Books for Breakfast (Ireland)

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we look at new and recent poetry collections, which we list below.  And our Toaster Challenge guest is Michael O’Loughlin whose new book of poetry and prose, Liberty Hall, will be published by New Island in April. Michael goes in search of lost gods with his Toaster Challenge choice, Roberto Calasso's   Literature and the Gods. Here's a list of poetry boo...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Books for Breakfast in 2021! We begin the year with a look at some noteworthy fiction from new and familiar writers. Books mentioned are: The Art of Falling   by Danielle McLaughlin A Crooked Tree   by Una Mannion Words to Shape My Name   by Laura McKenna Pure Gold   by John Patrick McHugh Snowflake   by Louise Nealon We Are Not in the World   by Conor O’Callaghan The D...

Send us Fan Mail This is our bumper Christmas episode, featuring two Toaster Challenges with Tara Bergin and Paula Meehan respectively. Paula also discusses  her recently published As If By Magic: Selected Poems . Tara's Toaster Challenge Choice is Fernando Pesssoa's The Book of Disquiet, translated by Margaret Jull Costa, while Paula chooses  More than concrete blocks: vol. II , 1940–72...

Send us Fan Mail IMRAM   is a longstanding festival that celebrates writing in Irish. This year sees it going digital with an enticing series of 'magical film' featuring translations of Ovid , Rilke's Duino Elegies, the Scottish performer and poet MacGillivray   and much more. We spoke to festival director Liam Carson about the inspirations behind this year's programme. Today&a...

Send us Fan Mail It’s not quite winter yet but we thought we’d begin with some poems to get us in the mood for the approaching season. Thanks to John O’Donnell, Jean O’Brien, Jane Clarke and  Mark Granier for reading some of their favourite winter poems. Today’s Toaster Challenge guest is Kathleen MacMahon , whose new novel Nothing But Blue Sky   has recently been published.  Kathleen’s choice is...

Send us Fan Mail Are dictionaries still important? Who uses them? How does new words get into a dictionary? Are they ever kicked out?  Today's show features a discussion of an important new addition to the Irish language, the Concise New English Irish Dictionary   edited by Pádraig Ó Mianáin and also looks at  the latest updates to the Oxford English Dictionary . This week's Toaster Chal...

Send us Fan Mail Who are the people who keep a love of books alive in our city and in our communities? Our Toaster Challenge guest is Bernadette Larkin who has extensive experience in literature and arts education for children and young adults. Bernadette chats to us about books for young adults and, among other things, her role as project manager and curator of  Our City Our Books , an initiative...

Send us Fan Mail This morning, to mark Irish Book Week, we go on a virtual tour of Dublin bookshops past and present. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Kerry Hardie , whose new poetry collection, Where Now Begins , is published in November by Bloodaxe Books. Kerry's Toaster Challenge choice is The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, translated by Michael Hofmann. In Moving Light by Martijn de Boer (N...

Send us Fan Mail This morning's episode pays tribute to the late Derek Mahon , one of Ireland's finest poets, and also considers the work of Louise Glück who has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. We also review the Abbey Theatre's production of Patrick Kavanagh's The Great Hunger at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. This week's Toaster Challenge is author Nei...

Send us Fan Mail Today we look at one of the most famous poems of the twentieth century as we consider Ian Sansom’s brilliantly entertaining book about the poem and the poet, September 1, 1939: W.H. Auden and the Afterlife of a Poem . We’ll also be looking at the latest novel by Elena Ferrante , The Lying Life of Adults . This week’s Toaster Challenge guest is Mary O’Donnell , whose poetry collect...

Send us Fan Mail This week we delve into the fiction, and particularly the short stories  of the other Elizabeth Taylor . Our Toaster Challenge guest is novelist and Arts Council Head of Literature Sarah Bannan who talks about Weightless , writing and the plight of artists in Covid times. And we also explore Lee Harwood's collection The Orchid Boat . Toaster Challenge choice: Sarah Crossan, H...

