No Alibis Bookstore

2025 Neil Shawcross Calendar Launch
2024-11-30 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/London) | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
It’s that time of year folks! Our annual Shawcross-No Alibis calendar will be with us soon! The lovely calendar features images by local artist Neil Shawcross.
Neil will be in No Alibis Bookstore on Saturday 30th at 3pm to sign.
Calendars can be collected in store, but if you can’t make it please contact the shop via email (david@noalibis.com) to arrange shipping.
Calendars priced at £15

LAUNCH EVENT: Rebel Women by Margaret Ward
2024-11-28 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us to celebrate the launch of Margaret Ward’s new book, REBEL WOMEN: Cumann na mBan in Belfast and the Glens of Antrim, 1914–1924, published by Beyond The Pale Books.
About REBEL WOMEN:
The early years of the twentieth century saw nationalists in County Antrim fighting for their survival during a war intended to achieve the complete separation of Ireland from Britain. Belfast, with its large Presbyterian population, became the centre of Ulster unionist resistance and republican defiance. Here, Cumann na mBan was organised in Belfast Central Branch and Craobh Iarthar – the West Belfast Branch.
The small nationalist population in the isolated communities of the Glens of Antrim, where some of the last native speakers of the Irish language lived, also took up arms, despite being vastly outnumbered. There were Cumann na mBan branches in Ballycastle, Cushendall, Dunloy, Glenravel, Loughguile, and Glenariffe.
Sectarian violence, pogrom, partition and defeat was the eventual outcome. Throughout, republican women played an essential role. From the earliest years of Cumann na mBan to the War of Independence, the Treaty and the ‘Northern Offensive’, they were significant figures in the republican movement. Not only did they organise arms dumps, shelter men on the run, hide money and documents, provide weaponry for operations, care for the wounded and organise effective communication systems, they also paid the price in terms of raids and imprisonment.
Their story has never before been told. Using new archival sources and information from some of the relatives of these forgotten activists, renowned feminist historian Dr Margaret Ward gives us a compelling account of the courageous contributions of over fifty women who were members of Cumann na mBan, or who were attached to the IRA.

Angela Graham Poetry Launch
2024-11-14 18:00 - 19:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis for an evening celebrating the publication of Angela Graham’s latest collection ‘Star- poems for the Christmas season’. Get your free ticket here
‘It takes a real poet to make those of us jaded by Christmas re-imagine the season. Angela Graham performs the feat of translating the festival into an urgent challenge, fraught with our contemporary problems and yet full of joy. This book, with its lovely illustrations, will be used for a very long time.’ – Gwyneth Lewis, inaugural National Poet of Wales

Night & Day by John Connolly - Book Signing
2024-11-02 13:00 - 14:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us for a Book Signing in No Alibis Bookstore
with
John Connolly

Following the highly acclaimed Nocturnes and Night Music, Night & Day is filled with eerie surprises and dark delights. Night & Day takes us from the dusty shelves of an uncanny library filled with fictional characters to a bunker deep beneath the earth where scientists seek revenge on old Nazis, from an English marsh haunted by a mother and her son to a country house where a grieving widower finds comfort in a most unlikely source. Concluding with the author’s account of how an obscure horror film brought him closer to his lost father, and how nostalgia can help through our hardest times, this is a collection that will move, entertain, and keep you reading late into the night.
This is a FREE event. Get your Free Ticket Here

Susan Cahill Book Launch
2024-10-30 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis Bookstore to celebrate the Launch of Susan Cahills’s book ‘The World Between the Rain’. This launch event is free to attend but reserve tickets to avoid missing out!
Get your tickets via TicketSource here!
It’s the week before Halloween and Marina is about to turn thirteen. Her father died a year ago. Her mother has strangely fallen asleep and no-one can wake her.
She is sent to live with her mysterious grandmother who tells her that that you can enter a strange world between the ever falling rain in the west of Ireland. Marina enters a haunting watery world full of strange creatures, demons, gods and dream makers. Meanwhile, in our world a strange sleeping sickness has taken over.
Will Marina be back in time? Can she survive?

