Selling rights and book fairs—all you need to know for London and Frankfurt How do you sell rights for your books in other languages? What about other territories? What are the advantages of attending book fairs in London and Frankfurt and how should you prepare? These are just some of the questions that Ivan O’Brien, Managing Director of The O’Brien Press and Chair of Dublin Book Festival will answer, in an online course hosted by Publishing Ireland on Wednesday April 05, 10.00am – 12:00pm. The O’Brien Press has been trading rights for over 40 years, and there is nobody better experienced tha ..read more

Tara Grant and Nikki Reddy The Book Centre, Wexford How it started The Book Centre Wexford opened in 1977, just down the street from where our shop is now. Sean Ryan opened The Book Centre Waterford a few years before the Wexford branch and saw an opportunity on the main street of Wexford for a book shop. We moved to a bigger three-floor premises around 10 years later. Sean’s daughter Maeve now runs the business. There is still an employee who moved with us from the original location all those years ago! Our Wexford shop has shifted and changed to suit our customers over the years but we ..read more

HarperCollins Ireland will publish Gods Don’t Cry by Ellen Ryan in October Conor Nagle, publisher at HarperCollins Ireland has bought world all language rights to Ellen Ryan’s Gods Don’t Cry from Lauren Gardner at Bell Lomax Moreton. Illustrated by Conor Merriman and aimed at young readers, with inclusive characters and storylines, Gods Don’t Cry will be published on 26 October. Ellen Ryan’s hugely successful first book Girls Who Slay Monsters won an Irish Book Award in 2022, and her retellings of ancient Irish myths for a modern audience were the i ..read more

In this excerpt from The Irish Defence Forces, published by Four Courts Press, Eoin Kinsella discusses the efforts of the Army Organization Board and the Temporary Plans Division to modernise the Irish Defence Forces in the late 1920s. by Eoin Kinsella By early 1925 it was clear that the Irish Defence Forces had weathered the storm of demobilization. For the first time since January 1922, following civil war, large-scale demobilization and the Army Mutiny crisis of 1924, time and space were available for a comprehensive review of the state’s defensive needs. Peadar MacMahon’s tenure ..read more

Illustrator of Milly McCarthy is a Complete Catastrophe, by Leona Forde (Gill Books), Karen Harte talks all things artful for the next in our Under the Covers series What brought you to illustration?  I studied English & Media in college and then went on to study animation, which led to my career in visual and motion design. I have always, always loved to draw. Like most people, it was something that I did since I was very young, but thankfully I kept it up.  Some of my earliest memories were reading my grandad’s comic scrapbooks, where he would paste Garfield ..read more

The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch (Little Island) is shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal In fitting style, Little Island Books was announced as the first Irish publisher to be shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal on St. Patrick’s Day. The Eternal Return of Clara Hart, the debut by Louise Finch, made the seven-strong shortlist, which is the most prestigious children’s book prize in the English-speaking world. Publisher Matthew Parkinson-Bennett said it was a major achievement, not just for Louise Finch and for Little Island—but for Irish children’s publishing. “Little Island may ver ..read more

The Greening of Trinity College ©Tourism Ireland From drowning the shamrock to the first parade—read about St Patrick’s Day in 18th century America in an extract from Patrick, by Alannah Hopkin (New Island) by Alannah Hopkin While figures for emigration from Ireland were high for the whole of the nineteenth century, they reached their peak in the years before and after the Great Famine of 1845. Significantly for the spread of the cult of St Patrick, those who left during these years came, by and large, from the same social class which was instrumental in elevating St Patrick and the shamrock t ..read more

Pan Macmillan publishing mentorship programme is open for applications Are you a bookseller who would like to know more about the publishing industry? Pan Macmillan Publishing Mentorship Programme is now open for applications. The opportunity is open to booksellers in Ireland and the UK with applicants from all backgrounds and communities being encouraged to apply, with a deadline of April 11, 2023. The roles of the bookseller and the publisher can often seem disconnected, even though their primary goals are the same: getting great books into readers’ hands. Without proper insight into the pro ..read more

Alan Titley talks all things bookish for the companion series to our popular podcast, Burning Books The Táin: Ireland’s Battle Epic, by Alan Titley is the first chapter-book edition of Ireland’s greatest legend for more than 30 years.  Titley goes back to the source material for this new edition, and his translation sparkles with the wit and humour—as well as the thrill and battle—of the ancient tale. Illustrations by artist Eoin Coveney lend a fresh and modern feel. This is Celtic myth as you haven’t read it before. A book from your early days As a young fell ..read more

Long-list revealed for The International Booker Prize 2023 There are 13 books from 12 countries on the long-list for this year’s International Booker Prize, including work translated from Catalan, Bulgarian and Tamil, and features an Irish translator for the second time. Fiammetta Rocco, administrator for the prize said that through fable and myth, stories and sagas, the International Booker Prize proves that reading has no borders. “The longlist…leaps from Mexico to Sweden, from Norway to South Korea, from China to Guadeloupe, from Côte d’Ivoire to Ukraine.” Ninth Building, by Zou Jingzhi (H ..read more