 Dermot Bolger | |
| Founded | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Dermot Bolger |
| Country of origin | Ireland |
| Distribution | Gill (Ireland) [1] Head of Zeus (UK) [2] Dufor Editions (US) [3] |
| Publication types | Books |
| Official website | www |
New Island Books is an independent Irish publisher of literary fiction, poetry, drama, biography, and books on politics and social affairs.
It was founded as Raven Arts Press in 1977 by Dermot Bolger. [4] In 1982, Raven Arts closed and was re-founded as New Island Books by Bolger with Edwin Higel and Fergal Stanley.
It is a member of Publishing Ireland (Clé), [5] the support organisation of Irish publishing, sharing information, expertise and resources.
It has published several bestsellers including Joseph O'Connor's The Secret World of the Irish Male [6] and Nuala O'Faolain's memoir of the life of an Irishwoman, Are You Somebody?. [7]
It has been described as "a major force in Irish publishing. [8]
The first Irish prose fiction, in the form of legendary stories, appeared in the Irish language as early as the seventh century, along with chronicles and lives of saints in Irish and Latin. Such fiction was an adaptation and elaboration of earlier oral material and was the work of a learned class who had acquired literacy with the coming of Latin Christianity. A number of these stories were still available in manuscripts of the late medieval period and even as late as the nineteenth century, though poetry was by that time the main literary vehicle of the Irish language.
Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been made into films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-class Dublin, and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Irish English dialect. Doyle was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
David Marcus was an Irish Jewish editor and writer who was a lifelong advocate for and editor of Irish fiction.
Michael Hartnett was an Irish poet who wrote in both English and Irish. He was one of the most significant voices in late 20th-century Irish writing and has been called "Munster's de facto poet laureate".
Jamie O'Neill is an Irish author. His critically acclaimed novel, At Swim, Two Boys (2001), earned him the highest advance ever paid for an Irish novel and frequent praise as the natural successor to James Joyce, Flann O'Brien and Samuel Beckett. He is currently living in Gortachalla in County Galway, having previously lived and worked in England for two decades.
Mary Dorcey is an award winning writer and poet, a feminist, LGBTQIA+ activist, and elected member of the Aosdána.
Nuala O'Faolain was an Irish journalist, TV producer, book reviewer, teacher and writer. She became well known after the publication of her memoirs Are You Somebody? and Almost There. She wrote a biography of Irish criminal Chicago May and two novels.
Dermot Bolger is an Irish novelist, playwright, poet and editor from Dublin, Ireland. Born in the Finglas suburb of Dublin in 1959, his older sister is the writer June Considine. Bolger's novels include Night Shift (1982), The Woman's Daughter (1987), The Journey Home (1990), Father's Music (1997), Temptation (2000), The Valparaiso Voyage (2001) and The Family on Paradise Pier (2005). He is a member of the artist's association Aosdána.
Several notable junctions in Dublin city in Ireland still carry the name of the pub or business which once occupied the corner.
Medbh McGuckian is a poet from Northern Ireland.
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill is a leading Irish poet and highly important figure in Modern literature in Irish.
Icarus is a student literary magazine based in Trinity College Dublin, publishing work by students, alumni and staff of the university. The magazine is the earliest-founded arts publication still extant in Ireland.
The Open Door series, an adult literacy series of novellas by well-known Irish authors, was launched in the mid-1990s by Irish publisher New Island and author Patricia Scanlan. Scanlan had worked in public libraries in Dublin before becoming a full-time writer and was acutely aware of the literacy problems facing a large segment of the adult population and the dearth of appropriate reading material available to them.
Deirdre Purcell was an Irish author, actress, and journalist.
Nuala Ní Chonchúir is an Irish writer and poet.
The Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award is an annual award for Irish authors of fiction, established in 1995. It was previously known as the Kerry Ingredients Book of the Year Award (1995–2000), the Kerry Ingredients Irish Fiction Award (2001–2002), and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award (2003-2011).
Tramp Press is a publishing company founded in Dublin in 2014 by Lisa Coen and Sarah Davis-Goff. It is an independent publisher that specialises in Irish fiction. The company is named after John Millington Synge's tramp, a reference to the bold outsider.