Surge: New Writing from Ireland

by Frank McGuinness (Introduction), Mary Morrissy, Gina Moxley

A unique collection of new short stories by new and established talents in Ireland

Surge showcases sixteen previously unpublished short stories, featuring work from new writing talents of Ireland alongside offerings from acclaimed and award-winning playwrights and short story writers: Frank McGuinness, Mary Morrissy, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Gina Moxley, Darran McCann and Mike McCormack.

A unique anthology contains the very best of the next generation of Irish authors; ten original stories have been selected from the postgraduate creative writing programmes in Trinity College Dublin, UCD, UCC, UCG and Queen's University Belfast, plus six unpublished stories from established writers who teach on these courses.

To be published as part of O’Brien Press’ 40th anniversary celebrations. Surge was originally a literary magazine by the New Theatre Group 1937-1943, co-founded by Thomas O'Brien, who set up O'Brien Press with Michael O'Brien in 1974.

Genres: Short Stories

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2014

About the author

Frank McGuinness is Professor of Creative Writing in University College Dublin. A world-renowned playwright, his first great stage hit was the highly acclaimed ‘Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme’. He is also a highly skilled adapter of plays by writers such as Ibsen, Sophocles, Brecht, and writer of several film scripts, including Dancing at Lughnasa, and he has published several anthologies of poetry.

Reviews

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book on our vacation to Ireland last fall. I wanted to buy something that I didn't think I'd find in the US, and I was interested to compare contemporary Irish short fiction to American. I liked almost all the stories in this book. I found them to be more traditional than contemporary American short fiction, which I liked. As with any collection, I liked some some of the stories more than others. My favorite was Charcoal and Lemongrass. The setting is beautifully, simply set, and the contrast between Viet Nam and Billy's original home in the American Midwest is deftly drawn. But the character of Billy is what I liked best about the story. Billy's heroism, in my opinion, is that he doesn't lose his humanity in the face of the most brutal realities of war. But that is also his tragedy, because he becomes stuck in a way that is very explicit and unique, and that sheds a fresh, subtle light on the whole issue of post-traumatic stress.
It was interesting to me how many of these Irish stories feature America, or American characters. From the Irish perspective, at least, the English-speaking world is so connected as to be almost a single unit.