Dylan Brennan by Liliana Pérez-Brennan
Lucy Sweeney Byrne by David Fagleman
Banshee Press will publish Something Else, the debut novel by award-winning short story writer Lucy Sweeney Byrne, and Swans Horses Nice, the third collection by acclaimed poet Dylan Brennan, in 2027.
Publisher and editor Eimear Ryan acquired Ireland, UK and Commonwealth (excl. Canada) rights for Something Else from Olivia Davies of United Agents, while poetry editor Jessica Traynor acquired world rights for Swans Horses Nice directly from the author. Swans Horses Nice will publish in March 2027, with Something Else following in September.
Our gratitude as always to the Arts Council, whose ongoing support makes it possible for us to bring these superb books to readers.
Swans Horses Nice by Dylan Brennan
March 2027, poetry
Swans Horses Nice is a meditation of life on the island of Ireland since the last Ice Age, intercut with elegies both personal and historical. Concerned as always with history’s strange and wonderful meeting points, Dylan Brennan cuts a path through Ireland’s heartlands in the footsteps of famine refugees, offering a vision of life in Ireland in which the past and present bleed. This book affirms Brennan as a restless chronicler of the moments which shape our history – from species collapse to genocide in Gaza – and the intimacies that sustain us, and illuminate our shared humanity.
‘Having published an essay in the very first issue of Banshee back in 2015, I am lucky to have been involved with Banshee Press right from the beginning,’ says Brennan. ‘The Banshees, with their wonderful mixture of warmth and rigour, are my ideal publishers. I’m delighted they’ve taken this book on.’
Poetry editor Jessica Traynor says of the work: ‘Dylan Brennan is one of the most singular and exciting voices in Irish poetry. This new collection is both tender in its addressing of grief, and furious in its assessment of our contemporary world, as befits a poet of Brennan’s intelligence, ambition and skill.’
Dylan Brennan’s debut poetry collection, Blood Oranges (The Dreadful Press, 2014), was awarded the Patrick Kavanagh Award runner-up prize. His second collection, Let the Dead (Banshee Press, 2023) was longlisted for the Laurel Prize. He was granted the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary in 2018 and was recipient of the Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill Poetry Exchange in 2024. In 2016 he was selected as one of the Rising Generation for Poetry Ireland Review. He lives in Mexico City.
Something Else by Lucy Sweeney Byrne
September 2027, fiction
In Something Else, the Fitzgerald family are all speeding towards their own private crises. They are haunted by the absence of Ciarán, the brother who went no-contact ten years ago. Now Anna, her husband Liam, and her mother-in-law Sheila have each splintered into their own discrete islands, bound by a code of silence. Each family member guards a secret – financial ruin, addiction, unspoken hopes and dreams – as the structure of their family threatens to collapse. Funny, sad, and utterly captivating, Something Else captures modern living in all of its darkness and beauty.
‘Lucy Sweeney Byrne has an eye and a turn of phrase like no other,’ says publisher Eimear Ryan. ‘She has an uncanny ability to delve into the dark corners of human nature, but has such tenderness for her characters, and is always alert to the absurdity of everyday life. We’re thrilled to be publishing this moving, bracing, hilarious novel.’
‘Something Else, set in my home town of Bray, focuses on a contemporary version of traditional domestic life, with all of its routines, silences, comedies and everyday tragedies,’ says Byrne. ‘It was an easy decision to work with Banshee again on this, my first novel. Not only do they produce beautiful and interesting books, but they offer their authors support, encouragement and respect throughout.’
Lucy Sweeney Byrne is the author of the short story collections Paris Syndrome (Banshee Press, 2019), and Let’s Dance (Banshee Press, 2024). Her work has been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Edge Hill Prize, the Kate O’Brien Award, the Butler Literary Award, and the John McGahern Prize. Lucy’s short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Southword, AGNI, Litro, Grist, 3:AM magazine, and other literary outlets. She writes book reviews for The Irish Times.
