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Today’s show marks 25 years since the foundation of the Strokestown International Poetry Festival in Co. Roscommon. This year’s festival takes place over the May Bank weekend, May 3 - 5. We spoke to the Director,  Joseph Woods about the festival and his new book, Veld Fires. We also feature poems by Eva Bourke whose Tattoos was published this year, and Patrick Deeley, who reads from his new collection, Keepsake.
We also interview the Welsh poet Tony Curtis , whose new collection is Leaving the Hills. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Today’s show marks Poetry Day Ireland with readings by the five poets shortlisted for the Strokestown International Poetry Competion, the winner of which will be announced at the Festival over the May Bank Holiday Weekend. And we go the Trinity College Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation to talk to poet Paul Muldoon about his role as Ireland Professor of Poetry and his new collection of poems Joy in Service on Rue Tagore.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Artwork by Freya Sirr

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We’re joined on this morning’s show by Mary Costello, whose new collection of short stories, Barcelona, has just been published by Canongate.

"Barcelona is full of devastating lines … Costello is working in the tradition of her literary heroes [Kafka, Musil, Coetzee]: delivering insights which are painful but also energising because of the beauty with which they're captured … The most impressive collection I've read in some time" 
JOHN SELF 
The Times

"Clear-eyed and provocative, bruised and bruising: these are the stories of a writer at the very top of her game" 
EIMEAR MCBRIDE

"It is rare that a writer of fiction can evoke such depth of feeling and visceral/moral revulsion as Mary Costello … in stories dealing with cruelty to animals, especially the slaughter of farm animals; rare that marital intimacy is so powerfully rendered" 
JOYCE CAROL OATES

"Costello's writing is insistent, precise and unsparing. Everyday acts and ordinary lives are infused with a sense of the skull beneath the skin and of a catastrophe held tautly at bay" 
Observer

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Artwork by Freya Sirr

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On this mornings's show we talk to Victoria Kennefrick about her new collection Egg/Shell, just published by Carcanet, a double album, as she describes it, which explores early motherhood and miscarriage, and the impact of a spouse's gender transition and the dissolution of a marriage. The book is a follow-up to her widely acclaimed first collection  Eat or We Both Starve.Hers had been described as one of the boldest poetic voices to emerge in recent years and Egg/Shell is The Poetry Book Society Spring Choice 2024.

‘It is hard to hurt and then explain the hurt away / so as not to hurt anyone. But have you seen / my life?’ (‘Child of Lir’)

Today also sees the return of the Toaster Challenge, where our guest talks for the length of time it takes to cook up a nicely done slice of toast about a book that has resonated with them. Victoria's choice is Falling Awake by Alice Oswald.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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On today's show we discuss Fleur Adcock's Collected Poems, newly published by Bloodaxe Books, and we go to the launch of two more Bloodaxe books in Hodges Figgis, Kerry Hardie's We Go On and Aoife Lyall's The Day Before. We talk to both poets about their work and listen to them reading their poems. So put the kettle on and join us!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Artwork by Freya Sirr

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We're back with a show dedicated to a book commemorating the life and achievement of a fondly remembered writer: Distant Summers: Remembering Philip Casey, Writer, Fabulist, Friend, edited by Eamonn Wall, Katie Donovan and Michael Considine, Arlen House, 2024. We feature contributions by Katie Donovan, Dermot Bolger and Michael O'Loughlin, and Michael Agustin reading his poem from the book.

We also cover the recently announced winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and readings of poems by the two Irish shortlisted poets, Jane Clarke and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin.

Jason Allen-Paisant,  this year's winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, full video here

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Not Books for Breakfast this time but a link to our poetry programme Stanza on RTE Radio 1. 

In conversation with fellow poets, Paula Meehan and Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr will discuss why poetry matters. We also visit Poetry Ireland to hear about their big plans for 2024, and hear from viral spoken word poet Mikey Cullen. Produced by Clockwork Productions, producer Fiona Kelly. Additional reporting by Taylor Mooney.

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We're not back in full podcast  mode quite yet but we will be back in the autumn, all going well, and in the meantime we visited poet James Harpur during his stint as Trinity College Writer Fellow and we thought it was time for a couple of summer poems. Have a listen and enjoy the summer!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music "Timeless One" by Solas. 

