The Anchor Book of New Irish Writing

An Anchor Paperback Original

An intelligent, sophisticated cross-section of Irish short fiction, ideal for casual readers and classrooms alike, that showcases where Irish writers are now, as well as where they are headed.

The contemporary Irish short story, perhaps even more than the novel, provides vital critical clues and guideposts for anyone interested in twentieth-century Irish writing--the Irish, after all, have always been a nation of storytellers, and the current practioners of this ancient tradition are in the process of exploding and rediefining the form.

The Anchor Book of New Irish Writing features a group of writers whose influence is already strongly felt in Irish literature, and who deserve to be better known in American, among them Aidan Matthews and Anne Enright.  The stories themselves are beautifully written, well-chosen by the editors, and presented in such a way as to guide readers through the fascinating dramatic, structural, and technical themes explored by contemporary Irish stories.  The result is a rich sampling of these writers including the work of more familiar ones-from Elizabetth Bowen to Neil Jordan-a collection that promises to introduce the new classics of Irish literature to a wider audience.

List of contributors:
Elizabeth Bowen
John Banville
Desmond Hogan
Bernard McLaverty
Cherry Smyth
Clare Boylan
Rita Kelly
Maeve Binchy
Anne Devlin
Evelyn Conlon
Emma Donoghue
Aiden Matthews
Anne Enright
Patrick McCabe
Rohan Sheenan
Michael O'Loughlin
Eamonn Sweeney
Marcy Dorcey
Ellis Ní Dhuibhne
Joseph O'Connor
Colum McCann
Neil Jordan

John Somer is a professor of English at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, and has long been a student of Yeats and Joyce. John Daly is both an Associate Lecturer at Great Britain's Open University and managing editor at C. J. Fallon publishers in Ireland.