Let's Dance by Lucy Sweeney Byrne: Belfast Launch
2024-10-17 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us for an evening to celebrate the launch of Lucy Sweeney-Byrne’s second collection of short stories, Let’s Dance, published by Banshee Press. Lucy will be introduced by local author, Alexander Poots.
Book your free ticket HERE.
This collection of dark, hilarious and provocative short stories explores women on the brink – of love, of joy, of disaster – with Lucy Sweeney Byrne’s signature wit, insight and daring.
I’ve seen how the clouds look when viewed from above, stretched pink and gold-tinged for miles and miles and miles. I’ve seen a single cumulus cloud against a blue sky from my seat outside a café below, thrumming still in upness. I’ve seen the making of The Matrix bonus feature on the DVD, Keanu Reeves being lifted in his harness, Harvey Weinstein smiling and slapping backs on his way to somewhere else. I’ve seen dirty clothes pile up in a laundry basket, and hairs in the drain. I’ve seen smoke rise from the bonnet of my car.
A newlywed grapples with the chasm that has opened up between her and her husband on the subject of children. A young mother tries to eke out a life for her family on an island named for a dead man, unaware of the psychic toll that is taken on her by the land and sea. And a woman at a drug-fuelled house party ruminates on the dark past she shares with one of the guests. Utilising forms ranging from flash fiction to novella, Let’s Dance is a glittering display of fiction’s ability to probe, startle and entertain.
Lucy Sweeney Byrne is the author of the short story collection Paris Syndrome (2019, Banshee Press), met with critical acclaim and 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 also writes book reviews for The Irish Times.

George Hamilton Book Launch
2024-10-16 18:30 - 19:30 | Crescent Arts Centre, 2-4 University Rd Belfast BT7 1NH, United Kingdom
No Alibis is delighted to host an evening celebrating the launch of George Hamilton’s latest book ‘The Hamilton Notes’ with special guest speaker Connor Phillips. Join us in the Crescent Arts Centre for what is sure to be a fantastic evening. This event is free of charge but be sure to reserve a ticket to avoid disappointment. Tickets available here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/t-eaydaea
The incomparable George Hamilton returns with a superb offering of travails and anecdotes spanning his five decades on our airwaves and on our screens, always at the heart of Irish culture.
Picking up where his first offering, The Nation Holds Its Breath, left off, George continues to illuminate the path that took him from the Cregagh Road in Belfast to the most extraordinary locations across the world. Whether going behind the scenes of his beloved Lyric FM show or reliving the dramatic events of the 100-metre final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the reader will be captivated once more by George’s storytelling as he expertly weaves tales and paints the most evocative pictures.
Sport, music and travel are intertwined throughout – George’s love for all three evident on every page. His writing style is consistently surprising; the reader is never quite certain where George is taking them but few will be able to resist being caught up in the stories and going along for the ride.

The Forest Yet to Come by Sam Thompson
2024-10-10 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us for a very special event to launch the third and final instalment of the Wolfstongue series by Sam Thompson.
Reserve your FREE space here.
‘Once you start, you can’t turn back. Deep in the Forest is a cave, and in the cave is a chamber, and in the chamber are the dreams. They could yet come true.’
Faolan and Sally have no memory of their lives before they arrived at the Land ten years ago. In this self-sufficient community, good fortune comes from mysterious beings known as the shapes, and no one is to venture into the Forest; a dangerous place full of fearsome wolves. When a strange gentleman named Reynard emerges from the Forest, he quickly befriends Faolan and Sally.
But the community are both suspicious and enthralled by his storytelling. In the wake of a terrible attack, the shapes seem to abandon their people. Faolan flees into the Forest seeking the wolves that have always fascinated him, and Reynard and Sally are banished.
Their pursuit of Faolan leads them to uncover many mysteries. As they are drawn further in, the community they once knew begins to fracture. There is no keeping the Forest out any longer, and nothing will ever be the same again.
Book your free ticket at the Ticketsource event link below.

