Love, Lycra and Tattoos
Love, Lycra and Tattoos is the touching story of a daughter and her mother who face daily challenges and life-changing events. Fiona’s mother, a single parent, is trying to keep the reality of her recent diagnosis from her daughter; but navigating their new terrain without transparency only leads to more difficulties.
“(this novella) has its own voice, pacing and emotional intelligence; the work is fresh, awake and wryly kind.”
- AAWP (Australian Association of Writing Programs)
& Spineless Wonder Novella Prize 2024
The fictional stories in this collection provide unique insights into domestic dramas and deliver universal truths about seemingly small lives. Read about a grown man who has never left home in Adult Education, stories about the wrong people married to each other in Sitting in a Parked Car and Going Through the Motions. For a futuristic flavour, enjoy Eco Betrayals and a familial story of hope is depicted in True North, Finding a Way Home.
My new collection of a novella and stories, Love, Lycra and Tattoos is launching in the Teachers’ Club in Parnell Square, Dublin on Thursday 4th December 2025.
Everyone welcome!
Room for One More
Is it true? Did it really happen to you? Some of it did!
Room for One More depicts snapshots of the author's childhood in Killarney, her time in a boarding school in Co. Cork, her college years in Dublin and her subsequent travels.
The short stories that these snapshots inspire, range from an emigrant's Christmas in Australia in Waiting for Christmas, a drama in a nursing home in Returning Home and a sinister feud in an Argentine village in And Then Came the War.
This collection of memoirs and short stories offers a varied and enjoyable read, to those of us who sometimes wonder, "could that really happen?"
Sweaters and Small Stuff
When ordinary people live through extraordinary moments. Sweaters and Small Stuff is a wonderful collection of stories, depicting some of the most tender and sweet, as well as tragic and harrowing, instances in the lives of many different characters.
From the life-changing to the seemingly mundane, this thought-provoking anthology will take you on a journey that won't easily be forgotten. The two-part volume brings you a very different story for every day of the week, in the first section. From Sundays and Secrets, where a young girl's life is changed forever on a Kerry beach to Friday's Photographs, where a tale of abuse takes an unusual turn. In part two, Foreign TV Stations is a funny take on a stroke of luck, A Model Mother tugs at the heartstrings and 30-Minute-Meals gives real food for thought.
Sweaters and Small Stuff offers a varied and enjoyable read, for ordinary people looking for extraordinary moments.
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ABOUT KATHRYN
Kathryn has had short stories and pieces published in the anthologies A Pint and a Haircut, Selfies and Portraits, and Pure Slush. Sweaters and Small Stuff was her first published collection of short stories. Her second collection Room for One More contains memoir and fiction.
Her stories and flash fiction have featured in the Jonathan Swift Award, the Writers' Village International Short Fiction Award, Ruby Literary, the Retreat West Award among others. She currently works as editor and primary education specialist with Emu Ink Publishing.
Kathryn Crowley spent many years in the Irish education sector. She was, at various stages, a primary teacher, a teacher union official, a director of the national primary school curriculum, and a school principal. She ‘rewired’ to focus on writing, editing and helping others to find their writing voice. She mainly writes short fiction, autofiction and memoir.
She facilitates writing workshops with adults and community groups and enjoys helping writers to write their story.