Jan Carson
@jancarsonwrites.bsky.social
I’m not terrific but I’m competent
All bookings via website www.jancarson.co.uk
All bookings via website www.jancarson.co.uk
On the extremely unlikely off chance that you find yourself in the vicinity of Mystic, Connecticut next Tuesday evening, I'll be reading and talking at Bank Square Books at 5pm on 18th. Here's the details, feel free to share. banksquarebooks.com/event/2025-1...
Jan Carson (Quickly, While They Still Have Horses) Author Talk and Signing
Welcome to our new website! We're excited to see you. *** RETURNING USERS WILL NEED TO RESET THEIR PASSWORD FOR THIS NEW SITE. CLICK HERE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD.***
banksquarebooks.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:43 PM
On the extremely unlikely off chance that you find yourself in the vicinity of Mystic, Connecticut next Tuesday evening, I'll be reading and talking at Bank Square Books at 5pm on 18th. Here's the details, feel free to share. banksquarebooks.com/event/2025-1...
Trenton, New Jersey - where the carpets are clearly possessed and the hotel locked me out so I had to bang on the front door until two tiny nuns let me in.
November 11, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Trenton, New Jersey - where the carpets are clearly possessed and the hotel locked me out so I had to bang on the front door until two tiny nuns let me in.
Lovely news and very deserved. Congratulations Ferdia
Ferdia Lennon wins 2025 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for Glorious Exploits
Ferdia Lennon wins 2025 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for Glorious Exploits
The €10,000 prize, awarded annually since 1976, celebrates an outstanding body of work by an emerging Irish writer under 40
www.irishtimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Lovely news and very deserved. Congratulations Ferdia
Reposted by Jan Carson
If you don’t derive any benefit from the act of writing, no pleasure or catharsis or satisfaction, why are you doing it? This isn’t meant to be an aggressive question, I’m not demanding an answer, but it’s a thing you may want to ask yourself. Life is short and you could do something else?
Sometimes I wonder if our many years of jokes about writers hating writing and doing anything but writing, etc, have convinced people that the writing part is the hurdle and the goal is just to have a thing in hand. But I am here to tell you: the writing is the best part. The act is the thing.
November 9, 2025 at 8:03 PM
If you don’t derive any benefit from the act of writing, no pleasure or catharsis or satisfaction, why are you doing it? This isn’t meant to be an aggressive question, I’m not demanding an answer, but it’s a thing you may want to ask yourself. Life is short and you could do something else?
I’ve been in Stonington for a week now and I have to say I could get used to this - the writing time, the reading time, the stunning scenery slapping me in the face, every time I stick my head out the door.
November 9, 2025 at 1:30 AM
I’ve been in Stonington for a week now and I have to say I could get used to this - the writing time, the reading time, the stunning scenery slapping me in the face, every time I stick my head out the door.
Reposted by Jan Carson
74. The Innocents. Genuinely one of the creepiest movies I've ever seen. Terrifying and brilliant with four amazing child actors.
Thanks to @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social for the recommendation
Thanks to @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social for the recommendation
November 8, 2025 at 7:23 PM
74. The Innocents. Genuinely one of the creepiest movies I've ever seen. Terrifying and brilliant with four amazing child actors.
Thanks to @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social for the recommendation
Thanks to @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social for the recommendation
Anyone else have this issue with DMs? Granted they’re two years old and I’ve worn the life out of them but I didn’t think they’d just split like this.
November 8, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Anyone else have this issue with DMs? Granted they’re two years old and I’ve worn the life out of them but I didn’t think they’d just split like this.
…always a tavern
November 8, 2025 at 2:01 AM
…always a tavern
Reposted by Jan Carson
At the Textual Intersections conference at DCU where Neil Morrison is unpacking the brilliant engagement with evangelical Protestantism in @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social's writing
November 7, 2025 at 11:22 AM
At the Textual Intersections conference at DCU where Neil Morrison is unpacking the brilliant engagement with evangelical Protestantism in @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social's writing
Immediately considers changing name…
November 6, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Immediately considers changing name…
Delighted to reveal the beautiful cover of my next novel, Few and Far Between designed by the brilliant Irene Martinez Costa. Proofs are arriving next week. Preorders open now. Can’t believe I sat down 20 years ago to have a stab at writing a short story and now I have nine books in the world.
November 6, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Delighted to reveal the beautiful cover of my next novel, Few and Far Between designed by the brilliant Irene Martinez Costa. Proofs are arriving next week. Preorders open now. Can’t believe I sat down 20 years ago to have a stab at writing a short story and now I have nine books in the world.
Touché Walter Mosley. Today was not the day to read this.
November 6, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Touché Walter Mosley. Today was not the day to read this.
One of these things is a nightmarishly complicated puzzle, the other is a 1,000 piece jigsaw of France.
When your novel isn’t working, sometimes you have to cut it up into hundreds of pieces and put it back together a different way.
When your novel isn’t working, sometimes you have to cut it up into hundreds of pieces and put it back together a different way.
