Leitrim author Liz Laird takes the reader to Belfast in January 1979, and through the triumphs and challenges she encountered as she undertook her nurse training in the Royal Victoria Hospital. This book will have you laughing and weeping, as she navigates her journey from teenager to womanhood, with the backdrop of bombing, gunfire, hunger strikes and riots.

Entries must be the author’s own unpublished work. This includes print, online publication, or broadcast. Simultaneous submissions are accepted; however, entrants should notify organisers immediately if work is accepted elsewhere. The theme for this year’s competition is “New World.” Entrants must be over 18 years of age and either resident in Ireland or from the island of Ireland. Entry is free.

Bizarrely, for a society that has supposedly progressed out of the dark days of the Troubles and into a ‘new dispensation’, the Browns have now been kept waiting for an inquiry even longer than the Bloody Sunday families were.

It’s imperative that Derry and Coleraine - led by their Councils and Chambers of Commerce - quickly find shared leadership, and rise up with a common voice. They must convince the politicians at Stormont and Westminster with detailed arguments and analyses that this is wrong and will have devastating long term consequences for an important sub region on this island, before its too late.

'The Half-Life of Edith Hopkin and Other Stories' begins with a novella (the title story), which tells of a rape victim whose infant baby is removed from her at the Tuam Mother & Baby Home in the 1960s and how her life unfolds in the traumatic aftermath. It is a highly-nuanced, compassionate and lyrical tale, made all the more significant as the author himself was born in the Castlepollard Manor Mother & Baby Home in 1965 and was then adopted a year later.

A Scandal in Plain Sight author GARRETT HARGAN investigates how Stormont’s neglect of Derry’s education sector is compounding the damage done by what John Hume called ‘the despicable criminal story of the second university’.

Colmcille Press and North West Regional College have partnered to trial new voice replication technology designed to help authors and independent publishers create professional audiobooks quickly and affordably. For the first of three pilots, produced by Aaron McKeever, Consultant at NWRC's XR Hub, author Felicity McCall reads the title story from her new short-story collection What We Did on Our Holidays.

Carrying Light pays personal tribute to Derry and Donegal luminaries, from Pat Hume and Sr Clare Crockett and from Dinny McGinley to Canon McDyer

He easily matches many of our big literary talents and paddles in the same thematic streams but seems to be somehow overlooked.

In this extended interview, the veteran campaigner and writer Eamonn McCann recalls the Derry of the 1950s and 1960s, and the events that him to write one of the most famous modern histories on Ireland.

Míle buíochas le Fiachna Ó Braonáin as an bhfíseán seo de féin ag léamh ó bhailiúchán Paul Laughlin, Dorn San Aer (Filíocht ó Dhoire go Gaza). Thug an t-amhránaí Bronagh Gallagher cóip den leabhar dó i ndiaidh cheolchoirm Hothouse Flowers i Halla na Guild an tseachtain seo caite.

Joe Mahon has generously started 'Ciste Mhic Gabhann' with a donation of £5000 and says he hopes other funders will now also contribute to it.

There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have contributed to the DUG campaign for an independent, cross-border university in northwest Ireland over the past year. We are grateful for all the support - and would like to mention a few in our first annual awards list. Parliamentarian of the Year (Stormont) Winner: Sinead McLaughlin MLA (nominated for her work on the new Regional Balance Bill) Honourable Mention: Dr Caoimhe Archibald MLA (nominated for refusing t

Dundalk and Queen’s have shown what can be done when the civic and political will is there. And done quickly. Derry’s urgency is even greater. It is time for the political and civic elite - and for the Executive and Derry/Strabane Council - to decide what side they’re on.

Your starter for ten: what has been the fasting-selling local book in the North West this season? And for your bonus: why shouldn't you be alarmed?

Derry authors Felicity McCall, Ken Thatcher, Paul Gosling, Colum Arbuckle and Pat McArt were among the audience at Ráth Mór on Friday Dec 5

'We were a band of mostly elderly people trying to squeeze as much comfort as possible from a hard chair, praying for a moment of sleep which never came'

Still looking for that perfect Christmas present? Signed books from a range of our authors are now available online will also be available at Conor Bowman's launch at Ráth Mór this week, including copies of: * BBC broadcaster and latter-day seanchaí Ken McCormack's collection of curious old tales from the North West, The Lady in Black * Guitar maestro Colum Arbuckle's memoir, Radio, Romance & Rock'n'Roll (CA will also be playing a tune or two) * Royal Literary Fellow Feli

Writer Conor Bowman at the cemetery in Castlepollard Mother & Baby Home, where he was born COLMCILLE PRESS is hosting a pre-Christmas launch and Oíche Airneáil at Ráth Mór’s Hive Studios on Friday, December 5. Proceedings will open at 5.30pm with the launch of ‘The Half-Life of Edith Hopkins and Other Stories’, new fiction collection centring on the Tuam Mother & Baby Home, penned by barrister Conor Bowman. Following on from this, the guitar virtuoso and recent author, Colu

You think you know Derry? But how much do you really know? Take up the gauntlet today!