As someone who finished her undergraduate degree in the spring of 2020, I found a lot I could relate to in Catherine Prasifka’s début, None of This Is Serious (2022). The mysterious crack is in fact the weakest element … Continue reading Review: None of This Is Serious by Catherine Prasifka
John McKenna is one of Ireland’s leading food writers. He and his wife, Sally, are known for their guide of Ireland’s best 100 restaurants, which is published annually. They have co-authored a new cookbook, Milk, which aims to promote Irish … Continue reading An Interview With John McKenna Fiachra Kelleher interviews John McKenna, one of Ireland’s leading food writers. McKenna and his partner Sally have co-authored a new cookbook, Milk, which aims to promote Irish dairy.
●●●●● “My body used to belong to me.” From the opening sentence of You Have The Right To Remain Fat, Virgie Tovar is going hard. The self-described ‘fatshionista’ is also an academic, a body image expert, a bonne vivante and … Continue reading You Have The Right To Remain Fat // REVIEW Virgie Tovar isn’t remotely kidding around with her new manifesto
●●●●○ I decided to read Anna Burns’ newest novel Milkman after it was recently longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018. Opening Milkman, I knew very little about the book, and I think by the time I read the final … Continue reading Milkman: Anna Burns Paints A Nameless City To Perfection The Northern Irish novel deserves its spot on the Man Booker 2018 longlist.
●●●●● “Writing is a way of making sense of the world, a way of processing—of possessing—thought and emotion, a way of making something worthwhile out of pain,” writes Irish academic Emilie Pine in Notes to Self, her debut collection of … Continue reading Notes to Self by Emilie Pine // REVIEW Pine’s debut collection of essays is raw and unflinching
If you haven’t read either of Madeline Miller’s Greek re-imaginings, Song of Achilles or Circe, do. Both are rooted in canonical mythology but are imbued with Miller’s own beautiful and contemporary style, Circe retains the Grecian grandeur of its source … Continue reading Circe: Madeline Miller’s Second Novel Bewitches Womanhood and witchcraft are inextricable for Madeline Miller’s Circe, which makes her story equally powerful and magical.
●●●○○ ‘Babe’ is a four-letter word for a reason. It’s loaded with the baggage of Wayne’s World-esque exclamations and evokes Amy Dunne’s scathing take-down of the misogynistic fantasy of ‘the cool girl.’ It makes me cringe and initially set me up … Continue reading Bad Title, Badass Content: Badass Babe Workbook Review An artbook centered around creativity and feminist confidence.
●●●●○ It’s a rare ‘About the Author’ that begins “Stoya has been a pornographer since 2006 and a writer since 2012,” but Philosophy, Pussycats and Porn is a rare volume. It’s an unconventional collection of essay and remembrances from a … Continue reading Philosophy, Pussycats and Porn // review Stoya’s first book is part memoir, part essay collection and all smut.
If you thought the awe and adrenaline of awards season was locked up in an Oscar-shaped vault until next spring, think again. The Man Booker Prize 2018 longlist, which celebrates a selection of the year’s best novels published in Ireland … Continue reading The Man Booker Prize Longlist 2018 Trinity graduate and Mayo native Sally Rooney is tied for the youngest writer on this year’s longlist.
●●●●● Sex and sexuality can be a minefield at the best of times, and when you’re pushing against non-stop societal ideas of what a good body is, and what sexy is, it can be even harder. Sex positivity and body … Continue reading Curvy Girl Sex: Book Review + Giveaway! A unicorn of a book, combining body positivity, sex positivity + trans-inclusivity.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover”, they said. After reading through Repeal the 8th, the anthology recently edited by Una Mullally and published by Unbound, one is left to wonder: if the title of the book were not one … Continue reading Required Referendum Reading Considering Una Mullally’s Repeal the 8th as “too political”… [is an] unfair and dangerous misreading of this important and touching anthology.
●●●●● Emma Glass’ stunning debut Peach is a violently evocative account of the immediate aftermath of sexual assault. Peach is a teenage girl who negotiates the days following her attack as though in a hallucinatory dream. Glass’ visceral descriptions obscure … Continue reading Portraying the Pits of Trauma: “Peach” by Emma Glass Emma Glass’ debut novella-cum-prose poem clocks in at under one hundred pages, but offers a stunningly surrealist and disturbing impression of the trauma of sexual assault that will haunt you long after the last page has been turned.