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Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Amelia Loulli wins Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize
In The Irish Times tomorrow, a host of our leading authors and well-read critics recommend the best books of the year so far for your reading pleasure. Gill Perdue tells Fiona Gartland about her latest thriller, The Night I Killed Him. Stephen Collins reflects on Telling the Truth is Dangerous: How Robert Dudley Edwards changed Irish history forever, Neasa MacErlean's biography of her grandfather, who taught Collins at UCD. And Carol Drinkwater discusses her latest novel, her career and Irish roots. Reviews are Séamas O'Reilly on the best graphic novels of the year so far; Andrew Lynch on Fatherhood: A History of Love and Power by Augustine Sedgewick; Ruby Eastwood on It's Terrible the Things I Have to Do to Be Me: On Femininity and Fame by Philippa Snow; Claire Hennessy on the best YA fiction; John Boyne on Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told by Jeremy Atherton Lin; Jessica Traynor on Ocean by Polly Clark; Huda Awan on The Boys by Leo Robson; Tim Fanning on Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis by Tao Leigh Goffe; Philippa Conlon on All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman; Lucy Sweeney Byrne on Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski; Adrienne Murphy on After the Train, edited by Evelyn Conlon and Rebecca Pelan; Stan Erraught on Rebecca S Miller's Are You Dancing? Showbands, Popular Music and Memory in Ireland ; John Walshe on Human Resources: Slavery and the Making of Modern Britain – in 39 Institutions, People, Places and Things by Renay Richardson and Arisa Loomba; and Kevin Power on Oddbody by Rose Keating. This weekend's Irish Times Eason offer is The Drowned by John Banville, just €5.99, a €6 saving. Eason offer Amelia Loulli has won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize 2025, supported by the Atlantic Philanthropies and run by The Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast. READ MORE Loulli was announced as the winner for Slip, published by Jonathan Cape, during the award night readings in the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast. She is a PhD candidate at Newcastle University where she researches the poetics of breath and writing trauma. In 2021 she won a Northern Writers' Award and in 2023 she was writer in residence at the British School in Rome. She lives in Cumbria with her three teenagers. 'Thank you to the judges for choosing Slip as their winner,' Loulli said. 'It's hard to articulate how much it means, all these years after beginning to write Slip's first poems, to have this work recognised with such an honour. 'I wrote Slip in the hope that it might challenge inherited shame by opening conversations about the stories and experiences we find it hardest to share. I also wrote these poems as I write all of my poems- in a state of wonder at the immense power of language and in conversation with the poets I most appreciate and admire- many of whom are past winners of this very prize. I'm extremely grateful to the judges and to the Seamus Heaney Centre for confirming Slip in such excellent company.' This year's judges were Prof Fran Brearton, Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow Fiona Benson, and Dr Dawn Watson. The shortlist also included The Butterfly House, by Kathryn Bevis; High Jump as Icarus Story, by Gustav Parker Hibbett; rock flight, by Hasib Hourani; The Iron Bridge, by Rebecca Hurst; and Food for the Dead, by Charlotte Shevchenko Knight. The prize is awarded annually to a writer whose first full collection has been published in the preceding year, by a UK or Ireland-based publisher. The winning writer receives £5,000 and is invited to participate in the Seamus Heaney Centre's busy calendar of literary events. * ONE, an imprint of Pushkin Press, is to publish Little Vanities, the third novel by prizewinning author and critic Sarah Gilmartin next May. Set in Dublin, Little Vanities follows the decades-long friendship between two couples from their Trinity college days to early middle life. Exploring their marriages and intertwined relationships, the novel circles around a performance of Pinter's Betrayal, with the play's depiction of deception, hidden emotions and veiled motivations all too present in the real world. Displaying Gilmartin's flair for magnetic storytelling readers will expect from her novels Dinner Party and Service, Little Vanities weaves multiple timeframes and points of view into her most compelling and ambitious work yet. Gilmartin said: 'I'm very happy to be published once again by the brilliant Pushkin Press and can't wait for them to share Little Vanities with readers. It's a story about the messy, interconnected relationships of two couples approaching 40 who can't quite let go of their youthful desires and ambitions. An exploration of longing, as driver and destroyer, it looks at the lengths people are willing to go to in the pursuit of pleasure over pain.' Publisher Laura Macaulay said: 'I'm in awe of what Sarah Gilmartin has achieved with Little Vanities: it's a sexy, funny, irresistibly clever novel about betrayal and desire written with incisive