Festivals and Events | Dublin Book Festival 2025

Dublin Book Festival 2025

– celebrating Ireland's writers and publishers –

Dublin Book Festival has announced it programme for 2025, with over 100 events taking place in venues around the city during the first full week in November, celebrating Ireland's writers and publishers. A selection of these events, that may appeal to writers and publishers in particular, are listed below.

• In The Art of Writing for a Living, writers and editors, Naoise Dolan, Martin Doyle, and Lisa McInerney delve into this very topic, in conversation with Gemma Tipton. Further information …
• At the festival's opening night, one of Ireland's best loved literary magazines, The Dublin Review, will be celebrated, with a stellar line-up of writers. Further information …

Several events showcasing and celebrating emerging authors include:

• Emerging Voices and Shadows of Our Past are panel discussions around debut novels
• Short Stories in Focus delves into three debut short-story collections
• The annual launch for the well-loved Winter Papers anthology will take place at that festival hub and is always a big draw for the writing community
• A walking-writing workshop will take place in the grounds of IMMA, with acclaimed poet and playwright, Colm Keegan, using nature as your muse
• Join a historical fiction writing workshop with author Juliana Adelman

The organisers "appreciate your support in reaching as many book lovers and keen writers as possible, and hope to see many of you there!"

The Dublin Book Festival takes place over five days in November. For further information, and to book your tickets, visit the festival's website.

New Books and Titles | Book Launch | Fianna by Susanne Carpenter

Fianna by Susanne Carpenter

– the epic saga continues –

Fianna, the second instalment in the Tuath trilogy by Susanne Carpenter will be launched this coming Thursday, 28 August at Chapters Bookstore, Parnell Street, Dublin starting 7pm.

It is a book that has all of the ingredients to thrill and enthral both new and returning readers.

In the year 2027, with the world facing the rapid onset of volcanic winter, the Tuath Dé Danann must travel through time to halt the effects of the ash cloud strangling the planet. Their hopes rest on deploying the Claíomh Solais (sword of light), a powerful laser designed centuries into the future.

They are aided and abetted in their efforts by the McNamara family, with whom they have banded together under the newly re-constituted Na Fianna. The challenges that they face are significant however, especially when faced with opposition from the most powerful people on Earth (past, present and future) and the prospect of having to defend Ireland in the face of invasion.

This is the scene and the setting for the newly published Fianna by Susanne Carpenter, a fast-paced, action-based adventure novel that blends sci-fi, fantasy, intrigue, themes from Irish mythology, and so much more. It follows up exactly where her debut novel, Tuath, leaves off.

Fianna by Susanne Carpenter is published under the imprint of Aos Sí and available to buy online, in print and e-book editions, along with other books in the Tuath trilogy.

New Books and Titles | Fishing in Irish Waters by Trevor Simpson

Fishing in Irish Waters by Trevor Simpson (a blow-in's tale)

– the third volume in the Cornish Fisherman’s Diaries series –

Yet another brilliant book by Trevor. … I wish more fishermen would put pen to paper! – Simon Neve

So writes one satisfied reader.

Fishing in Irish Waters: A Blow-in's Tale by Trevor Simpson is the third volume in the author's highly popular Cornish Fisherman's Diaries series of memoirs.

When Trevor Simpson arrived in Ireland in 1967, Dunmore East in Co. Waterford was home to just a few trawlers and some lobster boats. All that was about to change, however. More boats, most of them big trawlers, were arriving in Dunmore. The growth in the fishing industry increased and within the next few years, a great number of boats were purchased and added to the local fleet. Great enthusiasm was shown by fishermen from all around the coast. During this period, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) was most helpful. Their loan-and-grant scheme made things possible.

"Everyone connected with the fishing was so upbeat and confident in the industry's future. All of these boats joined the growing fleet at Dunmore East, and they were skippered and crewed mostly by local lads. Now, everything has changed. There are no young men down our harbour now."

In this book, Trevor Simpson offers a candid assessment of what has happened and why, charting both the highs and the lows in the rise and decline of Ireland's sea fishing industry. Even though the picture that he paints of the present state of affairs comes across as bleak, it could also serve as a call to action – a question of what could have been or what has yet to come?

"We do have our memories though. Despite the hardships and the dangers, fishing the way that we did it was the best job in the world."

Trevor Simpson is a retired sea fisherman who continues to reside in Co. Waterford, close to where he fished for many years. Prior to that, he fished out of Newquay in Cornwall. Fishing in Irish Waters: A Blow-in’s Tale is his third volume of memoir in the Cornish Fisherman’s Diaries series. He is also the author of Diary of a Cornish Fisherman: Newquay, 1962-1967, published in 2014 and A Cornish Fisherman's Irish Diary, published in 2017.

Fishing in Irish Waters: A Blow-in’s Tale by Trevor Simpson is published under the imprint of The Manuscript Publisher. It is available to buy online, in print and e-book editions, along with other books in the Cornish Fisherman’s Diaries series.

New Books and Titles | Tuath by Susanne Carpenter

Tuath by Susanne Carpenter

– an epic tale of breath-taking proportions blending sci-fi, fantasy, action/adventure with themes taken from Irish mythology –

Past, present and future must combine forces if they are to avert cataclysm and disaster, which can only signal the demise of civilisation and of the human race.

Sci-fi, fantasy, action and adventure blend with themes taken from Irish mythology (stories of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Fir Bolg, the Book of Invasions) to produce an epic saga of breathtaking proportions by debut author, Susanne Carpenter.

In a future world, many centuries from now, the last remaining inhabitants of Earth exist in a few isolated enclaves located across northern Europe. They have managed to overcome much of the onslaught through a loose alliance, constituted in a Council of Europe. Friction and discord among them is growing however, as resources dwindle and the struggle for survival intensifies.

The Irish enclave has fared better than others, thanks in the main to decisions made in the 21st century (our time), to invest in certain types of research and development. Even they realise, however, that time is running out and the only hope may be to travel back in time, to before the events triggered by volcanic eruptions of the year 2027, in a bid to offset or mitigate the consequences for the future, by introducing the technology that they have developed to an earlier time.

Along the way, they must also overcome fear, suspicion, jealousies, personal animosities, treachery, betrayal and mishaps.

Susanne Carpenter lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. An engineer by profession, Tuath is her debut novel but it is part of an intended trilogy, the second instalment of which, Fianna, is soon to be published and will be formally launched on Thursday, 28 August. Chapters Bookstore in Dublin is the venue and the evening gets underway at 6.30pm.

Tuath and Fianna by Susanne Carpenter are published under the imprint of Aos Sí and are available to buy online, in print and e-book editions.