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Enda has been recovering from a recent injury so podcast productivity has taken a hit, but we're back with our first episode for a while, which features a conversation about Basho with Andrew Fitzsimons, whose Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho has recently been published by the University of California Press. And we've got the old toaster working again and revived the Toaster Challenge. Andrews's choice is Three Days by Thomas Bernhard.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music "Timeless One" by Solas. 

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Some of the highlights of this year's Books for Breakfast, featuring contributions by Gabriel Byrne, Thomas McCarthy, Wendy Erskine, Colm Tóibín, Brian Leyden, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Leland Bardwell, Kevin Power, John McAuliffe, Kelly Michels, Mark Granier, Judith Mok and Mark Roper.

Endaand Peter also discuss some of the books on their desks at the moment: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern Worldby David W. Anthony;Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year by Eleanor Parker; The Magpie and the Child by Catriona Clutterbuck;Strettoby David Wheatley;My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley;Crooked Love/Grá fiar byLouis de Paor; Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connelland Earth’s Black Chute by Cian Ferriter.

Extract fromLá dá raibh/One Daycourtesy of Rockfinch Ltd.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music from Audio Library Plus.

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Welcome to a special  Books for Breakfast edition this morning to celebrate  Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's 80th birthday. We wish her all the best on this very special day. This  is
an edited audio version of the interview we did in 2020 in MoLi to celebrate the publication of her Collected Poems. Listen and enjoy!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today we talk to Liam Carson, Director of annual Irish language festival Imram, about this year's programme. And we interview Mark Roper about his latest collection of poems, Beyond Stillness, of which Martina Evanswrote in the Irish Times:

Roper has an unerring sense of the gulfs between the miracle and damnation, life’s beginning and its end:

As I dragged the dead hare
from the road, a crack of bone.
Those marvellous feet, mishandled.
Its shadow waits on the moon
but the hare is nailed to earth.

(The Hare)

 Mark will be reading from Beyond Stillness at 3.00 pm on Sunday 27 November in Books Upstairs, D’Olier Street, Dublin, and in The Molly Keane House, Dysert, Ardmore  on Thursday 8 December, time to be confirmed. 

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On todays’s show we talk to Judith Mok, whose memoir The State of Dark has just been published by Lilliput. Judith Mok was born in the Netherlands, to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. She trained as a classical singer and travelled the world performing as a soloist, and has also  fiction and poetry. For the last twenty years she has been based in Ireland, where she works as a voice coach with classical singers and  international pop stars.

The State of Dark is a memoir and detective story. Like many children of Holocaust survivors, she was raised with the emotional trauma of having no other family members, while her parents tried to rebuild their lives in postwar Europe. Despite the constant and occasionally intrusive presence of the past – Anne Frank’s father Otto makes an emotional visit to her father to hand over some letters – she had little concrete information about the hundreds of members of her family who died. All the same, the Holocaust and its consequences continued to haunt her life.
Some praise received by The State of Dark:

‘The State of Dark is a privilege to read. With luminous prose, Judith Mok shines a light into the darkness of her family’s past. It is an extraordinary feat of storytelling to be able to write about inconceivable tragedies with such warmth and humanity.’ LOUISE NEALON
‘Possibly the most powerful book to be published in Ireland this year … unforgettable’ DERMOT BOLGER, SUNDAY BUSINESS POST

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Does love poetry still pack a punch? Do new anthologies of love poetry have anything to say about the kind of world we live in? Join us on today’s show to hear some answers as we discuss Romance Options: Love Poems for Today, just out from Dedalus Press. We’ll be talking to editors Joseph Woods and Leanne Quinn, and we’ll be listening to poems read by contributors Mark Granier, Catherine Ann Cullen, Mark Roper, Kelly Michels, Martina Dalton, Philip Davison, Seán Lysaght, Grace Wilentz,  Joseph Woods and Enda Wyley.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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What’s the state of criticism in Ireland? Who needs reviewers and critics and are they even worth reading in any case? Well, one man who is worth reading is Kevin Power, novelist, whose The Written World, just published by The Lilliput Press, gathers some of the reviews and essays he’s written over the last decade. I’ll be talking to Kevin about his book in this, the last Books for Breakfast of the current season; we hope you’ve enjoyed the journey so far and hopefully we’ll be back with more in the autumn. In the meantime feel free to enjoy the now extensive back catalogue of breakfast bites …