How Banksy Saved Art History by Kelly Grovier - Book Launch
2024-10-03 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join Us For A Book Launch with Kelly Grovier
Book your Free space HERE

A new take on the history of art – from da Vinci to Warhol – as reinterpreted and ultimately reinforced by the international phenomenon that is Banksy. Few would dispute that Banksy is the most famous urban artist in the world today. That he is also one of the most perceptive art historians of our age might come as a surprise to many. But the myriad memorable works he has created over the past thirty years constitute an audacious commentary on the history of image-making – a captivating critique waiting to be pieced together. Armed with little more than stencils, spray paint and an anonymizing cloak of after-hours darkness, Banksy has forged an alluring identity for himself as an incorrigible prankster who doesn’t embrace tradition but shreds it. What actually illuminates Banksy’s audacious murals, impromptu urban sculptures and vandalized paintings, however, is a profound understanding of the story of art. Banksy recasts masterpieces as powerful comments on contemporary issues: climate change, consumerism and the struggle for peace, and reveals these works to be surprisingly elastic, resilient and relevant. In this fully illustrated and entertaining exploration, bestselling author Kelly Grovier traces art history through Banksy’s lens, presenting many of his most recognizable works: from his droll lampooning of the Lascaux cave paintings to his reinvention of Monet’s enchanting water-lily pond, a reboot of Géricault’s tragic gut-wrenching vision to Vermeer’s girl now instilled with street cred, everyone’s genius is grist for his unmerciful mill. Far from being diminished in their significance, however, the works that Banksy ruthlessly parodies are ultimately refurbished by the ordeal. Banksy’s iconoclastic works force us to rethink our affection for, and appreciation of, great works of art that define cultural history.
Kelly Grovier is a columnist and feature writer for BBC Culture, and his writings on art have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the Independent, The Sunday Times, the Observer, RA Magazine and Wired.

Kelly Grovier is the author of several books, including A New Way of Seeing: The History of Art in 57 Works (2018), On the Line: Conversations with Sean Scully (2021) and The Art of Colour (2023), all published by Thames & Hudson. He is co-founder of the scholarly journal European Romantic Review.

Juliana Adelman Book Event
2024-10-02 18:00 - 19:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
No Alibis Bookstore is delighted to welcome Juliana Adelman for an evening to celebrate her novel ‘The Grateful Water’ (New Island Books, 2024), in conversation with historian Elaine Farrell (Bad Bridget, Penguin 2023).
Free tickets for this event are available here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/t-xmopgam
See you there!

When a young butcher spots a strange shape on the banks of the River Liffey in the hot summer of 1866, the city of Dublin is gripped by a grimy case of infanticide. Detective Martin Peakin, an amateur entomologist and full of regret for his failed engagement, sets off in search of the murderer, eager to impress his superiors. But, as Peakin draws closer, he begins to realise that not all is as it seems.
Everyone related to the case is hiding something, while his own secrets threaten to bubble to the surface. The river binds these Dubliners together, but who will it divide in the end? And will Peakin actually solve this most shocking, ordinary and desperate of crimes?The Grateful Water – sticky with blood and secrets and guilt – will suck you in until the last page.

Kieran Connell & Maurice J. Casey Book Launches
2024-09-26 17:30 - 18:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
No Alibis Bookstore is delighted to be hosting an evening with Kieran Connell and Maurice J. Casey to celebrate the launch of their new books. Tickets for this event are free and are available here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/t-rpyepjd
See you there!
Multicultural Britain : A People’s History, Kieran Connell
Between the end of the Second World War and the early twenty-first century, Britain became multicultural. This vivid book tells that remarkable story. Kieran Connell, an historian of Irish and German heritage who grew up in Balsall Heath, inner-city Birmingham, takes readers into multicultural communities across Britain at key moments in their development.

Hotel Lux : An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals, Maurice J. Casey
Hotel Lux follows Irish radical May O’Callaghan and her friends, three revolutionary families brought together by their vision for a communist future and their time spent in the Comintern’s Moscow living quarters, the Hotel Lux. Historian Maurice Casey reveals the connections and disconnections of a group of forgotten communist activists whose lives collided in 1920s Moscow: a brilliant Irish translator, a maverick author, the rebel daughters of an East London Jewish family, and a family of determined German anti-fascists.