bite – the characters are living with me still. Readers are going to love it.' Gilmartin won the Máirtín Crawford Short Story Award in 2020. Her debut novel Dinner Party (ONE, 2021) was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award and the Kate O'Brien Award. Her second novel Service (ONE, 2023) was a Washington Post top books of summer and included in the Irish Times list of the best Irish fiction of the 21st century (2025). She is the current Arts Council Writer-in-Residence at Dublin City University. * Bestselling thriller author Jo Spain has moved to Zaffre, the flagship adult commercial fiction imprint of Bonnier Books UK, in a six-figure deal. World English rights for three books were acquired by Zaffre publisher Ben Willis from Nicola Barr at Rye Literary. Never To Be Found, the first book in the deal, is a standalone thriller to be published June 2026. It's based on a chilling phenomenon in Japan known as Jōhatsu - people who vanish voluntarily from their lives. Spain is the author of 13 bestselling thrillers, including three No.1s. She is also a successful screenwriter, and, along with her writing partner David Logan, she showruns Harry Wild, now in its fifth season. On her own, she has written the new mini-series Mix Tape, which won the audience choice award at the prestigious U.S. festival SXSW and has just been released in Australia to rave reviews. The series has been picked up by BBC2 for a late summer release. She is currently adapting her own novels The Trial, with Metropolitan Pictures (Wednesday), The Last to Disappear with Finland MTV and Don't Look Back with Archery Pictures. * To mark the publication of Two Kinds of Stranger by Steve Cavanagh, the thriller writer will be doing an event at Eason's, O'Connell St, Dublin on Thursday, July 24th, at 7pm. Tickets at €5 will be available to buy from and are redeemable against the book. * The National Concert Hall, in collaboration with the ARINS project (Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South), the Royal Irish Academy and Notre Dame University, will present a landmark public event, For and Against a United Ireland, on November 30th, at 7.30pm. As part of the NCH Talks series, two of the island's most respected journalists and commentators, Fintan O'Toole and Sam McBride, will each present their arguments for and against a united Ireland, a timely and thought-provoking discussion based on their forthcoming book from the RIA. Tickets: €20 (Book & Ticket Bundle €35) * Nicola Sturgeon, former First Minister of Scotland, will discuss her memoir Frankly with writer and journalist Susan McKay at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace on Tuesday, August 19th, at 7.30pm. Tickets are £22.50. Frankly recounts her journey from working-class roots in Ayrshire to the forefront of Scottish politics as the country's first female - and longest-serving - First Minister. Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire receiving his second PhD in March 2025 Irish Food History: A Companion, co-edited by Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire of TU Dublin and graduate Dr Dorothy Cashman, has been named Best Culinary History Book in the World at the 2025 Gourmand Awards, held during the Cascais World Food Summit in Portugal. This global recognition highlights TU Dublin's international leadership in culinary arts scholarship and affirms the university's reputation as a centre of excellence in food culture, history, and academic publishing. Published by the Royal Irish Academy, Irish Food History: A Companion takes readers on a compelling journey through Ireland's culinary heritage from the Ice Age to the contemporary food scene. The richly illustrated volume features contributions from TU Dublin staff and graduates, including Dr Elaine Mahon, Dr Brian J. Murphy, Margaret Connolly, current PhD candidate Fionnán O'Connor, and PhD graduates Dr Tara McConnell and Dr John D. Mulcahy. The book's distinctive visual design is the work of Brenda Dermody from TU Dublin's School of Art and Design. Speaking at the award ceremony at the Estoril Congress Centre, Gourmand Awards founder Edouard Cointreau praised the publication, stating: 'Congratulations to the Royal Irish Academy, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Dorothy Cashman on the publication of Irish Food History: A Companion! This expertly curated and richly illustrated volume offers an extraordinary journey through Ireland's culinary past. With contributions from leading historians and a masterful blend of storytelling, research, and evocative descriptions, the book is a treasure for anyone passionate about food, history, and cultural heritage.' Established in 1995, the Gourmand Awards are the only international competition dedicated to books on food and drink culture. Open to entries in all languages and involving over 200 countries annually, the awards are a global benchmark of excellence in food writing and scholarship. Mac Con Iomaire welcomed the award as a milestone moment for the university: 'We are overjoyed to have our book appreciated on the global stage. This accolade reflects not only the calibre of research and collaboration taking place at TU Dublin, but also the university's growing global influence in the culinary arts.'
