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.
Pinned
Gerard Beirne
@gerardbeirne.bsky.social
· Jul 15
2025 Winners
FICTION Winner The Thickness of Ice by Gerard Beirne A restrained, but immersive novel set in the subarctic town of Churchill, Manitoba. We shift between different times and focuses and that makes...
www.ruberybookaward.com
Very pleased to have won the 2025 International Rubery Book Award for Fiction for The Thickness of Ice (Baraka Books).
www.ruberybookaward.com/2025-winners...
www.ruberybookaward.com/2025-winners...
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
Valentine's Day by Steve Earle (Album Version)
YouTube video by VinylDiamonds
www.youtube.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Valentine's Day by Steve Earle (Album Version)
YouTube video by VinylDiamonds
www.youtube.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
It may be Friday the 13th, but here at the ILT office we're getting ready for the weekend—come what may.
February 13, 2026 at 3:30 PM
It may be Friday the 13th, but here at the ILT office we're getting ready for the weekend—come what may.
If you know, you know.
February 13, 2026 at 1:57 AM
If you know, you know.
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
Sometimes the answer to the question "How should this sentence be punctuated?" is "It should be entirely rewritten."
#copyediting
#copyediting
February 12, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Sometimes the answer to the question "How should this sentence be punctuated?" is "It should be entirely rewritten."
#copyediting
#copyediting
Is Wild Horses by Rick Bass one of the greatest stories ever written? I certainly think so.
I get to feature it tomorrow in my Contemporary American Short Story course at the Irish Writers Centre @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social. I read it again in preparation. It gets better with every reading.
I get to feature it tomorrow in my Contemporary American Short Story course at the Irish Writers Centre @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social. I read it again in preparation. It gets better with every reading.
February 10, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Is Wild Horses by Rick Bass one of the greatest stories ever written? I certainly think so.
I get to feature it tomorrow in my Contemporary American Short Story course at the Irish Writers Centre @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social. I read it again in preparation. It gets better with every reading.
I get to feature it tomorrow in my Contemporary American Short Story course at the Irish Writers Centre @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social. I read it again in preparation. It gets better with every reading.
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
I'm not really here anymore, but just to say that Wild Iris (Dedalus) launches at Hodges Figgis, Dublin, on 19 May, everyone is welcome ❤️
February 9, 2026 at 1:45 PM
I'm not really here anymore, but just to say that Wild Iris (Dedalus) launches at Hodges Figgis, Dublin, on 19 May, everyone is welcome ❤️
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
Oscar winner Cillian Murphy’s ambitious vision for Dingle cinema
www.irishcentral.com/culture/ente...
www.irishcentral.com/culture/ente...
Revealed: Oscar winner Cillian Murphy’s ambitious vision for Dingle cinema
Oscar winner Cillian Murphy and his wife Yvonne McGuinness risked "shooting themselves in the foot" with their openness in regenerating the Phoenix Cinema in Dingle – but the risk is paying off, with ...
www.irishcentral.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Oscar winner Cillian Murphy’s ambitious vision for Dingle cinema
www.irishcentral.com/culture/ente...
www.irishcentral.com/culture/ente...
Without this man, there really is no road:
Neal Cassady (aka Dean Moriarty) who would have turned 100 today (born February 8, 1926. Salt Lake City, Utah).
"And so love goes. And so life goes. And so I go."
Neal Cassady (aka Dean Moriarty) who would have turned 100 today (born February 8, 1926. Salt Lake City, Utah).
"And so love goes. And so life goes. And so I go."
February 8, 2026 at 9:09 PM
Without this man, there really is no road:
Neal Cassady (aka Dean Moriarty) who would have turned 100 today (born February 8, 1926. Salt Lake City, Utah).
"And so love goes. And so life goes. And so I go."
Neal Cassady (aka Dean Moriarty) who would have turned 100 today (born February 8, 1926. Salt Lake City, Utah).
"And so love goes. And so life goes. And so I go."
We shall drink water and walk slow.
February 8, 2026 at 3:23 PM
We shall drink water and walk slow.
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
still thinking about my son's Montreal friend Chad Japeedi who helps him with term papers, how my son laughed and laughed when I asked if I'd ever met Chad.
February 8, 2026 at 3:20 PM
still thinking about my son's Montreal friend Chad Japeedi who helps him with term papers, how my son laughed and laughed when I asked if I'd ever met Chad.
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
'Since when,' he asked,
'Are the first and last line of any poem
Where the poem begins and ends?'
#seamusheaney
'Are the first and last line of any poem
Where the poem begins and ends?'
