Gerard Beirne
@gerardbeirne.bsky.social
Author of 8 books of fiction & poetry. Recent:The Thickness of Ice (novel, Baraka Books, 2024);The Death Poems (Salt, 2023).Winner of Rubery Award for Fiction. Shortlisted Danuta Gleed Award, Bord Gais Irish Book Awards, & Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award.
Wishing Tom Waits a very happy 76th birthday!
December 7, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Wishing Tom Waits a very happy 76th birthday!
Joan Didion born December 5, 1934
December 5, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Joan Didion born December 5, 1934
“English words are like prisms. Empty, nothing inside, and still they make rainbows.”
― Denis Johnson
― Denis Johnson
December 5, 2025 at 4:21 PM
“English words are like prisms. Empty, nothing inside, and still they make rainbows.”
― Denis Johnson
― Denis Johnson
Book of the Year
Eoin at his best—sentence by sentence. Courageous, stark, & uncompromising.
Taking a true story, he nevertheless creates—like all great writers—his own unique version of that world, complete with its own language, which reveals the truth more clearly than reality can reveal itself.
Eoin at his best—sentence by sentence. Courageous, stark, & uncompromising.
Taking a true story, he nevertheless creates—like all great writers—his own unique version of that world, complete with its own language, which reveals the truth more clearly than reality can reveal itself.
December 4, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Book of the Year
Eoin at his best—sentence by sentence. Courageous, stark, & uncompromising.
Taking a true story, he nevertheless creates—like all great writers—his own unique version of that world, complete with its own language, which reveals the truth more clearly than reality can reveal itself.
Eoin at his best—sentence by sentence. Courageous, stark, & uncompromising.
Taking a true story, he nevertheless creates—like all great writers—his own unique version of that world, complete with its own language, which reveals the truth more clearly than reality can reveal itself.
"...producing hard solitary thought for hours a day. That’s what writing is and in that way it’s very hard work and it absolutely requires all the conditions that make one a bore."
Tobias Wolff
Tobias Wolff
December 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM
"...producing hard solitary thought for hours a day. That’s what writing is and in that way it’s very hard work and it absolutely requires all the conditions that make one a bore."
Tobias Wolff
Tobias Wolff
"My dad used to say good writing ain't necessarily good reading."― Ken Kesey
November 29, 2025 at 11:01 PM
"My dad used to say good writing ain't necessarily good reading."― Ken Kesey
Jennifer Egan: “The reason I like writing from a male point of view has to do with why I love writing, period, which is that I love the feeling of being delivered out of my self, out of my own life, and into another world.”
November 27, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Jennifer Egan: “The reason I like writing from a male point of view has to do with why I love writing, period, which is that I love the feeling of being delivered out of my self, out of my own life, and into another world.”
"The poem is a seagull resting on a pier at the end of the ocean."
Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer
November 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM
"The poem is a seagull resting on a pier at the end of the ocean."
Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer
“If your writing doesn't keep you up at night, it won't keep anyone else up either”
― James M. Cain
― James M. Cain
November 14, 2025 at 10:02 PM
“If your writing doesn't keep you up at night, it won't keep anyone else up either”
― James M. Cain
― James M. Cain
“Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.”
― Raymond Chandler
― Raymond Chandler
October 27, 2025 at 10:09 PM
“Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.”
― Raymond Chandler
― Raymond Chandler
Sharon Shannon and Alan O'Connor looking quite ethereal.
October 26, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Sharon Shannon and Alan O'Connor looking quite ethereal.
Liam Ó'Maonlaí giving it (Copperhead Road) welly on the bodhrán.
October 26, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Liam Ó'Maonlaí giving it (Copperhead Road) welly on the bodhrán.
Well, that's me recharged.
October 25, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Well, that's me recharged.
Waiting for Steve. And everyone else.
October 25, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Waiting for Steve. And everyone else.
“Don't use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry.”
― Jack Kerouac
― Jack Kerouac
October 23, 2025 at 11:08 PM
“Don't use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry.”
― Jack Kerouac
― Jack Kerouac
What's a great movie image that is ingrained in your head?
October 10, 2025 at 2:38 PM
What's a great movie image that is ingrained in your head?
Just leaving these here:
October 5, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Just leaving these here:
It needs to be said from time to time that Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott "Primarily I have a simple desire to shine my ass—to show off a bit in print" Chaze is just fabulous.
September 29, 2025 at 5:28 PM
It needs to be said from time to time that Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott "Primarily I have a simple desire to shine my ass—to show off a bit in print" Chaze is just fabulous.
"Kiss me and you will see how important I am."
Sylvia Plath (journal entry recalling a conversation with Winthrop Means).
Sylvia Plath (journal entry recalling a conversation with Winthrop Means).
September 27, 2025 at 6:31 PM
"Kiss me and you will see how important I am."
Sylvia Plath (journal entry recalling a conversation with Winthrop Means).
Sylvia Plath (journal entry recalling a conversation with Winthrop Means).
“All writing is pigshit. People who leave the obscure and try to define whatever it is that goes on in their heads, are pigs. The whole literary scene is a pigpen.”
Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) – French playwright, poet, actor, theatre director, and theorist.
Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) – French playwright, poet, actor, theatre director, and theorist.
September 23, 2025 at 8:26 PM
“All writing is pigshit. People who leave the obscure and try to define whatever it is that goes on in their heads, are pigs. The whole literary scene is a pigpen.”
Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) – French playwright, poet, actor, theatre director, and theorist.
Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) – French playwright, poet, actor, theatre director, and theorist.
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
- Leonard Cohen (who would have turned 91 yesterday).
- Leonard Cohen (who would have turned 91 yesterday).
September 22, 2025 at 3:18 PM
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
- Leonard Cohen (who would have turned 91 yesterday).
- Leonard Cohen (who would have turned 91 yesterday).