Ghosts of a Family by Edward Burke - Book Launch
2024-09-19 18:30 - 20:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Ghosts of a Family : Ireland’s Most Infamous Unsolved Murder, the Outbreak of the Civil War and the Origins of the Modern Troubles
By Edward Burke

Please RSVP to
info@merrionpress.ie
At 1.20 a.m. on 24 March 1922, five men, four dressed in British police uniforms, broke into the North Belfast house of Owen McMahon, a well-known Catholic publican. They fatally shot McMahon, four of his sons and Eddie McKinney, an employee of the family. Nobody was ever charged for these ruthless and cold-blooded murders.
In retaliation for these and other Belfast murders, the IRA assassinated the former head of the British Army, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, and a subsequent British ultimatum to the Irish government sparked the first salvos of the Irish Civil War days later. The reluctance of the unionist Belfast government to pursue loyalist killers drove the rift between Northern Ireland’s two main communities even deeper, laying the foundations for the Troubles at the end of the twentieth century.
Over 100 years later, Edward Burke has expertly uncovered the identity of the McMahons’ likely murderer. This is a riveting cold-case investigation that invokes the smoke-filled streets of Belfast during the cataclysmic violence of 1920–22, and explores how the ramifications of the McMahon killings are still being felt to this day.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Edward Burke is a historian at University College Dublin, specialising in the study of political violence, insurgencies and paramilitarism. His previous books are An Army of Tribes: British Army Cohesion, Deviancy and Murder in Northern Ireland (Liverpool, 2018) and Ulster’s Lost Counties: Loyalism and Paramilitarism since 1920 (Cambridge, 2024).

Dr Ian Miller A History Of Ireland in Ten Body Parts - Book Launch
2024-09-05 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us for an Evening with Dr Ian Miller to celebrate the launch of
“A History of Ireland in Ten Body Parts”
Ian will be introduced by Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire.
Skulls, heads, hands, height, legs, sex organs, blood, brains, stomachs, ears and corpses – discover Irish history through the prism of the body. From the brutal beheading of the 25-year-old, red-headed Clonycavan Man some 2,000 years ago, and the rich vein of information that has been preserved in his ‘bog body’, to the ancient skulls stolen from islands off Ireland’s west coast believed to be those of giants – here medical historian Dr Ian Miller brings readers on a uniquely entertaining journey through Irish history.
Encounter the famous scribes, including St Patrick, who preserved our knowledge of ancient Ireland by hand. Discover the fears of excessive tea drinking that were once such a great cause for concern on this isle. Meet the doctors who revolutionised Irish medicine in the 19th century – along with the gruesome bodysnatching that accompanied it. Here, fact and folklore intertwine to take you on a fascinating journey through Irish history as you’ve never experienced it before.

Dr Ian Miller is Lecturer in Medical History at Ulster University, Northern Ireland. Ian is author of six medical history books on topics including the force-feeding of hunger strikers and how the Irish diet changed after the Irish Famine. His work has featured in several BBC and RTÉ radio shows, and on Disney Plus.
Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire is an Irish lecturer and professional chef. He was awarded Ireland’s first PhD on food history, in October 2009.
This is a FREE event.
Reserve your place here

Carlo Gébler Book Launch
2024-08-29 18:00 - 19:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
No Alibis is delighted to celebrate the launch of Carlo Gébler’s latest work ‘A Cold Eye’. Join us for what is sure to be a fantastic evening. Tickets for this event are free but advance booking is recommended to avoid disappointment! Tickets available here https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/t-avmrjjr
If the past is another country – what happens when we revisit it, one day a year?
Carlo Gébler has done just that. Here is the story of Ireland – from the tail end of the Troubles to the Good Friday agreement, to the glory days of the Celtic Tiger to the recession to Brexit and on to the present, where, it appears, everything we thought we could take for granted is no longer a given.
Drawing from journals he has kept for over four decades, Gébler stitches together days of his life into something bigger than his own lived experiences – a vivid patchwork history of the island over thirty-five years, capturing those sweeping changes in sharp, funny, slantwise pieces that will prompt readers to reflect on the strange process of how we got here.
This intelligent and affectionate compilation, written in Gébler’s sparkling prose, is a joy. Whether read from beginning to end or dipped into, it will appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in the astonishing evolution of our island.

Paddy Hillyard Book Launch
2024-08-28 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis Bookstore to celebrate the Launch of Paddy Hillyard’s book ‘Decades of Deceit’. This fabulous event is free but book tickets to avoid disappointment!
Free Tickets available here
The book is available to purchase here: https://noalibis.com/product/decades-of-deceit/
This book is a forensic account of the Stalker inquiry into RUC shoot-to-kill operations in 1982. It attacks the official narrative that there was no conspiracy to remove Stalker and details the efforts by his own police force to invent disciplinary charges. MI5’s secret security strategy in N Ireland is central and remains so to this day

