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City-Lit
Dublin
Meet the Dubliners - from the famous and the not so famous to the famously fictional - as over fifty of the very best writers on Dublin get under the skin of this unforgettable city.
Anne Enright reveals the poetry in the Dublin soul
Elizabeth Bowen stays at the Shelbourne Hotel
Brian Lalor is swept along by Bloomsday
Jospepg O'Connor takes a wry look at Dublin man
Iris Murdoch evokes the Easter Rising
Roddy Doyle pities the poor immigrant
J P Donleavy shows ua student Dublin
Hugo Hamilton's policeman has seen it all
... and much, much more
Introduced by Orna Ross, author of A Dance in Time
Other titles in this series: Berlin, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, New York, St Petersburg and Istanbul
Anne Enright reveals the poetry in the Dublin soul
Elizabeth Bowen stays at the Shelbourne Hotel
Brian Lalor is swept along by Bloomsday
Jospepg O'Connor takes a wry look at Dublin man
Iris Murdoch evokes the Easter Rising
Roddy Doyle pities the poor immigrant
J P Donleavy shows ua student Dublin
Hugo Hamilton's policeman has seen it all
... and much, much more
Introduced by Orna Ross, author of A Dance in Time
Other titles in this series: Berlin, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, New York, St Petersburg and Istanbul
200 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2009
10 people want to read
About the author
Heather Reyes
23 books17 followersHello. I'm Heather Reyes - writer, editor, publisher,' Londoner'.
I'm co-founder of Oxygen Books and have edited all nine of the volumes in our city-pick series of travel anthologies.
Before setting up Oxygen Books in 2008, I had published a range of things - children's stories, poetry, short stories, articles, and a novel (Zade, Saqi Books 2004). Now that Oxygen Books is ticking over, I'm getting back to some of my own writing again. My novel Miranda Road and two non-fiction books, An Everywhere: a little book about reading and Bookworms, Dog-Ears & Squashy Big Armchairs: A Book Lover's Alphabet, published in 2014, was Reader's Digest Christmas Book of the Month which was very exciting!
This summer my 'fiftysomething' novel Perfectly Fine is out (I guess it must be a beach read as the cover has some rather lovely coloured pebbles on sand - actually made on Aldeburgh beach by my granddaughter Abigail Reyes.)
Talking it over with Genghis Khan, my rather quirky first short story collection, is out this autumn. I think readers will either love or hate it - I hope it's the former! Do let me know either way.
I hope this website gives you the information you need - I guess it depends on why you've looked me up! - but if not, please feel free to contact me at heather@oxygenbooks.co.uk
ABOUT ME ...
Born on the outskirts of London, I've always lived, studied and worked either within or less than half an hour from the capital. I was a non-Catholic 'scholarship girl' at the Ursuline High School, Brentwood, then graduated from Queen Mary College, University of London, in English. I went on to King's College for a post-graduate teaching year, but didn't take up a teaching post until much later. I worked as a freelance writer for a while - stories, articles and children's books - until starting a family. Although a card-carrying feminist, I loved - and still love - being a mother, and elected to stay home and look after my two amazing children until they started school, when I took up a teaching post at my old secondary school.
I had a number of short stories published and was working on longer things, too - 'learning the craft' - and at some point I went back to uni (part-time) and took an MA in modern literature, then a Ph.D (on the work of contemporary novelist Christine Brooke-Rose) - both at Birkbeck College, University of London (a marvellous place!).
After a number of 'near misses' with getting a full-length work published, my novel Zade (set in Paris) was accepted for publication by Saqi Books, and came out in 2004. It made a long-list of twelve books for the Prince Maurice Prize (for writing about love). I was over-awed to find that Zadie Smith (whom I really admire) was also on the long-list (though even she didn't make it to the final three!).
Soon after this I took an editing qualification, left teaching, and worked as a freelance editor for a while - though continuing to work on my own writing when I could.
It was during a trip to Athens in early 2008 that my husband, Malcolm Burgess, had the idea for our urban anthologies and we set up Oxygen Books. For some time we'd liked the idea of setting up our own small publishing house, but it needed that 'concrete idea' - about what we should publish that no-one else seemed to be doing - in order to justify such an all-consuming venture.
Nine anthologies (paris, London, Berlin, Venice, Dublin, Amsterdam, New York, St Petersburg and Istanbul) and lots of good reviews later, we feel we have achieved something worthwhile. We're now both finding a bit more time for our own writing again, while continuing our publishing venture.
I'm currently putting together a collection of my short stories (a number of these have already been published in the UK and USA) and making a tentative selection. It will be called Talking to Genghis Khan. Do let me know what you think of the title!
I'm co-founder of Oxygen Books and have edited all nine of the volumes in our city-pick series of travel anthologies.