Irish Times
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The rise of romantasy: Escapist books become more popular as real-world challenges loom
You're all alone. Abandoned, scared and defenceless. Then a tall, dark, handsome and magical stranger enters – and you're swept up in an exciting adventure. Swept up, that is, until you close the pages of the book before you. Romantasy – a blend of romance and fantasy – is the term that has been given to the rapidly rising literary genre that is taking over bookshelves here and abroad. Authors including Sarah J Maas and Fourth Wing writer Rebecca Yarros are queens of the genre, netting sales in the millions across the globe – Yarros's new novel Onyx Storm sold 2.7 million copies in its first week of sales in January – but Irish authors are also part of the literary trend, with names such as Catherine Doyle, Sarah Rees Brennan and Jessica Thorne sealing deals for romantasy novels with international publishing houses. In romantasy fiction, human heroines are often plunged into fantastical realms, where faeries, vampires and magical beings rule, and love blossoms between unlikely characters and in thrilling circumstances. Often, the suitor is older or immortal, while the usually very young heroine tends to be capable (though they may not know it), beautiful (though they may not realise it), and forced to take on death-defying challenges (almost always). What's the appeal of such fiction for readers? 'It's wish fulfilment,' says Mila Taylor (37) a Dublin -based librarian who hosts the Wisteria romantasy book club in Dundrum Library. 'It's living a greater, better, more exciting life. Another thing you see in a lot of romantasy books is not only romance, but a sense of friendship, loyalty and community.' READ MORE 'It's taking off, even among people who don't read,' says Nikki Shields (37) a corporate marketer who is a member of the Wisteria book club. 'Lots of people are getting into it. Romantasy is its own world. It follows normal life – it's somewhat realistic – but there's a magical element. There are different elements of folklore, it manages to combine old worlds and new worlds without it seeming ridiculous.' Nikki Shields: 'Romantasy is somewhat realistic but there's a magical element.' Photograph Nick Bradshaw With a large following among female readers in their 20s through to their 40s, romantasy also appeals to teenagers who may have come to the genre through their enjoyment of young adult novels such as Twilight by Stephenie Meyer or Leah Bardugo's Shadow and Bone fantasy series. 'Most of my reading right now is in the romantasy genre,' says Chloe Horgan (16), from Dublin. 'It's very popular with people my age. The two genres mixed together add layers to the story, plus most of the time the stories tend to be very easy to read.' Around the country, bookshops are creating new sections devoted to the romantasy genre. In the Dubray bookshop in Rathmines, Dublin, bookseller Molly O'Neill shows me to their section devoted to romantasy and fantasy fiction. 'When I'm in meetings on Zoom with representatives from publishers and they're trying to sell us the books for three months from now, they are saying the word romantasy a lot,' O'Neill says. 'I'm hearing it more and more, especially in young adult fiction and fantasy.' The romantasy section of the Eason bookshop on O'Connell Street, Dublin As a fan of romantasy herself, how did she get into the genre? 'I've always read fantasy,' she says. 'My sister had some of the Sarah J Maas books so I started reading them. Sarah J Maas isn't exactly high literature but I will read all of her. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is another classic in the genre. It's quintessential romantasy.' We pause by a shelf featuring a new romantasy bestseller from Galway author Catherine Doyle entitled The Dagger and the Flame. 'There's a group of thieves and a group of assassins and it's a Romeo and Juliet-type story,' O'Neill says, describing 17-year-old heroine Seraphine and her love interest Ransom, heir to the Order of Daggers. What did she think of the plot? 'I wouldn't forgive him for some of the stuff he does. The male characters in romantasy tend to be very tortured. It's a grumpy sunshine kind of thing, but the girls are always the sunshine and the man is always the grumpy.' Catherine Doyle, Galway author of romantasy bestseller The Dagger and the Flame Grumpy sunshine? That's a BookTok term, referring to a love story where one character is dark and brooding, and the other cheerily optimistic. It's part of a shorthand often used online on Reddit, Goodreads and StoryGraph alongside others that are sometimes easy to understand ('love triangle'), and sometimes require a certain leap of the imagination ('reverse harem' is where the woman character has many male lovers). For younger readers in particular, BookTok and Bookstagram – the book-loving corner of Instagram – play a large role in driving sales and sparking interest. Books are given 'spice' ratings online to indicate how much explicit sexual content is in them. On BookTok, popular posters will merrily spend whole videos unpacking the