to 19 Feb) for volume 11 - all the details are over on the website. Looking forward to seeing what comes in. 📚📚📚

Such a good book by Mary Morrissy, and I don't think this got the attention it deserved when it was published. The voice is just 👌 #PenelopeUnbound

'High Jump as Icarus Story', @gphibbett.bsky.social's T.S. Eliot Prize short-listed debut collection: dazzling and sobering, it pulses with life. My review for the T.S. Eliot Prize: tseliot.com/prize/the-t-....
@bansheepress.bsky.social
#poetry
#TSEliots

Please consider donating to help writer Yousri Alghoul get his four children out of Gaza.

Links: www.gofundme.com/f/a-gazan-fa...

stingingfly.org/2025/01/07/a...

Let me tell you about the weird business that delivers art into our lives, and the impact it has on the long-term careers of artists. This is a thread prompted by yet another article on authors' incomes, and the inevitable reactions from the 'people-would-pay-if-it-was-worth-it-to-them' brigade. 1/