Poetry Ireland Review 143 Belfast Launch
2024-08-27 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us for readings and the Belfast launch of Poetry Ireland Review Issue 143, edited by Mícheál McCann. This event will be hosted by Mícheál and will feature readings from contributors local to the bookshop: Stephen Sexton, Emma Must, Brian Kerr, Paul Maddern and Trish Bennett.
Reserve your FREE space here.
More about this issue of Poetry Ireland:
Poetry Ireland Review Issue 143, edited by Mícheál McCann, is now available to purchase. The issue features new poems from Stephen Sexton, Vona Groarke, Emily Cooper, and Paul Muldoon, as well as work from emerging poets Isabel Dwyer and Rafael Mendes, among many others. Irish-language editor Aifric Mac Aodha’s selection includes poetry from Mícheál Ó hUanacháin and Orlaith Ní Icí.
Special additions to the issue include a set of poems from Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Ruefle and the poetry of the late Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, translated into Irish by Colm Ó Ceallacháin. It also features a collaborative essay remembering poet and teacher Gerald Dawe.
In this summer issue, there are a total of 18 books reviewed which speak on internationalism, surrealism, and disability, including collections from Elaine Feeney, Ciarán O’Rourke, and Susan Rich, as well as debut collections from Trudie Gorman and Milena Williamson.
Other prose in this issue includes Ellen Orchard’s essay on how a poem can bear witness along with Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha’s essay discussing writing poetry in the Irish language today.
The artwork in issue 143, which weaves together the personal and the collective, is from photographer and visual artist Eslam Abd El Salam, based in Belfast.
Presented in partnership with Poetry Ireland.
Poetry Ireland is funded by The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon & the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Stuart Neville Book Launch
2024-08-15 18:00 - 19:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis to launch Stuart Neville’s latest novel ‘Blood Like Mine’. This is a free event but booking tickets ahead is advised to avoid disappointment!
Tickets are available here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd
Rebecca Carter and her daughter Monica, nicknamed Moonflower, travel the American West, always on the move, always hiding, always looking behind them, always keeping Moonflower out of sight. They speak to no one, only interacting with people when it’s absolutely necessary. But wherever they go, bodies are left behind.Special Agent Marc Donner of the FBI has been tracking a killer for the best part of two years. A murderer that strikes once every few weeks. The victims are all men, many disappearing only to be found months later, dumped in forests or rivers or quarries, far from their places of death.
“Stuart Neville at his considerable best. A shocking and powerful thriller that is as moving as it is gripping. This is a book you will not forget in a hurry and which will leave you hungry for the next instalment” – MARK BILLINGHAM
Pre-order a signed first edition (special Indie edition!) copy using the link below
https://noalibis.com/product/pre-order-blood-like-mine-stuart-neville-pub-15-aug-2024/

STEVE CAVANAGH - WITNESS 8 - BOOK SIGNING
2024-07-27 10:30 - 11:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us for a Book Signing with Steve Cavanagh in No Alibis Bookstore on

Saturday 27th July at 10.30am

BOOK YOUR FREE TICKET HERE

The very definition of a page-turner!’
IAN RANKIN
Steve Cavanagh’s twists hit you between the eyes. You never see them coming’
ANTHONY HOROWITZ
This guy is the real deal. Trust me!
LEE CHILD
Steve Cavanagh writes the best hooks in the business.
MICK HERRON

About Witness 8
WHAT IF THE ONLY WITNESS TO A MURDER IS MORE TWISTED THAN THE KILLER?
Ruby Johnson is a nanny and maid to wealthy families in Manhattan’s West 74th Street.
She knows their routines. Their secrets. One night, on her way home, Ruby witnesses a neighbour’s murder.
She knows the victim. She knows the killer. She makes an anonymous call to the police and names the murderer.
But Ruby didn’t tell the truth… Because there’s something wrong with Ruby Johnson. Eddie Flynn, conman turned trial lawyer, must defend an innocent man accused of this terrible crime.
As Ruby’s deadly game begins, one thing is certain.
It won’t be the last murder this witness is involved in…
‘A fantastic thriller writer’ MARK BILLINGHAM’

