Craftwork Episode 30: Ghostwriting, Cold War Propaganda, & Coming Back from a Five-Week Coma w/ Luke Francis Beirne

Listen to Craftwork Episode 30: Ghostwriting, Cold War Propaganda, & Coming Back from a Five-Week Coma w/ Luke Francis Beirne.

In this interview, we chat with Luke Francis Beirne about literature versus entertainment, Atlantic Canadian textures, a literary marriage proposal, and so much more.

Luke Francis Beirne was born in Ireland in 1995 and now lives on Wolastoqey land in Saint John, New Brunswick. Beirne has published three novels with Baraka Books: Foxhunt, Blacklion, and Saints Rest. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in outlets such as Counterpunch, NB Media Co-op, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Honest Ulsterman, and CrimeReads.

Books mentioned in this episode:

Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King — Caroline Bicks
The Last Thing He Wanted — Joan Didion
The Quiet American — Graham Greene
The Maltese Falcon — Dashiell Hammett
The Outsiders — S. E. Hinton
The Bamboo Blonde; In a Lonely Place — Dorothy B. Hughes
Hatchet — Gary Paulsen
How Fiction Works — James Wood

May 17, 2026 0

Niall Howell, Mike Thorn & New Level Book & Beer Event

Join Niall Howell (author of Only Pretty Damned) and Mike Thorn at New Level Brewing Co. on August 21 from 7-9 pm. New Level is offering a special Damned-theme Clown Alley Porter for this event.

RSVP here.

August 21, 2019 0

Mike Thorn Interviews Niall Howell, Author of Only Pretty Damned

Niall and I first met as undergrads at Mount Royal University. From what I remember, we first connected through our mutual love of film, either through a course or a club of some kind. It wasn’t long before I learned that Niall was also a fiction writer, and we started exchanging excerpts from our works-in-progress. Niall’s rare, formidable talent was immediately evident to me—I saw in all his work a unique sense of humour and a mastery of pacing, plot and voice. After reading his phenomenal debut novel Only Pretty Damned (available now through NeWest Press), I reached out asking if he’d like to do a Q&A. He kindly agreed, and the dialogue below is the result of our email exchanges.

Read the full interview on Kendall Reviews.

May 22, 2019 0