Liam Hegarty

Telling Tales. It's what we do.

Issue 004 - out March 12th 2026

Pre-order now: foldingrock.com/shop/standal...

Thanks! Gonna have to be quicker next time!

Thanks! I'm in a different time zone but always check on the 1st of the month then the 2nd... you must fill super quick! Just to check - it's still via the submit button on your website/submittable?

Hi have you changed how to submit for fiction? I've checked the last few months on the 1st and the following few days, and only ever see CNF open?

Darran Anderson's Inventory.

Congratulations! Putting it on the to-buy list!

And the arts organizations and publishers who will stand out for us, who will maintain their credibility, will be the ones we feel have our backs. We will pay attention to who they are. We'll spread the word. We need partners that we can respect, that we can count on. 23/

Cover of a slightly tattered version of the World Book Night 2011 edition of Muriel Spark's 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie', sat at jaunty angle upon a plain wooden surface.

Halfway through this, won a lifetime ago in a twitter book word game (bring it back, @foylesforbooks.bsky.social!), languishing on the shelf since. How impossibly charming is this book?? And did Wes Anderson's nanny read it to him as a baby? Completely 'seeing' it in his style in my mind as I read.

The Birthday Boys

Recently put that very phrase in a short story!

Love this @aniking.bsky.social! The way it races right up to that last line and then knocks your teeth out.

It has been a good reading year so far though (despite everything else). Highlights so far - The Topeka School, Ben Lerner, Another Country, James Baldwin, Human Acts, Han Kang (tr. Deborah Smith), Pity, Andrew McMillan, I See Buildings Fall like Lightning, Keiran Goddard. Ok, book karma rebalanced.

I have a personal policy not to badmouth books by name unless they are written by terrible people, but really had to release that into the void. Thank you void.

Finally picked up a well reviewed, prize winning novel I'd put down two years ago out of frustration and finally finished it. Nope. Nope. Nopity nope. Did not care for it. Not one little bit. Ahh. That's better. Carry on.

Congratulations Barbara! It's a tremendous piece!

Protest Meta's Theft of Irish Writing I've just signed this petition protesting Meta's theft of Irish writing, which they've used to build their AI tool. Will you sign too?

I've just signed this petition protesting Meta's mass theft of Irish writing, which they've used to build their large language model ‘AI’. Their trawl includes fourteen of my titles. If you live in Ireland and care about the arts, please sign.

my.uplift.ie/petitions/pr...

The Mariana Enriquez, Annie Ernaux, And Tove Ditlevson. I've almost but not bought Winter in Sokcho a number of times but for some reason didn't, and have been meaning to read some Yuko Tsushima for a while! Gigli, One of Us and Grand Hotel from the others here really caught my eye!

The three of these I've read are great, so will search out the others. Thanks!

(Ha. As if we've got years left.)

Idea for a novel that's been percolating for the last while is becoming evermore interesting and evermore difficult and beyond my current skills and capacity and I'm getting more excited about it and oh damn I'm going to waste years on that once I finish the one I've just wasted years on, aren't I?

This was a lovely surprise.

Congratulations Melissa!

Thank you Dhyanna!

Happy delivery day. My first time in a print mag, and what a lovely way to begin. Looking forward to digging into the other pieces.