Happy New Year, etc.

Hi all!

Hopefully some of you will read this over the holidays. I should have posted an update sooner, but, you know, travel, extreme cold, all of that kind of thing...got in the way.

I'm in Ireland. It's very cold. Very, very cold. 1 degree celsius kind of cold. Hmmm...

Anyway, I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy (if a little hot) New Year's.

Are you reading? I hope so!

I've just finished the new Granta (113) - It's the best of the New Young Spanish Language Novelists. Definitely worth a read. I've just started a book by an Irish writer, John Banville. It's called Athena and so far it's excellent. He wrote The Sea, an exquisite novel (one of my favourites) which won the Booker Prize in 2005.

Other things I've read recently include:

Sunset Park - by Paul Auster (Anything by Paul Auster is worth reading, particularly his early works such as The Book of Illusions, Leviathan, In The Country of Last Things and Moon Palace)

Freedom - by Jonathan Franzen


I'm listening to The Gin Club - Junk - it's a great album. Check it out.

Also, get stuck into the books for next year. Believe me when I tell you, it's best to have read the stuff before you start class.

To those of you who were in NYC, welcome home. Hope you had a blast. I heard good things.

To any of you who may have tried to get in touch with me via email, I'm not sure it's working. At least, mine is, but for some reason any time I try to email a PHSC address, my emails get blocked and returned to me. It's sad :-(

So, that means that those of you to whom I owe an email regarding creative writing work you have sent me before Christmas will not have received my replies. I tried! I'm sorry. You know who you are. If you'd like to try and get in touch with me via another email address, do! I WILL reply! I promise.

Ok, keep reading and writing. Enjoy the summer! Still no news as to whether or not I'll be back at Princes Hill next year. Fingers crossed. I will be available to contact, regardless, though. Feel free to get in touch if you need any lit help.

Other good books (I promised a list and then forgot...)

What I Loved (Siri Hustvedt)
The Outsider (Camus)
The Sea, The Sea (Iris Murdoch)
The Trial (Franz Kafka)
The Sea (John Banville)
Seize the Day (Saul Bellow)
A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway)
The Ginger Man (JP Donleavy)
The Road (Cormac MacCarthy)
Any edition of Granta
American Rust (Phillip Meyer)
Document Z (Andrew Croome) (Obviously!)
All Names Have Been Changed (Claire Kilroy)


There are so many more. I'll post any I think of.

Here's to you guys. Look after yourselves.

From wintery Dublin, cheers,
Simon