Send us Fan Mail On this morning's show we discuss Manchán Magan's newly published Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost words of the Irish landscape , and our Toaster Challenge guest is the widely acclaimed Irish actor Owen Roe . The Whole Story, the 3 October event he mentions in The Pavilion Theatre has had to be cancelled because of the Level 3 restrictions in Dublin. Toaster Challenge ch...

Send us Fan Mail Today's show opens with a discussion of Zadie Smith's lockdown essays, Intimations ; our Toaster Challenge guest is Caitriona Lally , author of the award-winning Eggshells , and we also feature the work of poet Michael Hartnett (1941-1999). Thanks to filmmaker Pat Collins for permission to use audio excerpts from his film about Michael Hartnett ' A Necklace of Wrens...

Send us Fan Mail This week features a celebration of the work of Eugene McCabe, who died in August, with particular focus on his timeless novel Death and Nightingales . Our Toaster Challenge guest is poet and former Director of Poetry Ireland Joe Woods and we also discuss Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie’s Selected Poems . Toaster Challenge choice : Raymond Carver, A New Path to the Waterfall . Intro/...

Send us Fan Mail Today's show features Helen Dunmore's final novel Birdcage Walk and her poetry collection Inside the Wave .   Our Toaster Challenge guest is journalist and broadcaster Olivia O'Leary , and we also review Stanley Plumley's The Immortal Evening: A Legendary Dinner with Keats, Wordsworth and Lamb. Toaster Challenge choice : Eibhear Walshe, Kate O'Brien: A Wri...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s show features Deborah Levy’s Things I Don’t Want to Know , Flights by Olga Tocarczuk ; the Toaster Challenge guest is poet and playwright Adam Wyeth . We also discuss Charles Simic’s latest collection of poems Come Closer and Listen and The Life of Images: Selected Prose. Toaster Challenge choice: Clarice Lispector , Hour of the Star Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire...

Send us Fan Mail This morning's show features an excursion into the country in the company of a favourite novel of Enda's, J.L Carr's A Month in the Country . Toaster Challenge guest debut novelist Marianne Lee talks about the inspiration behind A Quiet Tide , recently published by New Island, and we travel, at least in our heads, to Sweden to explore the poetry of Lars Gustafsson ,...

Send us Fan Mail This morning we consider two books concerned with the arts of looking and seeing: On Looking: a walker's guide to the art of observation by Alexandra Horowitz, and Ditch Vision: essays on poetry, nature and place by poet and critic Jeremy Hooker . Our Toaster Challenge guest is poet John O’Donnell whose first collection of short stories Almost the Same Blue has recently been...

Send us Fan Mail This week we console ourselves by looking at books about people and places, our Toaster Challenge guest is Philip Davison whose novel Quiet City has recently been published by Liberties Press, and we delve into Julie O'Callaghan's new book of poetry Magnum Mysterium. Other books mentioned: Jan Morris, Among the Cities, Alasdair Reid, Inside Out and Outside In Jan Martel...

Send us Fan Mail Today's episode begins with a look at the sadly postponed Strokestown Poetry Festival and celebrates the publication of the Strokestown Anthology. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Alice Lyons , author of the recently published Oona , and Peter Sirr chooses a poem by Francis Ponge . Toaster Challenge Choice : Linda Norton , Wite Out Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire , ‘Tho...

Send us Fan Mail On this morning's show a mix of poetry and espionage, and what it's like to qualify as a solicitor and give up law on the same day. Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr discuss collections of short poems such as Short and Sweet: 101 Very Short Poems , edited by Simon Armitage and the newly published The Word Ark , a pocket-sized anthology of poems responding to our fellow creatures...

Send us Fan Mail In this opening episode of Books for Breakfast Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr discuss Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell ; author of the multiple prize winning The Narrow Land     Christine Dwyer Hickey takes on the Toaster Challenge (an uninterrupted 2 minutes to present a favourite book; today's choice is Apeirogon by Colum McCann ) and Peter Sirr talks about the poetry of Pearse H...