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 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. Support the show

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. Enda and 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 World by 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; Stretto by David Wheatley; My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley; Crooked Love/Grá fiar by Louis de Paor; Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell and Earth’s Black Chute by Cian Ferriter. Extract from Lá dá raibh/One Day courtesy 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. 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. Support the show

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 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. Support the show

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 Evans wrote 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. 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. Support the show

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 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. Support the show

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 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. Support the show

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 of Bad 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 World is 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 Support the show

Three poetry collections on the breakfast table today ... We begin with Stars Burn Regardless by Jean O'Brien and Moonlight: A Full Moon by Louise C. Callaghan, both published by Salmon Poetry. Of Jean's book Mark 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 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. Support the show

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'Donnell and Anna 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 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. Support the show

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 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. Support the show

On this morning's show we talk to Wendy Erskine, whose second collection of short stories, Dance Move, has just been published by The Stinging Fly. And we feature two Ukrainian poems: 'Crow, Wheels' by Lyuba Yakimchuk, with permission from Words without Borders where it first appeared, and Ilya Kaminsky's 'We Lived Happily During the War' from his acclaimed collection Deaf Republic. Praise for Wendy Erskine's work: ‘I found Dance Move to be a profound, moving and brilliant collection of short stories.’—Adrian Duncan ‘Wendy Erskine writes a damn good story. She accomplishes something rare in having a style so distinctive that, just a few sentences in, each story is unmistakably hers….’—Caoilinn Hughes ‘Wendy Erskine is the greatest short story writer of her generation. Dance Move is a masterpiece.’—David Keenan ‘Dance Move is a triumph, each story so perfectly formed, each character vividly set and startling. I could not put this book down and loved every page. Wendy Erskine is a profound and ingenious story teller, a magnificent writer of the highest calibre.’—Salena Godden 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. Support the show

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 Today by 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 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. Support the show

This morning actor and writer Gabriel Byrne talks to Books 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 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. Support the show

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. 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. Support the show

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 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. Support the show

'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 to Claire 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 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. Support the show

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 Challenge choice is 'Snow Woman', a poem by Breda Wall Ryan while 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. 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. Support the show

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 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. Support the show

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 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. Support the show

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, 1970-2020 edited by 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. 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. Support the show