Olivia Hope Storytime/Workshop
2024-07-06 11:00 - 12:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Organised in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing. Join celebrated author Olivia Hope as she reads and leads a creative workshop centred around her wonderful new picture book Little Lion Girl.
FIND YOUR ROAR!
In an interactive feast for the senses, children and parents join in on one little girl’s trip to the big city, inspired by Little Lion Girl, written by Olivia Hope and illustrated by Fiona Woodcock.
Learn about amazing lions in the wild and in art and then create your own roaring lion too!
Children get the chance to create a colourful sensory lion themed artwork, declaring all the positive affirmations from Little Lion Girl with actions and sound (I am amazing, I am incredible) and solid advice for little (and big) ones on what to do if you get lost.
Find your roar is an interactive, engaging and colourful craft and drama session for children and their families.
Come along and find your own roar!
This is a FREE event but space is limited.
Book your ticket here

Rónán Hession in Conversation with Jan Carson
2024-07-05 19:00 - 20:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis Bookstore to celebrate Rónán Hession’s latest novel, Ghost Mountain, with an interview of the author by Jan Carson. This event is free but booking early to avoid disapointment is advised. Free tickets are available at the link below
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/t-lnrngyd
Hope to see you there!

Phil Harrison Book Launch
2024-06-20 19:00 - 20:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis Bookstore to celebrate the launch of Phil Harrison’s new book Silverback, for what is sure to be a wonderful evening. This event is free of charge so book now to avoid disappointment.Tickets are available at the link below:
Book your Free ticket Here

In a Belfast courtroom Robert Rusting is on trial for the murder of his father, a former loyalist hardman. On the jury is James Fechner, a middle-aged surgeon in search of meaning in the hushed rooms of justice, inexplicably drawn to the younger man before him. After trial, Fechner can’t quite return to life before those days in court.
In dingy pubs and rowdy boxing halls Fechner inserts himself into Rusting’s world in another guise, following a compulsive pull to an aggressive, unapologetic way of life. So begins a close friendship, a relationship in which a battle for control is tacit but unspoken – and explosive. Silverback is a powerful portrayal of the complications of masculinity and of the line between fragility and violence told in an unforgettable voice.

Aimée Walsh Book Launch - Exile
2024-05-23 18:00 - 19:30 | Crescent Arts Centre, 2-4 University Rd Belfast BT7 1NH, United Kingdom
Book a free ticket here
Leaving home was hard. Returning is impossible. Fiadh’s life is turned completely upside down on a night out in Belfast.
Pretty soon everyone has heard about what happened; it is impossible to keep the rumours from spreading, the gossip from spiralling out of control. And just as she was beginning to finally figure everything out: she was feeling positive about her move to Liverpool, she was starting to get on top of her uni work and had made some new friends. Now her life is in freefall and Fiadh is helpless to do anything about it.
She starts missing assignment deadlines, stops turning up to class and doesn’t respond to any of her friends’ messages. Her nights revolve around random hook ups, fuelled by drink and drugs. Without the tightknit group of friends she left behind at home or the support of the new friends she has made in Liverpool, Fiadh’s life quickly descends into chaos, a chaos that nearly costs her everything.
Pre-order a signed copy of the book here:
https://noalibis.com/product/exile/
Aimée Walsh is a writer from Belfast.
Her debut novel Exile will be published by John Murray Press in May 2024. It has been listed as a highly anticipated release by The Irish Times, Dazed, and the Journal, amongst others.
In 2023, Walsh was longlisted for the London Magazine Short Story Prize.
Her short fiction, non-fiction, and book criticism has appeared in The Irish Times, The Observer, RTÉ Culture, Extra Teeth, Dazed, Refinery29 (US, Germany, Australia, and UK), and The Independent (UK, Spain, and Ireland).
In Spring 2022, she was a participant in the Faber Academy short story workshop ran by Lucy Caldwell. In 2021, she was the recipient of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Emerging Writers Bursary in conjunction with the Irish Writers’ Centre.
Walsh holds a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University in Irish Literature and Cultural History, with a focus on Irish women writers from the north of Ireland. In September 2024, this work will be published by Liverpool University Press in her first monograph, Writing Resistance in Northern Ireland.
She is working on her second novel.

