Yesterday I drove up to Belfast to read as part of the Belfast Book Festival.

The event was a celebration of Irish literary journals, two readers each from The Tangerine, Banshee, and myself and Annemarie Ní Churreáin representing The Stinging Fly, each got to read a sample of our work in the setting of the Crescent Art Centre.

(my, ‘plugging the journal’ pose)

I read an extract from my story Lying on a Beach, which features in the Summer 2017 issue of The Stinging Fly.

I traveled up with my good friends Susan Tomaselli, the editor of gorse, and the poet and essayist Dimitra Xidous. There’s nothing like a good discussion about the importance of breakfast to make a car journey more enjoyable (it was actually much more fun, and interesting, than it sounds, but I’ll leave the explanation to others!)

It was a really enjoyable event, with a great crowd. My only regret is that I couldn’t stay on longer to enjoy the hospitality more.

(under the watchful gaze of Declan Meade, editor of The Stinging Fly)