Nuala O'Connor

Newly elected members at our official welcome to Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland. (L-R) Paul Brady (Music), Nuala O’Connor (Literature), Mufutau Yusuf (Choreography), Áine Ní Ghlinn (Literature), Orla Barry (Vis Arts), Paul Mercier (Literature) and Locky Morris (Vis Arts).

Reminder our next Reading Group is online at 7pm GMT, 25th Nov. 2026. *Friends and Relations* is our book choice. Link soon. #bowenreadinggroup #Bowensociety

Reading Group - save the date - we meet online 7pm GMT, 25th Nov. 2026. *Friends and Relations* is our book choice. Link to follow. #bowenreadinggroup #Bowensociety

Join us @kennysbookshop.bsky.social on Friday 25th September, to celebrate the official opening of Croí: Form and Fusion, an exhibition from Croí collective Vivienne Bogan, Kathryna Cushieri, Nicola Henley and Jane Seymour. The exhib will be opened by writer Nuala O'Connor, music by Maja Elliott.

Have you read *The Last September*? The Bowen Reading Group (online) welcomes you to chat about it on 30th Sep, 7pm BST. All welcome! Booking link below. www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

Link below for our September Reading Group - *The Last September* is our book of choice, Bowen's end of an era novel about a Big House in troubled 1920s Ireland. 30th Sep, 7pm BST. All welcome! www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

This is a very lovely annual event in memory of Elizabeth Bowen.

Open days at Farahy Church for National Heritage Week.

Published in 1977, Victoria Glendinning’s *Elizabeth Bowen: A Biography* is praised as a sharp, elegant portrait. Critics say it captures Bowen’s social brilliance and inner passions, but the author later reflected that tight controls from Bowen's literary executor left the texture somewhat thin.

Reminder: our Reading Group meets online on 30th Sep to discuss *The Last September*, Bowen’s novel about life in Danielstown, a Big House in County Cork, during the Irish War of Independence. Link to follow.

To learn more about Bowen, look no further than *Elizabeth Bowen: A Literary Life* by Patricia Laurence, a fantastic bio & resource.

Bowen board member @farahanada.bsky.social has reviewed the new book from #DianaHirst in Literature Cambridge: www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/review-...

Save the date, join our Reading Group on 30th Sep to discuss *The Last September*, Bowen’s novel about life in Danielstown, a Big House in County Cork, during the Irish War of Independence. #thelastseptember #bowenreadinggroup

Issue 15 of The Lonely Crowd will be published on September 7th. Featuring new work from Vona Groarke, Alison Moore, Jacob Polley, Richard Milward @nualaoconnor.bsky.social @sarahdavywrites.bsky.social @janefraserwriter.bsky.social @ruthmckee.bsky.social @naomikruger.bsky.social & more

In Woman's World, Ann Patchett shared, re. Bowen, “Louise Erdrich said, ‘The book that I reread every year is Elizabeth Bowen’s The Death of the Heart.’ So I thought the universe is telling me to read it...It’s beautiful. It should be up there with those books that everybody reads.”

Have you always wanted to visit Elizabeth Bowen’s grave? You can, while also enjoying Choral Evensong in her memory on 13th Sep. 2026 at St Colman’s Church, Farahy, Co. Cork. 3.30pm. The guest speaker will be Bowen Society Board member Ian d’Alton.

www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...: Link for our July Reading Group. We're discussing The Hotel: 29th July, 7pm BST, online. Bowen's sharp, lovely début novel set in Italy. Link in bio 🙌

Although I’ve always loved this portrait, #ElizabethBowen had a violent hatred for it. I’ve written on this in the context of Bowen and the visual arts for a special issue of @irishunireview.bsky.social. www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/... @bowensociety.bsky.social

Reminder: Link now live for our July Reading Group. We're discussing The Hotel: 29th July, 7pm BST, online. Bowen's excellent début novel set in Italy. www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

Times Now features The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen in '10 Books To Read When You Feel Like Giving Up'. 'Bowen captures heartbreak, betrayal, and vulnerability with extraordinary psychological insight, but she also reveals the resilience hidden beneath innocence.'

Bowen's short fiction collection *Ann Lee’s* was published in 1926. Here's part of a contemporary NYT review: 'The eleven stories of Elizabeth Bowen, in "Ann Lee's," recall the crisp, allusive wit of Viola Meynell, the talent for implying minor antagonisms of Katherine Mansfield.' More @ our insta.

Link now live for our July Reading Group. We're discussing The Hotel: 29th July, 7pm BST, online. All welcome! Bowen's excellent début novel set in Italy. www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

New hardback forthcoming of Bowen's novels The Last September & The Death of the Heart. Intro by #tessahadley Published 30 July 2026 | Everyman’s Library | £17.99 | Hardback '...depths of private tragedy with a subtle ferocity and psychological complexity reminiscent of Henry James.'

Bushi on Bowen at The Haughty Culturist: '... Bowen’s novel is slow-burn social horror, full of leering creatures, and heroines who insist on walking down dark alleys …' Full review google-able!