Kevin Power established his reputation early, with the publication ofBad Day at Blackrock, which told a fictionalised version of a story that had gripped the country, the death of Brian Murphy  in Dublin in 2000 as a result of a violent assault outside a nightclub. That novel was subsequently made into the award winning film What Richard Did  directed by Lenny Abrahamson in 2012. He was the winner of the 2009 Rooney Prize and last year his much anticipated second novel White City was published and won a lot of attention and praise. A darkly funny book, it revisits the same sort of terrain occupied by Bad Day at Blackrock, set in the word of Celtic Tiger Ireland among the city’s privileged and in this case ruthless upper classes, and it’s in the voice of the seriously shattered son of a South Dublin banker desperately trying to piece his life together. 

Praise for The Written World
'Kevin Power’s glorious collection reveals a writer to depend upon.'
Declan Hughes in The Irish Independent

The elegant and intelligent essays in The Written World will appeal to anyone with an interest in literary criticism.

– Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time

'The Written Worldis a testament to Power’s well-deserved status as one of Ireland’s most reliably engaging writers. Oh, and did I mention he’s often hilarious, too?'
– Totally Dublin

'...his book is metropolitan and cosmopolitan in word and spirit, enlightening and amusing, and across its pages art is happening too.;
– drb.ie

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Three poetry collections on the breakfast table today ... We begin with Stars Burn RegardlessbyJean O'Brien and Moonlight: A Full Moon by  Louise C. Callaghan, both published by Salmon Poetry.  Of Jean's bookMark Roper has said 'These poems rise to their occasion, they are tough, tender, generous, passionate and deeply engaged — I cannot recommend Stars Burn Regardless highly enough.' Thomas McCarthy has written of Louise's book: 'Here is this marvellous poet of elegies and celebrations, seasons and servants, of boarding school and trundling foreign journeys. Louise C. Callaghan has a keen eye for detail and a poet’s gifted ear.'

And where is satire when you need it? Chris Agee's Trump Rant is a visceral response to Donald Trump,  'a combination of long-form radicalism and eclectic satire, startingly unique in its blend of aphorism, acuity and epic cultural imagining.' Brew up a big pot of tea or coffee, get the toast on and listen to what these poets have to say ....

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today's show is a bit special. We're very happy to feature My Name Suspended in Air: Leland Bardwell at 100, published by Lepus Print, to coincide with Poetry Day Ireland 2022.  Leland was a remarkable poet, and indeed fiction writer, and this book is a selection of her poems chosen by Irish women poets and writers:  Eva Bourke, Jackie Bardwell, Mary Branley, Siobhan Campbell, Jane Clarke, Evelyn Conlon, Monica Corish, Enda Coyle-Greene, Martina Devlin, Katie Donovan, Anna Dunn, Fionnuala Gallagher, Peggie Gallagher, Tess Gallagher, Olivia Goodwillie, Eithne Hand, Libby Hart, Rita Ann Riggings, Alannah Hopkin, Ann Joyce, Alice Lyons, Una Mannion, Joan McBreen, Molly McCloskey, Paula Meehan, Patsy J. Murphy, Kate Newmann, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Annemarie Ni Churreain, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Mary O’Donnell, Mary O’Malley, Enda Wyley.

We'll be in conversation with Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Brian Leyden, and poems will be read by Libby Hart, Molly McCloskey, Mary O'DonnellandAnna Dunn.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This morning we talk to Colm Tóibín in New York about his debut poetry collection, Vinegar Hill.

From the best-selling author of Brooklyn, Nora Webster, The Master, and the recent The Magician Colm Tóibín’s first collection of poetry explores sexuality, religion, and belonging through a modern lens.