Mícheál McCann Book Launch - Devotion
2024-05-22 18:00 - 19:30 | Harty Room,, Music Building, QUB, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT7 1NN
Join us for a book launch of Mícheál McCann’s debut collection ‘Devotion’.
You can pre-order the book on our website here
Book your free ticket on TicketSource here
At the heart of Mícheál McCann’s eagerly awaited first collection is ‘Keen for A— ’, a re-imagining of Eileen O’Connell’s heartrending Lament for Art O’Leary. In Devotion the poet transports the original tragedy in time and place. Echoing the 18th-century Irish, it lives now in contemporary Belfast where a young man’s male lover is murdered. The sequence charts from premonition, in filmic scenes, the first encounter, the news, denial, rage (and an oath of vengeance) to the funeral and A—’s family’s chilling silence afterwards.
Other poems range from memories of childhood and relationships with parents to the author’s own imaginary child. There is a wry poem on animal homosexuality, others on sea swimming and the satisfactions of a shared meal, while an elegiac poem recreates the final joy of an RUC Constable in a gay bar before he’s shot by a member of the INLA.
For all the solemnity of its subject matter love poems leaven its atmosphere as Mícheál McCann’s debut glows with the sense of someone who knows he has ‘discovered the name of his destination’.

Lucy Caldwell - Book Launch - Openings
2024-05-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Crescent Arts Centre, 2-4 University Rd Belfast BT7 1NH, United Kingdom
Join us for a very special book launch.

Join us to celebrate the launch of Lucy Caldwell’s latest short story collection, “Openings”, in No Alibis Bookstore.

BOOK YOUR FREE TICKET HERE
I still sometimes wonder if one could draw a window in the wall, or in the air, and step through it together. To somewhere else, entirely new.’
Since the publication of Multitudes, her debut collection, Lucy Caldwell has been celebrated as one of today’s pre-eminent short story writers. In this much-anticipated third collection, she continues her exploration of the contemporary female experience, as she delves deeper into motherhood and marriage, love and longing. From a passionate affair in Blitz-era London, to a highly charged Christmas party in Belfast, to a trip to Marrakech which could form a new family, the 14 striking stories of Openings pulse with possibility and illuminate those fleeting but recognisable moments of heartbreak and hope that can change the course of a life.
An exclusive Limited Edition Hardback will be available on the night, including an additional story, only available in this edition.

Pre -order your Limited Edition Copy Here

John Connolly Book Launch
2024-04-30 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis for an evening with John Connolly to celebrate the launch of his latest novel, The Instruments of Darkness. Come along for what is sure to be a brilliant evening. Tickets are free of charge but are sure to sell fast so register to avoid disappointment.
Tickets available with link below

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/john-connolly-book-launch/2024-04-30/18:00/t-lnmedok

Trudie Gorman Book Launch - Trust the Damage
2024-04-11 18:00 - 19:00 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us for a Book Launch with Trudie Gorman to celebrate the publication of Trust The Damage.
Free Tickets Here

In Trust the Damage, her deeply intimate debut poetry collection, Trudie Gorman explores the connection between class, poverty, and illness. Journeying from a council estate in the 90s to the fractured ecosystem of the present day, she contends with the grief of losing her body to illness, whilst also finding hope and connection.

The body in all of its morphisms is the main character here, while memory, legacy, violence against women, healthcare, working-class culture and love ripple through the collection in vibrant coexistence. The poems are at once visceral and unflinching in their depictions, yet always stretch towards the light, capturing what it means for a life to bloom in the dark.
We kindly ask all attending to wear a face mask, if possible. Kind thanks for your understanding

Jan Carson Book Launch - Quickly While They Still Have Horses
2024-04-04 18:00 - 19:30 | Crescent Arts Centre, 2-4 University Rd Belfast BT7 1NH, United Kingdom
Join us for the long awaited launch of Jan Carson’s new short story collection, ‘Quickly, While They Still Have Horses’.
In sixteen sparkling stories, Jan Carson introduces us to worlds and characters that feel real enough to touch. All of life is here: the thrill of growing up, the grief when youth is over; first love, mature love, parenthood and loss – all shot through with profound compassion, warm wit, and boundless imagination.
Pre-order your copy from No Alibis here

This event is free but tickets are sure to go fast- so book to avoid disappointment!
Where: The Crescent Arts Centre
When: 4th April 2024 at 6pm
Free Tickets Here

Milena Williamson Book Launch
2024-03-21 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
No Alibis Bookstore is delighted to announce an evening with Milena Williamson as we launch her debut poetry collection ‘Into the Night that Flies So Fast’. Join us for what is sure to be an unforgettable event.
Book your FREE ticket here
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/t-vvkajdv