#seamusheaney
February 7, 2026 at 9:01 PM
'Since when,' he asked,
'Are the first and last line of any poem
Where the poem begins and ends?'
#seamusheaney
'Are the first and last line of any poem
Where the poem begins and ends?'
#seamusheaney
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
"Here's looking at you, kid."
February 5, 2026 at 5:53 PM
"Here's looking at you, kid."
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
Really nuts how many men were like "Me Too went too far, and I need to email Jeffrey Epstein about it."
February 5, 2026 at 12:26 AM
Really nuts how many men were like "Me Too went too far, and I need to email Jeffrey Epstein about it."
Well we covered Joy William's story "Stuff" at the @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social online course tonight, on the Contemporary American Short Story that I am running, and we thought she was funny. Reading it gave us happiness.
Raymond Carver's "So Much Water So Close to Home" was a bit more sombre.
Raymond Carver's "So Much Water So Close to Home" was a bit more sombre.
Joy Williams in a 2016 interview with Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social for Vice:
Vice: “Do you edit and revise toward humor, or does it arise more organically in the writing?”
Joy Williams: “I don’t revise much. I work too slowly. Am I funny? Writing gives me no happiness.”
Vice: “Do you edit and revise toward humor, or does it arise more organically in the writing?”
Joy Williams: “I don’t revise much. I work too slowly. Am I funny? Writing gives me no happiness.”
February 4, 2026 at 10:35 PM
Well we covered Joy William's story "Stuff" at the @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social online course tonight, on the Contemporary American Short Story that I am running, and we thought she was funny. Reading it gave us happiness.
Raymond Carver's "So Much Water So Close to Home" was a bit more sombre.
Raymond Carver's "So Much Water So Close to Home" was a bit more sombre.
Jim Thompson: "There are thirty-two ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot — things are not as they seem."
February 2, 2026 at 8:02 PM
Jim Thompson: "There are thirty-two ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot — things are not as they seem."
Brendan - the forever Lord Mayor of Dublin
Fighting Words: We’re thrilled to announce the Brendan Behan Celebration on Saturday, February 7th from 11am to 3pm!
Join us as Dublin City Council unveils a new plaque honouring Brendan Behan’s legendary contributions to Irish literature at Behan
Square, the site of Brendan's childhood home.
Join us as Dublin City Council unveils a new plaque honouring Brendan Behan’s legendary contributions to Irish literature at Behan
Square, the site of Brendan's childhood home.
January 30, 2026 at 9:08 PM
Brendan - the forever Lord Mayor of Dublin
Joy Williams in a 2016 interview with Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social for Vice:
Vice: “Do you edit and revise toward humor, or does it arise more organically in the writing?”
Joy Williams: “I don’t revise much. I work too slowly. Am I funny? Writing gives me no happiness.”
Vice: “Do you edit and revise toward humor, or does it arise more organically in the writing?”
Joy Williams: “I don’t revise much. I work too slowly. Am I funny? Writing gives me no happiness.”
January 30, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Joy Williams in a 2016 interview with Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social for Vice:
Vice: “Do you edit and revise toward humor, or does it arise more organically in the writing?”
Joy Williams: “I don’t revise much. I work too slowly. Am I funny? Writing gives me no happiness.”
Vice: “Do you edit and revise toward humor, or does it arise more organically in the writing?”
Joy Williams: “I don’t revise much. I work too slowly. Am I funny? Writing gives me no happiness.”
Jack Kerouac’s 37 metre-long, first draft scroll of On the Road to be auctioned
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
Jack Kerouac’s 37 metre-long, first draft scroll of On the Road to be auctioned
The draft – one of the Beat Generation’s defining artefacts – will be part of a wider sale of pieces from the Jim Irsay Collection at Christie’s in March
www.theguardian.com
January 30, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Jack Kerouac’s 37 metre-long, first draft scroll of On the Road to be auctioned
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
Joseph O'Neill
“Two of our people have been shot dead while protesting ICE’s antidemocratic actions. They are martyrs, heroes of American democracy, and should be venerated as such.” —an interview with @josephoneill.bsky.social
The Politics of Raw Power | Joseph O’Neill, Daniel Drake
On Wednesday a group of Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis pinned a man to the ground and, while he was immobilized, blasted pepper spray into his face
www.nybooks.com
January 30, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Joseph O'Neill
Reposted by Gerard Beirne
While Irish stew is widely considered the national dish of Ireland, some of us know better.
January 29, 2026 at 11:53 PM
While Irish stew is widely considered the national dish of Ireland, some of us know better.