SCARY OLD SEX - REVIEW

My review of Arlene Heyman's wondrous s/story collection Scary Old Sex is in the Wales Arts Review. Here.

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

Creepy doll at Southwall Lighthouse - pic by my cuz, Clodagh O'Connor

I am still struggling with jetlag, sleep all over the place, and not doing very well catching up on everyone and everything. So if I owe you an email, bear with me.

For the day that's in it I have a very short ghostly story up at Wales Arts Review for their Hallowe'en special. A dead girl speaks. It's here. There are stories by John Lavin and Jon Gower, among others. They also feature their first ever podcast, where two of their top writers (and horror fans) select a list of 13 alternative horror films to keep you up on Hallowe'en night.

WALES ARTS REVIEW & WEXFORD GIG

John Lavin of the Wales Arts Review was in Cork in September at the Cork International Short Story Festival. As an afterword to the festival he interviewed some of the writers who took part for the current issue: Colin Barrett, Paul McVeigh, Valerie Sirr, Matt Rader, Órfhlaith Foyle and myself. More here. John also wrote about his own impressions of the festival, including the Richard Ford brouhaha, and you can read them here.

And, Wexfordians! I'll be reading in the library this Saturday, 3pm, from my latest novel. Free, but book: 053 919 6759. They made a sticky-together image:

Wales Arts Review reviews *Of Dublin and Other Fictions*

The Wales Arts Review has a fab review of Of Dublin and Other Fictions in their new issue. Big thanks to reviewer John Lavin. '...what is so extremely impressive about Ní Chonchúir’s use of the flash fiction form is that, time and time again, she uses it to deliver the same epiphanic punch that can be found in the best of her short stories and poems.' The rest is here.

WALES ARTS REVIEW - SPECIAL STORY ISSUE

Those of you who know me, know I am a fan of Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's work. I was asked by Wales Arts Review to name and recommend a favourite short story and I close Éilís's 'The Pale Gold of Alaska'.

­The issue also features an interview with a favourite Welsh writer of mine Rachel Trezise, as well as story picks from authors Patricia Duncker, Matthew Francis, Alison Moore,Stevie Davies, Nigel Jarrett, Kate North, Valerie Sirr, Tyler Keevil, Jim Morphy, Jimena Gibert and Chris Cornwell.

You'll also find my Paris-set story 'In Seed Time, Learn' in this issue and stories from John Lavin, Valerie Sirr and Chrissie Gittens among many more.

WALES ARTS REVIEW - MOTHER AMERICA

Reviews are like buses, blah blah blah...so yes, hot on the (w)heels of the Orbis review of Mother America, comes this fine mini-review from John Lavin for the Wales Arts Review. Big thanks to John, who is on the editorial board of that other fine Welsh publication, The Lampeter Review. For those of you allergic to clicking links, the full text is below. John includes Mother America in his Short Story Collections of the Year for 2012. Chuffed :)

'Mother America (New Island), the latest collection from Nuala Ní Chonchúir, confirms her as one of Ireland’s brightest new talents. Ní Chonchúir writes very much in the tradition of great Irish short story writers like Sean O’ Faolin, Frank O’Connor and, of course, the Joyce of Dubliners. Her stories are marked by the precision of her writing and the cumulative, intensely poetical rewards this fastidiousness reaps. Mother America is a bold, thematically-linked collection, often concerned with the relationship between mothers and sons. Over the last decade or so Ní Chonchúir has written several very impressive collections but it seems to me to be this one which announces her as a major new voice on the literary stage.' John Lavin