An exciting new journal sets sail – with diversity as its engine, travel the purpose and Amy Gigi Alexander as its Captain. Its called Panorama – The Journal of Intelligent Travel and you can read Amy’s Letter from the Editor in Chief.

Last night, people were evacuated from mine and nearby streets in Ardoyne because of a suspicious device. Families walking the streets. Helicopters buzzing overhead. I felt terrible for the elderly and sick but mostly for those poor kids who don’t know when the next time is coming and if next time will be a false alarm. Their first experience of all this crap that was my day-to-day life while I was growing up and at least for last night, mine again. I felt like a little boy once more.

You can read my first ever travel article about recently moving back home to Belfast here.

“I’ve moved back to Belfast, Northern Ireland. I left the family home for good when I was 19, left my city then too and eventually Northern Ireland altogether at 25. I knew I’d never go back. 20 odd years later I’ve returned home to live. OK, so, I’ve changed my mind—it’s allowed in some countries.”

I’ll be chairing 3 events at the Cork International Short Story Festival. This will be my third year in a row taking part in the festival and I love it. Like…really love it. It’s run by Pat Cotter – a poet, literary programmer, short story powerhouse and an utter gentleman, for whom my respect and affection grows each year. I love the city too. I’ve also been back there for the World Book Festival the last couple of years – with a scoot down to West Cork Festival this year too.

This year I’m looking catch up with Lucy Caldwell. I’ve interviewed Lucy Caldwell a number of times in print, she has interviewed me, I’ve read with her and sat on a panel together but this will be the first time I’ve interviewed Lucy in public. I’ll be interviewing/meeting Gerard Woodward, Alan Heathcock, Sinead Gleeson, David Park and Claire-Louise Bennett for the first time. I hope to finally meet Polly Samson too!

Here are the events I’ll be chairing in order.

1. Readings by Gerard Woodward & Alan Heathcock

8th September at 8.30pm Firkin Crane Theatre, Shandon Admission: €5

Gerard Woodward is the author of a number of novels, including Vanishing and an acclaimed trilogy comprising August (shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread First Novel Award), I’ll Go to Bed at Noon (shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize) and A Curious Earth. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Alan Heathcock’s fiction has been published in many of America’s top journals. His stories have won the National Magazine Award in fiction, and have been selected for inclusion in The Best American Mystery Stories anthology. Volt (Graywolf Press), a collection of stories, was a Best Book 2011 selection from numerous newspapers and magazines.

2. Sinéad Gleeson & Claire-Louise Bennett

9th September at 7pm
Firkin Crane Theatre, Shandon
Admission: €5

Sinéad Gleeson is a writer, editor, freelance broadcaster and journalist. An essay, ‘Hair’, was published in Banshee, and Granta published an essay online, ‘Blue Hills and Chalk Bones’. ‘Fathoms’, a 500-word flash fiction story was highly commended at the Dromineer Literary Festival and Sinéad was also shortlisted for the 2016 Fish Memoir Prize.

Claire-Louise Bennett’s short fiction and essays have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Penny Dreadful, The Moth, Colony, The Irish Times, The White Review and gorse. She was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize. Pond (Stinging Fly Press) is her first collection of stories.

3. Readings by Lucy Caldwell & David Park

9th September at 8.30pm Firkin Crane Theatre, Shandon Admission: €5

Lucy Caldwell has won multiple awards including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her most recent novel, All the Beggars Riding, was chosen for Belfast’s One City One Book campaign in 2013 and shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year. Her short story collection, Multitudes, was published this year.

David Park’s books include The Light of Amsterdam and The Poets’ Wives, among others. He has won the Authors’ Club First Novel Award, the Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize and the University of Ulster’s McCrea Literary Award, three times. His short story collection, Gods and Angels, was published this year by Bloomsbury.

Plenty of other events including John Boyne, Mary Morrissy, Donal Ryan, Joanna Walsh and Neil Jordan. Check it out here

Hope to see some of you there.

The Good Son/Guter Junge  has been released in Germany this week and it’s pretty exciting.

I’ll be attending the International Literature Festival, Berlin on September 15. The full programme is available here.

There will be an event all about The Good Son and I’m also chairing an event about the short story with Tania James, Namwali Serpell and Hassan Blasim.

I’ll also be appearing at the Literaturhaus Koln Sept 18.

Hope to see some of you there.

 

 

Currently shortlisted for The Polari Prize
Chosen as Brighton’s City Reads 2016
Shortlisted: The Guardian’s ‘Not The Booker’ Prize
Shortlisted: The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award
Finalist for The People’s Book Prize
ELLE Magazine Best Books of 2015

I went to Dublin to meet Martin Doyle of The Irish Times for the Book Club Podcast. It was the hottest day of the year (I think) and  I’d travelled up from the West Cork Festival in Bantry. The journey took about 6 hours and I had to travel back the next day but it was worth it. I’d been talking to Martin for over a year since he’d helped me by giving advice on the Irish literary scene. Since then I’ve done some interviews with authors which Martin’s printed in The Irish Times.

It has been wonderful doing the Book Club and the podcast, getting to talk about the book in this detail (although it’s a little uncomfortable knowing you’re being recorded).

Excuse all the uuummm’s and aaahhh’s. I hope you enjoy it.

The wonderful Laura van den Berg (“The best young writer in America” Salon.com) looks at child narrators – in my debut novel The Good Son and many of her favourite books.

“Children are capable of viewing the world with both the deep wonder and extreme vigilance typical of people who are still feeling around for the rules.”

Click here to read the whole article.