It’s Short Story Week this week for Reading Ireland Month and to kick things off, I am sharing ten short stories by Irish writers that you can read online, for free today!

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• The original version of Foster by Claire Keegan is available to read here at the New Yorker, published before the story was lengthened and revised for publication by Faber.

• Kevin Barry’s short stories are wonderful creations and you can read the brilliant A Cruelty here at Lit Hub.

• Lucy Caldwell’s new collection Intimacies will be out later this year, but you can get a sneak peak by reading Words for Things at the Stinging Fly website.

• Jan Carson has a new collection of short stories out later this year called The Last Resort and all are set in a wet caravan park on the Northern Ireland coast. The stories have been dramatised for BBC Radio Four and you can listen to them here.

• I mentioned last week how excited I am to read Claire-Louise Bennett’s new novel, so here is a chance to read her short story The Order of Things.

• Sinead Gleeson is well-known for her work editing The Glass Shore, The Long Gaze Back and The Art of the Glimpse as well as her recent book Constellations, but here is a chance to get a short taste of her fiction with the story Counting Bridges.

• Doireann Ní Ghríofa has had great critical success with her wonderful memoir A Ghost in the Throat. Here is a very, very short story from her called Female Silence: 9 Types

• Calm With Horses, the film nominated for several BAFTA’s last week is based on a short story by Colin Barrett, from his collection Young Skins. Here is another one of his powerful works – Diamonds – which won the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award.

• If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you’ll know I’m a big fan of Nuala O’Connor‘s novels and short stories. Here’s a chance to read and extract from her brilliant story Joyride to Jupiter, which I reviewed a few years ago.

• Probably best known for his novels, Colum McCann is a dab hand at the short story too – here is Home and Away – written exclusively for The Big Issue.

I hope you find something there that you enjoy! Have you a favourite short story writer from Ireland? Let me know in the comments!

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