‘Fans of Colm Tóibín’s novels will relish the opportunity to re-encounter Tóibín in verse. Vinegar Hill explores the liminal space between private experiences and public events as Tóibín examines a wide range of subjects—politics, queer love, reflections on literary and artistic greats, living through COVID, and facing mortality. The poems reflect a life well-traveled and well-lived; from growing up in the town of Enniscorthy, wandering the streets of Dublin, and crossing the bridges of Venice to visiting the White House, readers will travel through familiar locations and new destinations through Tóibín’s unique lens.
Within this rich collection of poems written over the course of several decades, shot through with keen observation, emotion, and humor, Tóibín offers us lines and verses to provoke, ponder, and cherish.’ (Penguin Random House)

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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We begin this weeks's show with In Trust. In Gratitude. In Hope. 10 Years at the Laois Arthouse, an exhibition featuring the work of over 60 artists who have been part of the Laois Arthouse programme since its establishment in 2011 by Laois County Council Arts Service. Enda talks about a book that has impressed her recently, The Black Snow by Paul Lynch.
Our guest this morning is John McAuliffe, whose Selected Poems, was published last year by Gallery Press. John talks about his work and his Toaster Challenge Choice, In the Same Light: 200 Tang Poems for Todayby Wong May,which is a Poetry Books  Society Translation Choice for Spring 2022.

McAuliffe’s gift is to be mindful of elsewheres. He swerves to effect: his shrewd sideways and backwards glances count, pouring light on a subject from several directions simultaneously. Any given moment is likely to be underpinned by what went on before or what is to come. He knows the power of parallel universes.

 — Kate Kellaway, The Observer

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This morning actor and writer Gabriel Byrne talks toBooks for Breakfast about his newly published memoir Walking with Ghosts. In a lively and wide ranging conversation with hosts Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr Gabriel talks about his love of reading, his favourite writers, and the importance of memory for both acting and writing,

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today's show is devoted to an in-depth interview with poet Thomas McCarthy, whose Poetry, Memory and the Party: Journals 1974-2014 has recently been published by Gallery Press. The journals span forty years of Thomas McCarthy’s life lived between a modest background and the ‘Big House’ of West Waterford and his immersion in the literary life of Cork against the troubles of a changing Ireland. It's an intimate portrait of a poet's life with all its attendant excitements and frustrations, as well an engrossing account of the literary and social milieu of  Cork, the Anglo-Irish world of the Brigadier whose Victorian garden he replanted, and his travels farther afield.

‘For those interested in literature, this is addictive reading material, offering unparalleled insight into the many joys and sundry frustrations of someone who determined early to devote himself to the pursuit of his literary vocation.’ — Clíona Ní Ríordáin, The Irish Times

Thomas's Toaster Challenge choice is Ethel Mannin's Young in the Twenties.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

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A special Christmas Eve edition of Books for Breakfast. In the last episode of the year we pay  tribute to the work of Thomas Kinsella 1928-2021. We also feature some highlights from this year’s podcast. So take a break from turkey basting and join us for a listen!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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'A single one of Keegan's grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.'
– Hilary Mantel

'A haunting, hopeful  masterpiece'.
– Sinéad Gleeson

'Astonishing ... Claire Keegan makes her moments real – and then makes them matter.'
– Colm Tóibín

'A moral tale that is unsentimental and deeply affecting, because true and right.'
– Andrew O'Hagan

Some of the responses toClaire Keegan's new book. Today on Books for Breakfast, in an extended and wide-ranging interview,  Claire talks to us about and reads from  Small Things Like These.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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On today's show we talk to two poets who have published new collections: Eleanor Hooker, whose Of Ochre and Ash is published by Dedalus Press, and Amanda Bell whose Riptide is available from Doire Press. Eleanor's Toaster Challengechoice is 'Snow Woman',  a poem by Breda Wall Ryanwhile Amanda chooses 'I Worried',  a poem by Mary Oliver.
And we mark the passing of two fine Irish poets, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Brendan Kennelly.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

