Irish short story writer and Mayo native Colin Barrett was recently awarded the 2014 Rooney Prize for Irish literature for his new book, Young Skins. The event took place at the Provost House in Trinity College this past September. Barrett’s short stories have been greeted with enthusiasm from critics all over Ireland. Chris Power from The Guardian called it “an extraordinary … [Read more...] about Colin Barrett Wins 2014
Rooney Prize for Fiction
Literature
Colin Barrett Wins 2014
Review of Books
Fiction Someone By Alice McDermott Someone captures the universal experience of life’s joys and tragedies in the story of Marie Commeford, a most unremarkable woman. The novel begins in Depression-era Brooklyn as Marie, a myopic 7-year-old sitting on the stoop waiting for her father, chats with a teenage neighbor, Pegeen. Despite Marie’s bottle-bottom glasses, she still … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Dermot Healy 1947-2014
By Matthew Skwiat, Editorial Assistant
July 2, 2014.
July 2, 2014.
Dermot Healy, one of Ireland’s great contemporary men of letters, passed away June 29. Healy’s sudden death at the early age of 66 came as a shock to many, but his artistic output in those years will live on for many years to come. Healy was a poet, playwright, memoirist and fiction writer whose work was regarded for its originality, depth of feeling, and psychological insight. … [Read more...] about Dermot Healy 1947-2014
Oscar & Doc: A trip to Leadville, Colorado
You hoist one of Colorado’s fine craft beers at the long, dark bar of the Silver Dollar Saloon in Leadville, and consider this possibility: had history played out a little differently, Oscar Wilde and Doc Holliday might have exchanged bon mots right at this spot. Both caroused here, Wilde in 1882, Holliday a year later. They both provided memorable episodes in a wild … [Read more...] about Oscar & Doc: A trip to Leadville, Colorado
Review of Books
The Dream of the Celt By Mario Vargas Llosa, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010 “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.” Each of his books is a portrait of one or more individuals who set their course against the … [Read more...] about Review of Books