Before setting up Oxygen Books in 2008, I had published a range of things - children's stories, poetry, short stories, articles, and a novel (Zade, Saqi Books 2004). Now that Oxygen Books is ticking over, I'm getting back to some of my own writing again. My novel Miranda Road and two non-fiction books, An Everywhere: a little book about reading and Bookworms, Dog-Ears & Squashy Big Armchairs: A Book Lover's Alphabet, published in 2014, was Reader's Digest Christmas Book of the Month which was very exciting!
This summer my 'fiftysomething' novel Perfectly Fine is out (I guess it must be a beach read as the cover has some rather lovely coloured pebbles on sand - actually made on Aldeburgh beach by my granddaughter Abigail Reyes.)
Talking it over with Genghis Khan, my rather quirky first short story collection, is out this autumn. I think readers will either love or hate it - I hope it's the former! Do let me know either way.
I hope this website gives you the information you need - I guess it depends on why you've looked me up! - but if not, please feel free to contact me at heather@oxygenbooks.co.uk
ABOUT ME ...
Born on the outskirts of London, I've always lived, studied and worked either within or less than half an hour from the capital. I was a non-Catholic 'scholarship girl' at the Ursuline High School, Brentwood, then graduated from Queen Mary College, University of London, in English. I went on to King's College for a post-graduate teaching year, but didn't take up a teaching post until much later. I worked as a freelance writer for a while - stories, articles and children's books - until starting a family. Although a card-carrying feminist, I loved - and still love - being a mother, and elected to stay home and look after my two amazing children until they started school, when I took up a teaching post at my old secondary school.
I had a number of short stories published and was working on longer things, too - 'learning the craft' - and at some point I went back to uni (part-time) and took an MA in modern literature, then a Ph.D (on the work of contemporary novelist Christine Brooke-Rose) - both at Birkbeck College, University of London (a marvellous place!).
After a number of 'near misses' with getting a full-length work published, my novel Zade (set in Paris) was accepted for publication by Saqi Books, and came out in 2004. It made a long-list of twelve books for the Prince Maurice Prize (for writing about love). I was over-awed to find that Zadie Smith (whom I really admire) was also on the long-list (though even she didn't make it to the final three!).
Soon after this I took an editing qualification, left teaching, and worked as a freelance editor for a while - though continuing to work on my own writing when I could.
It was during a trip to Athens in early 2008 that my husband, Malcolm Burgess, had the idea for our urban anthologies and we set up Oxygen Books. For some time we'd liked the idea of setting up our own small publishing house, but it needed that 'concrete idea' - about what we should publish that no-one else seemed to be doing - in order to justify such an all-consuming venture.
Nine anthologies (paris, London, Berlin, Venice, Dublin, Amsterdam, New York, St Petersburg and Istanbul) and lots of good reviews later, we feel we have achieved something worthwhile. We're now both finding a bit more time for our own writing again, while continuing our publishing venture.
I'm currently putting together a collection of my short stories (a number of these have already been published in the UK and USA) and making a tentative selection. It will be called Talking to Genghis Khan. Do let me know what you think of the title!
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 20, 2014
I am a fan of this series of city based anthologies, having already read those based in NYC, Paris, London and Berlin, and decided to reread this one in preparation for my forthcoming trip to Dublin.
The format of each of the books is the same. Reyes groups both fiction and non fiction extracts from various writers (over 50 writers in this edition) according to various themes, and links the writing, which ranges from classic to modern, with relevant links. In this Dublin edition, we get writers from Thackeray to Chris Binchy setting the scene with general pieces about the city, authors like Donaghue, Beckett and Behan writing about their experiences on the streets, we get the experiences of immigrants, writing about the natives, the pubs, the seedier side of the city and the past, taking in Georgian history as well as that of the War of Independence and Civil War.
Having read other anthologies, I know how hard putting these together so they work can e difficult, but Reyes has done a great job again. While I was familiar with a number of the works featured, I've bought a few others and added more to my Amazon basket for future purchase. In the meantime, the collection has whetted my appetite perfectly for my trip to come!
A four star only because a few better known writers were missing-due, no doubt to rights issues. But a worthy read!
The format of each of the books is the same. Reyes groups both fiction and non fiction extracts from various writers (over 50 writers in this edition) according to various themes, and links the writing, which ranges from classic to modern, with relevant links. In this Dublin edition, we get writers from Thackeray to Chris Binchy setting the scene with general pieces about the city, authors like Donaghue, Beckett and Behan writing about their experiences on the streets, we get the experiences of immigrants, writing about the natives, the pubs, the seedier side of the city and the past, taking in Georgian history as well as that of the War of Independence and Civil War.
Having read other anthologies, I know how hard putting these together so they work can e difficult, but Reyes has done a great job again. While I was familiar with a number of the works featured, I've bought a few others and added more to my Amazon basket for future purchase. In the meantime, the collection has whetted my appetite perfectly for my trip to come!
A four star only because a few better known writers were missing-due, no doubt to rights issues. But a worthy read!
Displaying 1 of 1 review