"The Irish writer Kevin Barry's best short stories are like a spade to the face. Whether describing emergencies in which instinct shoulders aside intellect...or charting quieter moments of loss...there is a vividness to his writing that plants you immediately at its heart." -The Guardian's review of "Dark Lies the Island"Kevin Barry's reading is just two … Continue reading Kevin Barry’s reading in 2 days!

A while back, The Short Review did an interview with Kevin Barry where they discussed his short story collection "There are Little Kingdoms," and ended up with a healthy dose of Barry's signature wit in the process.TSR: How did you choose which stories to include and in what order?KB: The thirteen stories in the collection were … Continue reading Little Kingdoms, Big Wit

"I am not yet standing or even fully conscious but already I am in that impatient, flitty, online mode: I bound about like one of those neurotic petrol-sniffer hares you'll see at the Dublin airport car park. I stay nowhere longer than a minute or two, if that. I'll start to read a piece, but … Continue reading The Future of Reading (and Writing)

According to Irvine Welsh, Kevin Barry's "City of Bohane" is "the best novel to come out of Ireland since Ulysses."Listen to Barry read from the first chapter of the novel in this clip, and then hear more from the author next week (March 8) when he comes to Concordia University for a free public reading.

Here is a taste of what The New York Times, in a glowing review of the novel "City of Bohane," calls Kevin Barry's "dense and flowing" prose: Black patent high-tops, tight bleached denims with a matcher of a waistcoat, a high dirk belt, and a navy Crombie with a black velvet collar. Wolfie was low-sized, compact, ginger, … Continue reading The “literary marvels” of Kevin Barry

What you’re after are the moments on the page that kind of make you blush, the moments that embarrass you. The uncool stuff. The places in the story that make you recoil in horror from the page – those are the good bits.Check out six more short story tricks and tips from Kevin Barry, and … Continue reading Kevin Barry’s Short Story Tricks & Tips

"...the real star here is Barry's language, the music of it. Every page sings with evocative dialog, deft character sketches, impossibly perfect descriptions of the physical world." Read more of Bill Morris' review of Kevin Barry's City of Bohane for The Millions, which is as full of "mad music" as the novel he praises.

“Kevin Barry is a unique, a one-man school. His work is hilarious and unpredictable - and always brilliant.” Roddy Doyle, a guest of Writers Read and The School of Canadian Irish Studies in October 2011, gives praise to Kevin Barry, who will be giving a public reading himself on March 8, 2013 at Concordia.