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On today's show we talk to Liam Carson, director of the Irish language literary festival IMRAM about this year's wide-ranging and adventurous hybrid programme, which starts today. And we talk to Alannah Hopkin about her honest and heartbreaking literary memoir of the lives of two Irish writers,  A Very Strange Man : A Memoir of Aidan Higgins, published by New Island Books. Alannah's Toaster Challenge choice is Songs for the Flames, stories by International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner Juan Gabriel Vasquez.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today's show is a short story special and double Toaster Challenge edition. We begin with John MacKenna whose We Seldom Talk About the Past, the first selection of short stories from one of Ireland's great masters of the form, has just been published by New Island. John's Toaster Challenge choice is Raymond Carver's All of Us: The Collected Poems.
Next up is Madeleine D'Arcy, who talks about her follow up to her award-winning first collection Waiting for the Bullet with Liberty Terrace, published by Doire Press. Madeleine's Toaster Challenge choice is Alastair McLeod's No Great Mischief.  A very full programme today; enjoy!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Why have women been treated differently, and discriminated against, in the literary world? Why has gender been a ‘problem’ in the writing, publishing, funding and reviewing scene? And why does it matter?Éilis Ni Dhuibhne asked twenty one writers who were born in mid-twentieth-century Ireland, north and south, to write about their literary lives. The resulting essays, full of fascinating insights into the journeys of these writers, are published as  Look! It’s a Woman Writer!: Irish Literary Feminisms, 1970-2020editedby Eilis Ni Dhuibhne.Enda interviews Éilis and writer Catherine Dunne, who also contributes to the book. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

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To celebrate thirty years of the Irish  Writers Centre, Enda talks to co-host Peter, who was the first director of the Centre, about the early years, and Peter talks to current director Valerie Bistany about current activities and plans for the future. And the toaster is back in action, with Valerie choosing Kent Haruf’s Plainsong for her Toaster Challenge.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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We ease our way back into breakfast book chat after our summer intermission with an episode on what we read ourselves during the summer. Enda chooses Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women, while Peter selects Deer on the High Hills: Selected Poems by Iain Crichton Smith, edited by John Greening.
We also give a shout out to this weekend'sFingal Poetry Festival and to forthcoming and recently published books such as Hugo Hamilton's The Pagesand Colm Tóibín's The Magician.

No Toaster Challenge this morning as we're getting the toaster fixed, but it will be back in operation next week. 

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Today, in the last podcast in the current season, Enda Wyley talks to Aoife Lyall about her debut collection Mother Nature, published by Bloodaxe Books. Aoife's Toaster Challenge Choice is A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume, published by Tramp Press in 2017.
And Books for Breakfast co-host Peter Sirr talks about his Intimate City: Dublin Essays, just published by Gallery Press.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today former RTE producer and writer Julian Vignoles, know for his biographies of Rory Gallagher and David Thomson of Woodbrook fame, reviews Sinéad O'Connor's memoir Rememberings, described as 'inspiring, liberating, hilarious and fascinating'  by theIrish Times and 'beautifully observed ... lyrical, funny and anguished' by the Guardian.

Our Toaster Challenge guest is Victoria Kennefickwhose debut collection Eat Or We Both Starve,was published recently by Carcanet.  Her collection draws readers into seemingly recognisable set-pieces - the family home, the shared meal, the rituals of historical occasions, desire - but gives them new shapes and uses them to explore what it is to live with the past  and not to be consumed by it.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This morning's show features  interviews with two outstanding writers. First up isLouise Kennedy whose collection of stories The End of the World is a Cul de Sac has been widely praised. 'A dazzling, heartbreaking debut collection' said the Guardianwhile the Sunday Times said that 'Kennedy's voice, and her unforgiving gaze, are electric'.
OurToaster Challenge guest is the fine poet Penelope Shuttle whose new collection, Lyonesse, is published this month by Bloodaxe. The submerged land of Lyonesse was once part of Cornwall, according to myth and the oral tradition, standing for a lost paradise in Arthurian legend, but for this poet, who has lived all her adult life in Cornwall, it's now an emblem of human frailty.
Her Toaster Challenge choice isDenise Levertov's still available Collected Earlier Poems 1940-1960.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Other music:
'Undertow' and 'Wanderlust' by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Alone, Purple Planet Music, https://www.purple-planet.com/

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today we talk to Evelyn Conlon whose new collection of stories, Moving About the Place, has recently been published by Blackstaff Press. Brilliantly written, witty, and full of the sharp observation for which Conlon is well known, Moving About the Place brings together some of the best of her recent work, along with brand-new stories, including a novella, to show how borders, movement and history change and transform people’s lives.
Evelyn’s Toaster Challenge Choice is the classic Enormous Changes At the Last Minute by Grace Paley.
First up on the show  is James Harpur’s The Examined Life,a sequence of honest and compelling poems about his five years in a boy’s boarding school in the 1970s. We discuss his memorable account and listen to the poems he recorded specially for us.


Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Other music:
Soft Interlude by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com
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Link music: Green Fields ©Scott Holmes Music https://www.scottholmesmusic.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Where did Dublin's uber-toffs live in the eighteenth century? Melanie Hayes drops in to talk about The Best Address in Town, Henrietta Street, Dublin and Its First Residents, 1720-1780, published by Four Courts Press. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Moya Cannon, whose Collected Poemswas recently published by Carcanet, featuring more than three decades of fine work. Moya's Toaster Challenge choice is the classic The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd. Bring them with you on your morning walk!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Link music: Green Fields ©Scott Holmes Music https://www.scottholmesmusic.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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We're looking eastward toward today, with Toaster Challenge guest poet Justin Quinn who joins us from Prague, and we review the latest collection of stories from Bucharest based Philip Ó Ceallaigh. Justin's latest collection Shallow Seas was published by Gallery Press late last year; Philip's collection, Trouble, will be published by The Stinging Fly in May but is available for pre-order.

Today's Toaster Challenge choice is Edith Templeton's Living on Yesterday. Templeton was born Edith Passerová in Prague in 1916, to wealthy Bohemian parents  and published a number of novels in English.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Undertow by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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This waning moon
         is pitiless, as dawn
swiftly follows and we
       must separate –
such heartbreak!
–Mibu No Tadamine

Today's show features James Hadley and Nell Regan talking about their translations of Japanese classical poetry for A Gap in the Clouds published by Dedalus Press. And we travel all the way to Melbourne for an interview with Australian poet Grant Caldwell whose Blue Balloon is a collection of his  best haiku and senryu poems spanning several decades. So bring these brilliant tanka, haiku and senryu with you on your morning walk ....

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Yugen by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
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Alone, Purple Planet Music, https://www.purple-planet.com/

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Welcome to the audio edition of the special Books for Breakfast video  podcast for Mountains to Sea dlr Books Festival.  We were delighted to be the opening event for the festival, with two writers and  two Toaster Challenges. Our first  guest was  Laura McKenna, whose new, ambitious and epic novel Words to Shape My Name  has just been published by New Island. Inspired by true events, this outstanding story of failure hope and resilience traverses continents and two centuries and has at its core the unbreakable bond between the Irish rebel Lord Edward Fitzgerald and his manservant. Laura was followed by Conor O'Callaghan whose much-anticipated second novel, We Are Not In The World, about a man in the aftermath of a painful love affair driving a haulage lorry from England to France with his twenty something daughter, has just been published by Doubleday.

Laura's Toaster Challenge choice was André Brink's A Dry White Season, while Conor chose Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Video podcast intro music was 'Homage to  Brian Keenan' by Fintan Vallely from Merrijig Creek

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Welcome to the 25th episode of Books for Breakfast! On today’s show we review Apocalypse: An Anthology, edited by James Keery, the first anthology of Apocalyptic or neoromantic poetry since the 1940s and including more than 200 poets. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Una Mannion whose novel A Crooked Tree has just been published by Faber to considerable acclaim. Una’sToaster Challenge choice is Louise Kennedy’s short story collection The End of the World Is A Cul-de-Sac. So put the coffee on and enjoy!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Link music: Green Fields ©Scott Holmes Music https://www.scottholmesmusic.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today we look at Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus, often considered her most brilliant novel,  and poet Peter Robinson's investigation of the relationships between poets, poetry and money from Chaucer to the the present in Poetry and Money. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Leeanne Quinnwhose new poetry collection Some Lives  has recently been published by Dedalus. Leeanne’s Toaster Challenge choice is Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets  by Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich,  described by the New York Times as 'A symphonic oral history about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia'.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Link music: Alone, Purple Planet Music, https://www.purple-planet.com/
and Green Fields ©Scott Holmes Music https://www.scottholmesmusic.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This week we begin by looking at Days of Clear Light, a festschrift in honour of Salmon Press founder Jessie Lendennie to celebrate 40 years of the poetry press. Peter reflects on a favourite book, Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, and our Toaster Challenge guest is actor Cathy Belton, fresh from her performance in the Landmark Productions online version of Mark O’Rowe’s The Approach.
Cathy’ s Toaster Challenge choice is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Link music: Alone, Purple Planet Music, https://www.purple-planet.com/


Artwork by Freya Sirr

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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 books mentioned in the episode.

