The new website of Irish Pages: A Journal of Contemporary Writing is now online

The new website of Irish Pages: A Journal of Contemporary Writing is now online at www.irishpages.org

On the website, you can:

• Subscribe or renew online, or print off an order form to order by post
• Read our submission guidelines for writing and photography
• Browse the contents of previous issues
• Browse samples from our current selection of photographs, Portfolio
• Find out about our latest news and events

Note from the Editors:

Each issue assembles a carefully edited mix of English and Irish, prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction, style and subject matter, in an overall fit aimed at a wide range of reading tastes. 

In addition, IRISH PAGES includes a number of regular features: The View from the Linen Hall, an editorial commenting on cultural or political issues in Ireland or overseas; From the Irish Archive, an extract of writing from a non-contemporary Irish writer, accompanied by a brief biographical note; In Other Words, a selection of translated work from a particular country; and The Publishing Scene, a commissioned piece taking a critical look at some aspect of the literary world in Ireland, Britain or the United States.

Each issue also contains a portfolio of photographs from a leading photographer; an article on Belfast or Northern Ireland; work from at least one emergent or new writer; writing on the natural world; and a major essay of literary distinction on an ethical, historical, religious, social or scientific topic. There are no standard reviews or narrowly academic articles.  Irish Language and Ulster Scots writing are published in the original, with English translations or glosses.

Although Irish Pages is mainly a prose journal, poetry is, of course, a major component of the journal’s mix of genres. On average, about a third of contributors and about a quarter of each issue have been given over to poetry, in both Irish and English, and including translations from other languages. There are also substantial essays on the poetic art by noted practitioners. This distinct but circumscribed space for poetry reflects the view of both poet-editors that in the context of a general-readership journal such as Irish Pages, a lean selection of poetry is likely to be read more attentively within the overall mix.

The sole criteria for inclusion in the journal are the distinction of the writing and the integrity of the individual voice. There are no favoured styles, themes, schools, publishers, critical hierarchies, and so on. Equal editorial attention will be given to established, emergent and new writers. Submissions are especially encouraged from younger writers, or writers at an early stage in their careers.