November 5, 2025 at 12:42 AM
One of these things is a nightmarishly complicated puzzle, the other is a 1,000 piece jigsaw of France.
When your novel isn’t working, sometimes you have to cut it up into hundreds of pieces and put it back together a different way.
When your novel isn’t working, sometimes you have to cut it up into hundreds of pieces and put it back together a different way.
Huge thanks to Bergin for these beautiful photos taken in the James Merrill apartment yesterday. It’s an honour to be the James Merrill house writer in residence for November here in Stonington. If you see me wandering round the place please say hello.
November 4, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Huge thanks to Bergin for these beautiful photos taken in the James Merrill apartment yesterday. It’s an honour to be the James Merrill house writer in residence for November here in Stonington. If you see me wandering round the place please say hello.
Thoroughly enjoyed “Miss Pym’s Day Out” on the IPlayer. More than enough provincial vicars and jumble sale loving spinsters to satisfy even the most hardcore Barbara Pym fan #MyYearWithBP
November 1, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Thoroughly enjoyed “Miss Pym’s Day Out” on the IPlayer. More than enough provincial vicars and jumble sale loving spinsters to satisfy even the most hardcore Barbara Pym fan #MyYearWithBP
There were some absolute standout reads in October. Here are the nine books which stayed with me long after I put them down.
October 31, 2025 at 11:08 PM
There were some absolute standout reads in October. Here are the nine books which stayed with me long after I put them down.
Home to a much anticipated proof of #TheWomanInTheWater Henrietta McKervey’s new novel which takes a sideways look at one of the subplots in du Maurier’s Rebecca. Publishing March 2026. Very very excited to dive in.
October 31, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Home to a much anticipated proof of #TheWomanInTheWater Henrietta McKervey’s new novel which takes a sideways look at one of the subplots in du Maurier’s Rebecca. Publishing March 2026. Very very excited to dive in.
God bless the pilot who just managed to get us landed safely at Belfast City. The three minutes prior to the safe landing I saw my whole life flash in front of me.
October 30, 2025 at 8:31 PM
God bless the pilot who just managed to get us landed safely at Belfast City. The three minutes prior to the safe landing I saw my whole life flash in front of me.
Always nice to swing by Foyles and see they have more of my books than the last time I looked
October 30, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Always nice to swing by Foyles and see they have more of my books than the last time I looked
By happy coincidence, I found myself in Agatha Christie’s old stomping ground this morning so I thought I’d track down her first London house on Cresswell Place. It was a lot cuter than I’d anticipated.
October 30, 2025 at 2:15 PM
By happy coincidence, I found myself in Agatha Christie’s old stomping ground this morning so I thought I’d track down her first London house on Cresswell Place. It was a lot cuter than I’d anticipated.
Are they never going to leave Harper Lee alonev
October 30, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Are they never going to leave Harper Lee alonev
First time in the big BBC to record Front Row and I was so excited, a nice man gave me an impromptu tour of the whole building. Even got to peak into the studio where Radio 1 was going out live though I’m so old I haven’t a clue which presenters I was looking at.
October 29, 2025 at 8:42 PM
First time in the big BBC to record Front Row and I was so excited, a nice man gave me an impromptu tour of the whole building. Even got to peak into the studio where Radio 1 was going out live though I’m so old I haven’t a clue which presenters I was looking at.
I’ll be on Front Row on Radio 4 this evening talking about all things uncanny and unsettling in literature. Tune in after 7 or catch up later on BBC sounds.
October 29, 2025 at 9:01 AM
I’ll be on Front Row on Radio 4 this evening talking about all things uncanny and unsettling in literature. Tune in after 7 or catch up later on BBC sounds.
I can’t believe this is my penultimate Shirley Jackson or the year. It’s a collection of odds and sods, non-fiction and recently refound shorts. It’s a bit patchy in places but the good parts, especially the humorous tales of domestic life are top notch #MyYearWithSJ
October 28, 2025 at 10:49 PM
I can’t believe this is my penultimate Shirley Jackson or the year. It’s a collection of odds and sods, non-fiction and recently refound shorts. It’s a bit patchy in places but the good parts, especially the humorous tales of domestic life are top notch #MyYearWithSJ
Reposted by Jan Carson
Today's #IrishBookWeek prompt is: Share a book set in Northern Ireland📚☘
The fragmentary nature of the Evangelical Protestant community in the early '90s might not be an obvious backdrop for a gripping novel but The Raptures was pitch-perfect, absolutely adored it.
The fragmentary nature of the Evangelical Protestant community in the early '90s might not be an obvious backdrop for a gripping novel but The Raptures was pitch-perfect, absolutely adored it.
October 23, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Today's #IrishBookWeek prompt is: Share a book set in Northern Ireland📚☘
The fragmentary nature of the Evangelical Protestant community in the early '90s might not be an obvious backdrop for a gripping novel but The Raptures was pitch-perfect, absolutely adored it.
The fragmentary nature of the Evangelical Protestant community in the early '90s might not be an obvious backdrop for a gripping novel but The Raptures was pitch-perfect, absolutely adored it.