Maurice Scully, Play Book
Justin Quinn, Shallow Seas
Grace Wilentz, The Limit of Light
Victoria Kennefick, Eat Or We Both Starve (Due Mar 2021)
Doireann Ní Ghríofa,  To Star the Dark
Moya Cannon,Collected Poems(Due this year)
Jessamine O’Connor, Silver Spoon
Poems from Pandemia, edited by Patrick Cotter
Patrick Cotter,Sonic White Poise
Greg Delanty, No More Time
Jeffrey Wainright, As Best We Can
Thomas A. Clark, A Threadbare Coat: Selected Poems
Apocalypse An Anthology edited  by James Keery,

Jean O’ Brienread her poem ‘Hotter Stars Burn Blue’ from Glimmering Girl, her forthcoming collection .

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.


Artwork by Freya Sirr

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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  byDanielle 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  byConor O’Callaghan
The Death of Francis Bacon  by Max Porter
The Dark Room  by Sam Blake
Life Sentences by Billy O’Callaghan
Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce  by Nuala O’Connor
White City by Kevin Power
A Shock  by Keith Ridgway
Weirdo  byZadie Smith and Nick Laird

Also mentioned was RTE’s Spoken Stories, Independence,  a collection of 12 stories where authors write about what Independence means to them.

Today's Toaster Challenge Guest isPhilip Coleman, Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and co -editor of  The Selected Letters of John Berryman.  We feature a rare recording of John Berryman reading from the Dream Songs and discuss Berryman's life, work and letters. Philip's Toaster Challenge is the groundbreaking new anthology, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle edited by Kevin Young.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This is our bumper Christmas episode, featuring two Toaster Challenges withTara Bergin and Paula Meehan respectively. Paula also discusses  her recently published As If By Magic: Selected Poems.Tara'sToaster Challenge Choice isFernando Pesssoa's The Book of Disquiet,translated byMargaret Jull Costa, while Paula chooses  More than concrete blocks: vol. II, 1940–72: Dublin city's twentieth-century buildings and their stories.

Tara also reads  a poem byAnne Carsonand we features some  books we enjoyed this year: Eiléan Ní Chuilleanéain's Collected Poems, the new Bloodaxe anthology Staying Human edited by Neil Astley and Donal Ryan's novel Strange Flowers.
 
The show also features a Christmas poem by James Harpur, and poems from recently published collections Revolutions of Humming Things  by Aoife Reilly, Fox Trousers by Eithne Hand, and Street Light Amber by Noel Duffy.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Song for Better Times by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/47949 Ft: smilingcynic

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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's Toaster Challenge guest is Henrietta McKervey whose A Talented Man  was published this year. Henrietta's Toaster Challenger is Anagrams  by Lorrie Moore.

Marbhna leRainer Maria Rilke aistrithe ag Máire Mhac an tSaoi, ceol le Sean MacErlaine, léite ag Dairena Ní Chinnéide. Le caoinchead ó IMRAM.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 Clarkeand  Mark Granierfor 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 isThe Spare Room  by Helen Garner

Poems read:

‘Lines for Winter’  by Mark Strand, read by John O’Donnell
‘Snow’  by Louis MacNeice, read by Jean O’Brien
‘Those Winter Sundays’  by Robert Hayden, read by Enda Wyley
‘Small Cold Poem’ by Sally Purcell, fromCollected Poems , edited by Peter Jay,   Anvil Press, 2004, read byPeter Sirr
‘Winter Love'  by Linda Gregg, read by Peter Sirr
‘River Snow’ Liu Tsung-yuan, read byPeter Sirr
‘Mistaking the season’ by Yosa Buson, read by Peter Sirr
‘To Juan at the Winter Solstice’ by Robert Graves, read by Seán Lysaght
‘February Evening in New York'  by Denise Levertov, read by Enda Wyley
‘Encounter' by Czeslaw Miłosz, read by Mark Granier
'Glacier' by Gillian Clarke, read by Jane Clarke

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

1000 Years by fourstones (c) copyright 2005 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/victor/2302
Romance for Piano and Cello by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/50238 Ft: AT

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 Challenge guest is poet and nature writerSeán Lysaght  whose account of the North Mayo landscape, Wild Nephin, has just been published. His choice is the acclaimed Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Song for Better Times by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/47949 Ft: smilingcynic

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 of Dublin City Council Culture Company.

