Young Irelanders
Dave Lordan. ed.
What genre is it?
Short story anthology
Quick description:
Twelve emerging writers who live in Ireland (two were born elsewhere) contribute short stories with the goal of showing the incredible mosaic of thought and talent present in modern Ireland.
Why I recommend this book:
I have always been a great devotee of short stories. They allow for a degree of experimentation in alternative structures and utterly macabre situations that are wearying in longer formats. Over the years, I’ve probably reviewed more short story anthologies than you’ve had hot dinners and this one actually stands as the best I have run across. There are no ‘fillers’, no story you speculate made it in because the writer had slept with the editor. There is all the experimentation and daring situations I referred to, yet even the stories that follow a traditional narrative structure show a maturity in deep exploration of character that any writer in the world would be proud to author. Ireland has always punched above its weight in terms of literary art – a nation of four million, about the population of Toronto, has once again delivered the successors to Wilde, Shaw, Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, Doyle … well, you get the point.
Links for people to buy it:
The publisher, New Island Books, can be found at their website.
Hubert O’Hearn’s latest title or project:
On a daily basis I am working with emerging writers myself, through my Six Months to Better Writing course (email me at ohearnofireland (at) gmail.com for details). In terms of literary output, my collaborator Ciara Donnelly and I are polishing the one-act musical plays we have written, known collectively as The Four Freedom Plays. There is also a new collection of poetry on the horizon, following up on my earlier Random Acts of Love and comprised totally of the poems composed here in Ireland, where I emigrated in 2012.
Hubert O’Hearn was previously featured on Reading Recommendations in April, 2015. Information on Hubert’s Writers’ Pro Shop was also featured on my main blog.
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