Join SYP Ireland and a lineup of Ireland’s most exciting new and emerging literary journals for an Irish Book Week showcase in celebration of Ireland’s journal publishing community, run in partnership with Chapters Bookstore and Irish Book Week 2023 ambassador Courtney Smyth, author of The Undetectables.
From 9.00am–4.00pm, participating publishers will display their journals for sale at stands around the store, where they’ll also be available to chat with publishing hopefuls, writers and readers about their work. Information about the event, and about journal publishing around Ireland, will be available from the SYP Ireland stand near the front of the store.
At 4.00pm, we will come together for a series of readings featuring one contributor to each participating journal, plus a reading from The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth.
This event is unticketed and free to attend for SYP members and non-members. Please join us for the readings to hear some of the beautiful work that Ireland’s new crop of journals have to offer, or drop in at a time that suits you!
Channel is a literary journal born out of the climate crisis, publishing writing in English and Irish that fosters connection between people and planet. It aims to create space for the emergence of new narratives surrounding nature in the public consciousness, building a community of writers, artists and readers grounded in shared ecological concern.
Paper Lanterns YA Literary Journal was founded in 2020. Publishing three times a year, it promotes the voices of young people and provides new and exciting content for a teen and young adult audience. It is also perfect for enthusiasts of teen and YA literature; teachers, librarians, parents and youth workers. The journal has three sections; book reviews, features and essays, and creative writing and art. Paper Lanterns is committed to providing opportunities for young readers, writers and artists. At least 50 percent of contributors are teenagers, giving them the unique platform to share their stories alongside YA writers and artists.
Profiles is a literary and visual-arts journal dedicated to character studies and portraiture, edited by Clare Healy and Sarah Sturzel. Profiles’ second issue is set to be published in November, featuring work by writers and artists living in Ireland and abroad. We love writing that channels the author’s insatiable curiosity about other people (or their talent for self-reflection), is empathetic without bordering on apologia, and shows human nature as it is, not necessarily as it should be. We publish portraiture across all visual media, and are open to experimental takes on the term ‘portrait’.
Sans. PRESS is a Limerick-based press, with a focus on short story anthologies. Under the motto fresh & weird, we platform unexpected stories written by new and emerging writers. Each of our books is built around a theme and a piece of visual art, offering diverse perspectives on the same idea. Funded by the Arts Council since 2021.
Set up in May 2019, Sonder is an Irish literary journal. Issue VII features short stories, creative nonfiction, and flash fiction by brand new writers from Ireland and beyond. These stories centre around the theme of identity and the idea of sonder – the realisation that passersby have a mind as vivid and complex as your own. Also includes an original piece by, and an interview with, bestselling author Sue Rainsford offering advice to aspiring and emerging writers.
Courtney Smyth
Courtney Smyth is a caffeine fiend, one web search away from their newest fixation, and, most relevantly, a writer of stories. Their work has also appeared in anthologies Into Chaos and The Last Five Minutes of a Storm, and in Paper Lanterns Literary Journal. They have been writing about ghosts, demons and murders since they were ten and have no plans to stop. They are from Dublin, currently living and writing in the West of Ireland with their partner and their pet corn snake, Steve.
Courtney will be available to meet readers at a stand in Chapters from 3.00pm, and will give a reading from The Undetectables as part of the series of readings beginning at 4.00pm.
Sahar Ahmed, reading from work published by Sonder:
Sahar Ahmed (she/her) is from Lahore, Pakistan, where she worked as a Barrister for many years, and between all the time spent in London and now, Dublin (where she works as an academic), she no longer knows what’s ‘home’. She is fat, she is Brown, and is deeply committed to the idea of a future where Black and Brown people do not need to do ‘anti-racist work’ in order to survive.
Colm Brennan, reading from work published by Profiles:
Colm Brennan is poet and writer from Bray, Co. Wicklow. His publication credits include Poetry Ireland Review, The Cormorant, The Waxed Lemon, Sonder, Profiles and The Ogham Stone. Colm was selected to take part in the Poetry Ireland Introductions series 2023 and is a recent recipient of an Arts Council Agility Award. He has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick.
Emma Muldoon Ryan, reading from work published by Paper Lanterns:
Emma Muldoon Ryan is a Cork poet and literary critic for the Irish Examiner and Children’s Books Ireland. She is in her third year of a BA in Creative Digital Media in MTU Cork. Her passion for writing began 5 years ago at the age of 16. She has been mentored by Kathy D’Arcy, another Cork poet. She’s been published by Tír na nÓg, The Irish Times and The Journal as well as Paper Lanterns. Her poetry has also been broadcast on RTÉ Arena with Colm Keegan.
Maria O’Brien, reading from work published by Sans. PRESS:
Maria O’Brien is an Irish writer living in Dublin. She studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and has had short stories published with Neon Hemlock and Kayla King Books. Currently, she is working on a contemporary gothic novel set in the Dublin suburbs.
Rory O’Sullivan, reading from work published by Channel:
Rory O’Sullivan is from Cork and lives in Dublin, where he does a PhD in ancient Greek literature. His poetry has been published in various magazines and anthologies, including four times in Channel (all the even numbers!)