Publications
Prose – The Erection Specialists:
“When I’d called the number in The Advertiser ~ Erection Specialists Needed ~ well now ~ that’d got me attention ~ labourers wanted to put up a marquee ~ where in Salthill?…”
Published in ‘The Honest Ulsterman’ – October 2020… read more
Debut Novel – Line:
“Some lies survive so long they grow too big to fail. Then it’s easier to stay quiet, to pretend you don’t know.”
Tramp Press will be publishing my debut novel, Line, in spring 2021… read more
New Irish Writing:
May 2019’s winning story: The Envelope by Niall Bourke
Mam’s proudest boast was that she never owned any paper before she moved to Galway. “Not a single scrap of the stuff,” she always said, “not a permit for my gun or even one solitary licence for over two hundred caribou.”…read more
Published in the Irish Times
Did You Put The
Weasels Out?
“An epic for an age without heroes, Did You Put The Weasels Out? is a celebration of the modern mythology that takes place in every small town. A modern update of the 8th C Gaelic saga ‘The Táin’, written in Alexander Pushkin’s fiendish ‘Onegin sonnet’, Niall Bourke takes strict form to the extreme, and turns it into a hilarious, sharp-sighted satire of ordinary people’s neuroses… read more
The Best New British
And Irish Poets 2018
Modelled on the famous United States competition, the second annual Best New British and Irish Poets competition was open to any poet of British or Irish citizenship and/or UK or Irish residency who has not yet published or will not publish a full-length collection. This anthology comprises work by some of the biggest rising stars and new talents in these isles. JUDGED BY MAGGIE SMITH.
Still Worlds Turning –
New Short Fiction
Belfast’s No Alibis Press presents 20 bite-sized tales from emerging authors and established names. Contributors include Jan Carson, Lucy Caldwell, Niall Bourke, Wendy Erskine and June Caldwell – the latter’s introduction an arresting ode to the ever evolving short story form and the way the really good ones ‘dirty up’ your head: Still Worlds Turning delivers on that front, repeatedly. From Belfast to Bolivia and beyond, these stories will transport the reader to memorable places and interesting headspaces.
The Best New British
And Irish Poets 2016
Poetry. Edited by Todd Swift and Kelly Davio. The inaugural anthology of poems by fifty rising stars in the UK and Ireland, this volume gathers the work of the most important, interesting new poets working today.
“London-based Kilkenny man Niall Bourke can hardly be accused of repetition or lack of originality…Entertaining, occasionally echoing At Swim-Two-Birds and sometimes Rubberbandits…Niall Bourke fails to disappoint.”
