1 As editor Daragh Carville points out in his introduction, this collection differs from the original Soundings anthologies edited in the 1970s in that it focuses on writing from the northern part of Ireland and features emerging writers from Northern Irish, English, and even Australian backgrounds, who are succinctly characterized as "offcomers" and "blowins" (xi). This nomenclature reflects the transient nature of what New Writing from the North of Ireland means today. Carville does not claim to present all genres evenly. However, considering the fact that since the days of Oscar Wilde many Irish authors have excelled in drama and fiction, Carville's choice of texts appears somewhat unbalanced. The volume contains only one extract from a play, one short story, three novel extracts, and a total of seventy-nine poems.

2 Two of the novel-extracts would qualify as excellent examples of short story-writing. The piece from Jo Baker's Mermaid's Child is a moving first-person narrative of hope and disillusionment. Colin Carberry's section from Narnia offers a graphic portrait of a Protestant Belfast neighborhood where a southern visitor is keen to hide his "soft, border-town brogue" (136). In a similar way, the main character in Stephen McMahon's short story "The Dummy," a builder from the south working in the north, meticulously tries to conceal his origins, pretending to be mute. That place and speech are inextricably bound up is also one of the main concerns in Joanna Laurens's Poor Beck. The play is a dystopian vision of a family living in a dark tunnel beneath "the surface," where "home" is only a fading memory and dissolving human bonds are mirrored by fractured syntax. "Home," its instability, and its loss are recurrent themes in Irish writing, and a number of poems in the anthology prove it. Deirdre Cartmill's and Leontia Flynn's contributions investigate the various nuances of "home" and the sense of belonging. Flynn's enigmatic poetry invites the reader to inner journeys through rural Donegal and County Down. That "Ireland" has expanded into the global Irish diaspora is illustrated by Howard Wright, who writes about Derry, Belfast, the Sierra Nevada, and Nevada, U.S.A.—a far cry from twentieth-century parochialism. Jean Bleakley's witty endeavors probe the depths of human nature, whereas Frank Sewell's poems trace the thin line between religious belief and superstition.

3 Deservedly, the acclaimed Irish poet Gearóóid MacLochlainn features largely. His six poems, included in their original Irish versions and in English, are self-referential analyses of the cross-linguistic snares so brilliantly captured in the Joycean dictum of the "acquired speech." In "Austriúúchááin" / "Translations," MacLochlainn exposes the schizophrenia of "bilingual reading" (37), pillorying an ignorant audience that regard themselves as "witty, broad-minded and cultured" (38) and are convinced "that they get the gist of this poetry thing" (38). Apart from MacLochlainn's contributions, the antagonisms of the Northern Irish Troubles do not loom large, which is an indication that since the Peace Agreement poets' priorities have palpably changed. In Paula Cunningham's "Mother's Pride," cultural diversification is cleverly symbolized by a knife buttering a slice of toast. In Nigel McLoughlin's poem "Belfast," this diversification is merely hinted at when the "dawn mist … makes myths of murals" and "settles beneath flags" in "a city of many flags" (120).

4 All in all, Daragh Carville's New Soundings offers a valuable insight into today's writing in, from, and about the north of Ireland. In particular, this anthology must be recommended to all those with a special interest in current trends in Northern Irish poetry writing.