What books matter to you?  Bernadette is eager to hear from readers about the books that matter to them. People are invited to send in their recommended reads and take part at https://www.ourcityourbooks.ie/

Bernadette’s Toaster Challenge choice for young adult readers  is Sarah Crossan’s novel Moonrise, published by Bloomsbury. She also talks about The Hate You Give  by Angie Thomas and Mal Peet’s  The Family Tree while young reader Freya Sirr chats about a favourite of hers, Anna and the Swallow Man  by Gavriel Savit.

We also discuss  Hilary Mantel's memoir Giving Up the Ghost and her novel The Giant, O’Brien.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Royalty free music from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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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 (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/61272

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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This morning's episode pays tribute to the late Derek Mahon, one of Ireland's finest poets, and also considers the work ofLouise 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 authorNeil Hegarty whose novel The Jewel was published last year. Neil's choice is Alison Lurie's The War Between The Tates.

Thanks to Gallery Press for permission to read two poem by Derek Mahon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 collection Massacre of the Birds has just been published by Salmon Books. 

The Toaster Challenge choice  is On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeousby Ocean Vuong

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 Challengechoice: Sarah Crossan, Here is the Beehive.


Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 Challengechoice: J.P. Priestley,Lost Empires

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 filmmakerPat Collins for permission to use audio excerpts from his film about Michael Hartnett 'A Necklace of Wrens' (1999). Poems quoted are by kind permission of the Estate of Michael Hartnett and The Gallery Press.

Toaster Challengechoice: Dorthe Nors,Mirror, Shoulder, Signal

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 Challengeguest is poet and former Director of Poetry Ireland Joe Woods and we also discuss Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie’sSelected Poems.

Toaster Challengechoice: Raymond Carver,A New Path to the Waterfall.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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Today's show features Helen Dunmore's final novelBirdcage Walk and her poetry collectionInside the Wave. Our Toaster Challenge guest is journalist and broadcasterOlivia O'Leary, and we also review Stanley Plumley's The Immortal Evening: A Legendary Dinner with Keats, Wordsworth and Lamb.

Toaster Challengechoice: Eibhear Walshe,Kate O'Brien: A Writing Life

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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Today’s show features Deborah Levy’s Things I Don’t Want to Know, Flights byOlga Tocarczuk; the Toaster Challenge guest is poet and playwright Adam Wyeth. We also discuss Charles Simic’s latest collection of poems Come Closer and ListenandThe Life of Images: Selected Prose.

Toaster Challenge choice:Clarice Lispector,Hour of the Star

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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, whose Selected Poems, translated by John Irons, are published by Bloodaxe Books.

Toaster Challenge choice: Olga Tokarczuk:Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 published by Doire Press. John's choice is John Banville's The Book of Evidence and the episode also features readings of poems by Jeremy Hooker from The Cut of the Light: Poems 1965-2005.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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This week we console ourselves by looking at books about people and places, our Toaster Challenge guest is Philip Davison whose novelQuiet 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, The High Mountains of Portugal
Tove Jansson,The Summer Book
Gabriel Garcia Marques,Love in the Time of Cholera
Toaster Challenge choice: Nicholson Baker, A Box of Matches

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work byFreya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click on the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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, great and small, published at a time when not only the animal kingdom but the world at large is beset by dangers on an unprecedented scale. It is, in the words of its editor Pat Boran, “An invitation to look more intently at the world beyond ourselves, an external balance to our inner turmoil.”

Today's Toaster Challenge guest is singer-songwriter, film maker and advertising man Nick Kelly.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or click on the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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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 Hutchinson.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or click on the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

Support the Show.