I am once again thinking about how, aged 11, Courtney Love failed to get into the Mickey Mouse Club after choosing to recite Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy' at her audition.

Join us, we're friendly, I promise 🙌💗

Competition to win a Bowen print & card, with At It Again. See @bowensociety.bsky.social instagram page for more. www.instagram.com/p/DZVTaGLiBE...

Remembering Elizabeth Bowen born #otd, 7th June 1899, in Dublin #elizabethbowen #ElizabethBowenSociety #otdshe

Applications for a new, 2 year postdoctoral position are now open! Please share widely. The Eamon Cleary Postdoctoral Fellowship in Irish Studies, based at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, the University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand, is open to Ph.D. graduates in any area of Irish studies.

A glorious day celebrating Elizabeth Bowen in Dublin today @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social. Thanks #DanielleMcLaughlin #JohnBanville #DianaHirst #NicolaDarwood, Mags, Niamh, & IWC team Shelbourne Hotel after to raise a glass to Bowen. Thanks to all who joined online & in person.

Two new recommendations for anyone interested in contemporary Irish poetry. Nuala O’Connor & Rita Ann Higgins write in a lyrical accessible way allowing you to see the world again, in wonder. Get your local library to order them & learn what real poetry is like. A puff of Oxygen to the mind.

Last chance for tix, online & in person options. www.eventbrite.ie/e/why-bowen-...

Bowen (born in Herbert Place) features in Brendan Lynch's comprehensive Visitors' Guide to Dublin's Latin Quarter – based in the city's south Georgian enclave. Biographies and details of the homes and haunts of Ireland's most famous writers, artists and musicians. www.dublinslatinquarter.ie

Join us @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social for a Bowen birthday bash, Sat. 6th June 🙌

"Reach high with language – excite the reader. Choose words for their musicality as much as their aptness." ~ @nualaoconnor.bsky.social

Save the date! Next Reading Group: 29th July, 7pm BST, online. We're reading *The Hotel* by Elizabeth Bowen, her excellent début novel set in Italy. Link soon 🙌 #thehotel #Bowensociety #ElizabethBowen

FINAL REMINDER! Reading Group tomorrow, Weds. Book choice: *The Shelbourne*, Bowen’s chaming social history & biog of the Dublin hotel. Online at 7pm BST, 27th May. All welcome! @bowensociety.bsky.social www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

Reading Group next Weds! We're discussing *The Shelbourne*, Bowen’s charming social history & biog of the Dublin hotel. Online 7pm BST, 27th May. All welcome! www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

'An arts festival is not a tourism activation with cultural sprinkles on top.' #NaoiseNunn being excellent in the @irishexaminer.bsky.social on a disturbing cut to arts fest funding. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Please join us to celebrate Dublin-born writer Elizabeth Bowen on her birthday weekend, in Dublin 💗

Reading Group reminder! We are reading *The Shelbourne*, Bowen’s biog of the Dublin hotel's provenance and progress. Online at 7pm BST, 27th May. All welcome! www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

'Cassata', my new chapbook is now available for pre-order: silverlocust.press/shop/p/cassa...

Join us online or in person @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social in Dublin for WHY BOWEN MATTERS.

The booking link for our May Reading Group is now live. Link below. We're reading *The Shelbourne*, a fascinating trot through the Dublin hotel's provenance and progress, stylishly written by Bowen. Online at 7pm BST, 27th May. All welcome! www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

Thinking of submitting to NFFD’s FlashFlood (opens on Sunday for a week. Up to 300 words), why not have a read of last year’s stories? You can see the full list here: flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com?m=1

⭐️ SAVE the DATE ⭐️ The Bowen Society in association with @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social are holding a Bowen symposium in Dublin, Ireland, on 6th June 2026. In person & online. Booking link soon! #whybowenmatters #ElizabethBowen #ElizabethBowenSociety

Is the book world ableist? Yup. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

In the new Modernist Review, from PhDer Tabitha Rowland: 'The Female Network: Gossip in the Life and Works of Elizabeth Bowen'. Aims is to show that gossip is essential in the formation and potential destruction of identities and communities. #modernistreview #tabitharowland #ElizabethBowen

Pushbike Prize for Flash Fiction A new flash prize and I'm judging! Crannóg Magazine is delighted to announce the inaugural Pushbike Prize for Flash Fiction judged by Nuala O'Connor. €1500 in prizes Subs open May 1st to 21st. www.wordsonthestreet.com/pod.html?fbc...

🐣 Happy Easter from the Bowen Society 🐣 From Bowen's story, 'The Easter Egg Party': "The glossy blues, the faint greens, the waxy buff-pinks, the freckles seemed to her to be for nothing: while the sisters, breathless...’"

Book Feature - *Elizabeth Bowen in Context*, ed. by Allan Hepburn. Fr. @universitypress.cambridge.org '*Elizabeth Bowen in Context* came into being because of the diversity and range of scholarship on her fiction that has emerged in the past couple decades. ' More here: share.google/eGtemIkmxXij...