In Into the Night that Flies So Fast, the debut
collection of poems from Belfast-based Milena
Williamson, the speaker journeys to the small County
Tipperary village of Ballyvadlea, to investigate the life
and death of Bridget Cleary, in 1895 burned to death
by her family on suspicion of being a fairy changeling.
Fusing docupoetry and true crime, travelogue and
drama, the book introduces a compelling cast of
characters as the ill-fated Bridget, her family and
members of her community all come onstage to give
their versions of events. In the ‘Interval’ of this play for
voices, the speaker herself draws back from Bridget’s
story to reflect on her own new life in Ireland, on the
relationships and journey that have brought her to
this interrogation of one of the darkest episodes in
Ireland’s past.

“In this shape-shifting narrative, not only do we meet Bridget Cleary, the woman inside the poet’s head, but we are also given a startling glimpse of how aspects of Cleary’s story reverberate into today; of other voices that will always be an absence. A brilliant debut.”—Moyra Donaldson
“A lyrical gymnast… ” —Rosamund Taylor

Milena Williamson is from Swarthmore, Pennsylvania and has lived in
Belfast since 2017. She has a PhD in poetry from the Seamus Heaney
Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. A recipient of the Eric
Gregory Award, she published her debut pamphlet Charm for
Catching a Train in 2022 (Green Bottle Press). Her writing about
Bridget Cleary has been supported by the Arts Council of Northern
Ireland and the Ireland Chair of Poetry.

Anna Bell Book Launch
2024-02-29 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis Bookstore this leap leap year day… to ‘leap’ into the launch of Anna Bell’s new novel ‘Once upon a leap year’ for what is sure to be a wonderful evening at the shop.
Book your FREE tickets here
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/t-pqgdyyx

Once upon a leap year is a gorgeous, high-concept romcom about finding love and daring to take a chance. After all, it’s all about timing. . .
29th February 2000. Lucy’s never met another leapling until she encounters Noah also spending his once-in-four-years birthday on a disappointing day trip to Calais. There’s a spark that Lucy is sure Noah must feel too, and their friends insist they have amazing chemistry, but they’re both with other people. It can never be more than platonic and that’s OK.
Over the next twenty years, they’re at each other’s side through all of life’s big moments – weddings, babies, new jobs, family illness – but Lucy can never shake the feeling that they were meant to meet…If Lucy is to find a love that’s rarer than a leap year, she’s going to have to take a leap of faith.
Anna Bell is an author of uplifting, romantic comedies. She’s had eleven novels published including, The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart and Note to Self. Anna has an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, and before she became a full-time writer she was a curator of artefacts at a military museum. She recently moved to Belfast from the South of France with her young family and energetic Labradors.

Catherine Gander Book Launch
2024-02-28 18:00 - 19:30 | No Alibis Bookstore, 83 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, BT7 1JL, United Kingdom
Join us in No Alibis bookstore for the exciting launch of Catherine Gander’s poetry collection ‘Matches’.
Book your FREE tickets here
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/no-alibis-bookstore-ltd/t-qjgezrv

‘Matches holds its fierce and sudden light close to us, revealing the hidden world of domestic violence. Inch by inch, Catherine Gander explores the anatomy of abuse, allowing the reader to inhabit the darkest and loneliest of places with her. Through deftly woven images and brilliant sequences, we witness how a woman can be taken apart: this is echoed in how poems are dismantled before our eyes’ – Olga Dermott-Bond
‘Matches is a profound act of witness. It testifies to the chilling realities of intimate partner abuse, failed escape-routes and quiet, everyday attempts at survival. Gander is a fearless voice, skilfully crafting and elevating wounded experience out of a hidden place into a new home lit by language. How grateful I am that such a poet exists, persisting against silence, insisting upon difficult truths. Here is a book, like a sharp balm, that stings, calms, and transforms.’ – Annemarie Ní Churreáin

Catherine Gander was born in England and now lives in Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in numerous places, including Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, On the Seawall, Palette, and Firmament, and she is the co-author of the poetry pamphlet Sea Between Us. An academic and critic, Catherine is co-founder of the Poetry & Poetics series with Karl O’Hanlon at Maynooth University and has won awards from the Irish Research Council and the Irish Writers’ Centre to work on diversity and mentorship programmes in poetry criticism, and to develop her own writing.