amount of 'spice' in romantasy novels. For readers new to the genre, the surprise may lie in discovering how conservative many of the offerings actually are. Yes, it's true there are plenty of longing looks cast in A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, but her human heroine Feyre Archeron (19) spends most of the first novel in the series chastely mooning over the 'muscled midriff' of her masked suitor Tamlin, a High Fae and High Lord of the Spring Court who can transform into a beast. [ From the archive: Sarah J Maas: 'Just because you have great hair doesn't mean you can't kick ass' Opens in new window ] In The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, a romantasy that follows the adventures of Jude who is brought up in the faerie world after her human parents are murdered, the pace of the action would make Jane Austen look almost racy. Or as one Reddit user puts it: 'it's low/almost no spice.' Many romantasy novels are grounded under the wider category heading of young adult fiction, and many romantasy authors, like Catherine Doyle, started off writing for young adults. Doyle began writing romantasy during Covid, when she penned a trilogy with her sister-in-law Katherine Webber called Twin Crowns. 'It's about a witch and a princess separated at birth. We wrote it for the love of the genre and as a bright spot during the pandemic. It turns out we were tapping into something that publishers were crying out for. We were very fortunate to sell Twin Crowns to 20 different foreign publishers at a time when everyone was looking for light, escapist fantasy.' [ Catherine Doyle: 'Death and loss do exist in the world of children, so I never try to shy away from them' Opens in new window ] In Doyle's opinion, the reason the romantasy genre has become so successful is because it plays off classic fairytale tropes readers have grown up loving. 'Even as adult readers so many of us never lose that grá for whimsical, childlike concepts,' Doyle says. 'Magic, adventure and enchantment continue to appeal, romantasy just makes them more accessible to us.' Escapist literature may also be becoming more popular as real-world challenges – from job insecurities to the realities of emigration or housing issues – loom for a new generation of readers. Reality biting? Burying your head in a romantasy novel might seem a solid option. When Mila Taylor first arrived in Ireland in the early 2000s from Poland with her family, fiction was an important refuge for her as a lonely teenager struggling to find her way. Librarian Mila Taylor, founder of the Wisteria book club at Dundrum Library. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 'I joined fifth year in Tullow Community School in Carlow. It was a huge adjustment because I was one of the few non-Irish people there,' she says. 'I found my group of people in the migrant group mostly and we all loved fantasy. I went on to university, I started meeting people, and going to book clubs. Then I met my wife, who is a writer. And an opening came up in the council in the library section so I moved: I did the degree and became a librarian.' Now a librarian with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Taylor founded the Wisteria book club in March in part because she wanted to nurture readers who may crave the community that books can offer. She is protective of the romantasy genre, as she believes it often comes in for unfair criticism from highbrow readers who dismiss it as 'popcorn fiction' without ever bothering to read it. As with women's literature in the 1990s, there's a sense that women are being scorned for their reading tastes. This, she says, is unfair. 'Fiction helps you develop empathy,' she says. 'It helps you look at things from a different point of view. Romantasy has that extra something to it that makes it more wish fulfilment, but also fun. It's already becoming mainstream and hopefully more accepted.' Nikki Shields believes the genre is ephemeral but enjoyable, and maybe that's the point. 'I wouldn't be reading them the whole time,' she says. 'I don't like that they all blend into one, to a degree. I find some of them are quite lazy in their writing and ideation because they're just trying to tap into something that's a popular scene. But I enjoy reading them while I'm reading them. They're otherworldly.' Perhaps the genre's very simplicity is also its strength: it has the capacity to bind readers together and build community. In the United States, fans in their thousands attend literary gatherings to have a chance to be close to romantasy stars like Yarros and Maas. Just as with Twilight and Harry Potter, there are midnight release parties for books and costumes for Halloween based on iconic characters such as Feyre Archeron. For fans of the genre, these literary gatherings and parties are invaluable in a world where so many are isolated online. For Taylor, her love of romantasy and fantasy fiction has given her both a career and a community. Having had a tough start in Ireland in the 2000s, is she in a good place in life now? 'I'm in a very happy place,' she says. 'A love of stories and books is what got me here.'
