Aine Ni Mhaoileoin, An Artist is his own Fault

During my MA at NUI Galway, I was lucky enough to meet with many established authors and artists as part of a weekly writer’s seminar. Hearing their wisdom about the world of writing and publishing proved to be an inspiring and fruitful exercise. As part of the course, I also attended the wonderful Cúirt festival…

Frank Roddy, Swinging into the MCU: A Review of Spiderman Homecoming

Studio: Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures Directed by: Jon Watts Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau Certification: 12A Runtime: 133 minutes Spiderman Homecoming finds itself in a very difficult position. The third incarnation of Ole Webhead on the big screen in the last 15 years, it had to redeem the franchise after Marc Webb’s misleadingly titled Amazing Spiderman series and live up…

Shaneen Gorman, 56

56 I find myself facing the TV where André Rieu plays Dublin, eyeing the side of your face. You’re sitting in your chair immersed I can see you smile as the symphony diminishes and the crowd begin to applaud as if you were there. As if you are a sir in a booth who witnesses such spectacles often…

Enda Boyle, The First North American Brown Bear in the Faughan Valley

The First North American Brown Bear in the Faughan Valley The Brown Bear is not native to this island yet here it stands in all its shaggy elegance. From snout to tail, long as a people carrier, as wide and as heavy as a Guinness lorry. Poised on the edge of a steel platform, raised…

Neil Slevin, Wait For My Daddy-O

Wait For My Daddy-O Streetlights shot past like stars as you drove us in your car, Lizzy blared from the radio, the boys were back in town and although I didn’t know Philo’s words, his air or tune you let me sing along; always my favourite line and song, Whack for my daddy-o, Whisky In…

Interview with debut author, Maria Hoey

Maria Hoey is set to become one of Ireland’s newest literary stars with the release of her debut novel under an imprint of Poolbeg; Crimson — Fiction with an Edge. I caught up with her to find out what we can expect from the intriguingly titled The Last Lost Girl and to gain an insight into just…

David Lohrey, Camel Milk and Bedlam

David’s poetry can be found in Otoliths (AU), Poetry and Prose (South Africa), Stony Thursday Anthology (Ireland), Sentinel Literary Quarterly (England), and Boxcar Poetry Review (CA). In the US, recent poems have appeared in Poetry Circle, FRiGG, Obsidian, and The Offbeat. His fiction can be read in Crack the Spine, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Route 7…

Michelle Granville, Every Shade of Nothing

Michelle Granville is a Kerry native living in Sligo. She is interested in all aspects of art and literature, particularly when they overlap. She is a failed artist and writer, but is willing to change. Her work is has appeared in Headspace, Anomalie, concis, and One Sentence Poems. Abibliophobia Baggage Eutierria Every Shade of Nothing…

Elizabeth Friel, Daughter

Elizabeth Friel is a writer based in Co. Monaghan, Ireland, juggling full-time work as a teacher with part-time work as a Mammy cab ferrying three teenagers and two pre-teens to various extra-curricular activities. She writes flash fiction in the ‘witching hours.’ This is her second publication. That scalpeen of a daughter of mine. She tells…

Mark Jackley, Where I Fell

Mark Jackley’s work has appeared in Fifth Wednesday, Sugar House Review, Natural Bridge and other journals. His new book of poems On the Edge of a Very Small Town is available for free at chineseplums@gmail.com. WATCHING YOU DRINK VODKA IN THE SUN     head back throat bared pink lips parted when we wed forget the ring…

Barbara Biggs, Intervention

Barbara Costas-Biggs is the 2017 winner of the Split This Rock Abortion Rights Poetry Contest.  Her work is forthcoming or has appeared recently in Calamus, District Lit, Literary Mama, Compose, The Oyez Review, and others. She also is a member the juried poetry series Women of Appalachia: Women Speak.  She is an MFA candidate at…

William Doreski, A Pretty Piece of Paganism and Other Poems

William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in a small house in the woods. He taught at Keene State College for many years, but has now retired to feed the deer and wild turkeys. He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell’s Shifting Colors.  His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in many…