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Fiction

Don Quixote is the best book out there on political theory, followed by Hamlet and Macbeth. There is no better way to understand the tragedy and the comedy of the Mexican political system than Hamlet, Macbeth and Don Quixote. They're much better than any column of political analysis.

Subcomandante Marcos

Wednesday, 24 June 2020 07:54

Land of Change: call out for Welsh anthology of radical writing

Written by Gemma June Howell

in Fiction

Gemma June Howell issues a call out for a new collection of radical writing from Wales. The above painting is The Rising by Gustavius Payne We are in an era of pestilence and protest, exacerbated by the social and economic inequalities laid bare by the coronavirus. As statues and other…

Tuesday, 19 May 2020 07:55

The Gael becomes Irish: the long-term consequences of colonisation

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

Jenny Farrell reviews Tomás Mac Síomóin's The Gael Becomes Irish: An Unfinished Odyssey, Nuascéalta, 2020. “The Gael Becomes Irish”is Tomás Mac Síomóin’s latest publication, and it continues his epic effort to detail the almost unfathomable effect that colonisation has had on the Irish psyche and culture. By doing so, he…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 14 May 2020 10:51

Melissa Diem: what it means to be human

in Fiction

Written by Fran Lock

Fran Lock continues her series of interviews with under-represented feminist writers and artists, with an interview with the writer, artist, film-maker and photographer Melissa Diem Melissa Diem was born in New York and has lived in Ireland since she was twelve. She has a degree in psychology and an MPhil…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 11 May 2020 09:09

Charles Dickens and working-class literature

in Fiction

Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell discusses Charles Dickens, the first English novelist to put ordinary people at the heart of the story This month marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens, who was born in 1812, during the Napoleonic Wars. Although his authorial perspective was always rooted in the petty-bourgeois…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 19 April 2020 15:38

Robert Tressell's 150th anniversary

in Fiction

Written by Jenny Farrell

Robert Tressell was born 150 years ago, on 17 April 1870 - see here

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 02 April 2020 14:21

Callout: Working People’s Stories in Contemporary Ireland

in Fiction

Written by Jenny Farrell

Culture Matters is taking an initiative in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis to compile a second anthology of working-class writing. We hope it will be one way for working people to creatively express their anxieties, experiences and thoughts about various aspects of their lives in these troubled times. Our…

Friday, 27 March 2020 15:17

'Most good art is queer': Fran Lock interviews Golnoosh Nour

Written by Fran Lock

in Fiction

Fran Lock interviews Dr Golnoosh Nour, who was born in Tehran, about her new book, The Ministry of Guidance and Other Stories. Her debut poetry collection Sorrows of the Sun was published in 2017, and she teaches at Birkbeck College and the University of Bedfordshire. FL: Thank you so much…

Audre Lord Keith Jarrett Joelle Taylor Iris Murdoch Saleem Haddad

Sunday, 09 February 2020 10:12

Relating the personal to the political: Stormlight, by Jan Woolf

Written by Paul Simon

in Fiction

Paul Simon reviews Jan Woolf's latest collection of short stories This latest collection by Jan Woolf is like a Swiss Army penknife. Each is of different length and intention but all gleam with an incisiveness that will impress even the most casual reader. There are arguably two themes which unite…

Friday, 10 January 2020 15:57

The Good Soldier Svejk: or How to Stay Sane in an Insane World

Written by

in Fiction

Chris Guiton discusses Jaroslav Hašek’s comic masterpiece, The Good Soldier Švejk and his Fortunes in the World War, as tensions rise again in the Middle East Albert Camus once remarked, “It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.” The latest round of…

Tuesday, 12 November 2019 17:20

From the dystopian chaos of the free market to the solidarity of co-operative communism: the Maddaddam trilogy

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

Jenny Farrell discusses Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy Margaret Atwood, who turns 80 in November 2019, has written several novels that explore dystopian situations or circumstances where people are subjected to control and violence. Arguably, the most famous of these is The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). However, what distinguishes Atwood’s work is…

Margaret Atwood