Cristín Leach

Writer, Art Critic, Broadcaster

Negative Space

Cristín Leach weaves words and art with an unravelling of self that comes when a marriage breaks. A new kind of memoir from one of Ireland’s leading art critics, Negative Space examines the importance of art and words to help anchor you in a world turned upside down. An Irish Times best seller, a Claire Byrne Show (RTÉ Radio 1) and The Last Word (Today FM) Best Non-Fiction book of 2022.

From Ten till Dusk

From Ten till Dusk delves into the archives and returns with a multiform narrative that brings key personalities and events in the Royal Hibernian Academy’s remarkable 200 year history to life. Through historical fiction, diary entries, critico-fiction, letters and poetry, Leach tells a dramatic and tumultuous story. A thebookshop.ie book of 2023 & a Sunday Times Christmas Book pick.

Cristín Leach is a writer, broadcaster and author of the critically acclaimed memoir Negative Space (Merrion Press, 2022) and From Ten Till Dusk (RHA, 2023). She was Irish art critic for The Sunday Times from 2003 to 2023, where she wrote and published more than half a million words about Irish art. Negative Space was number 5 Irish non-fiction bestseller and broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 Book on One in 2024.

Her short fiction and non-fiction has been widely published, in Winter Papers, The Four Faced Liar, The Mersey Review, artist books, gallery publications, and curated and competition anthologies including An Honour and a Privilege (Stanchion, 2025), Fire: Brigid and the Sacred Feminine (Arlen House, 2024) and Lines in the Sand (Bournemouth Writing Festival/Dithering Chaps, 2024). Her short stories have been shortlisted for international prizes including the 2025 Katherine Mansfield Sparkling Prose Competition. Her audio and multimedia work has been broadcast and exhibited in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Denmark and Peru as part of curated group touring exhibitions and festivals and featured on RTÉ Radio 1 as part of Keywords and Sunday Miscellany.

She is the recipient of a 2025 Arts Council Agility Award for Literature and a Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris writing residency for 2026. She was Writer in Residence for the HearSay International Audio Arts Festival in 2021 and a Birr Writer in Residence in 2025. Her editioned mobile cube poem, To the Line (2023) was purchased by the OPW for the Irish State Art Collection.

For RTÉ Lyric FM, she presented the four-part radio documentary series Ireland Portrayed (2020) and co-presented the New York Festivals award-winning series Through the Canvas (2018). An experienced occasional lecturer and mentor who has worked with artists, writers, and corporate clients since 2013, she is a regular host for panel discussions, festival events, and public interviews. She is a contributing writer for Irish Arts Review, RTÉ Culture, and VAI VAN and a stand-in presenter for RTÉ Radio 1's flagship arts show, Arena.

Photo credit: Clare Keogh

To the Line (mobile cube poem) 2023

To the Line is a mobile cube poem made in response to the paintings in the Big Crush series by Cork artist Deirdre Frost, exhibited at the Kilkenny Arts Festival in August 2023.

As art critic for the Sunday Times for almost 20 years, Cristín has combined expert knowledge of the visual arts with an ability to write about them in a clear and engaging way - an almost unique blend in the Irish media. As a columnist Cristín is adept at analysing topical and controversial issues, using her superb writing skills to inform, explain but also entertain. An extract from her book Negative Space was one of the most read articles on the Sunday Times website in 2022.
John Burns
The Sunday Times, Commissioning Editor

Cristín’s wonderfully crafted artists’ interview was a festival highlight at Light Moves Festival 2021. Her communication, research and delivery was authentic and engaging and conveyed genuine curiosity for the artist and their work. Cristín seamlessly engaged both the live audience and those experiencing the event via live-steaming. I would work with Cristín again in a heartbeat.
Mary Wycherley
Co-founder and Curator Light Moves Festival, Choreographer and Film Director

She is uncommonly good at writing about being embodied... Negative Space is the record of a writer remaking life and language, knowing they will always be strangely matched.
Brian Dillon
The Irish Times

There are few books that capture so gracefully and so truthfully the way in which art and life weave and bleed together. Negative Space is a beautiful, profound, unique book.
Sara Baume
Artist and Author

Leach is, with apologies to all others ploughing a similar furrow, the leading Irish fine art critic. She knows her onions,... No surprise then that this memoir is a work of art in and of itself.
Pat Carty
Hot Press

In this extraordinary book, Cristín Leach sketches a vivid sequence of vignettes that build towards a meditative portrait of art, voice, loss and growth.
Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Poet and Author

I adored Negative Space. It is a personal Ways of Seeing for twenty-first-century women... a compelling personal story steeped in art... essential reading.
Edel Coffey
Author and Journalist

An unflinching self-exploration of a woman at various major life stages, not to mention a refreshing portrait of a very modern Irish marriage breakdown, divorce and family break-up.
Tanya Sweeney
Irish Independent

From Ten till Dusk... is a joy. Taking an experimental format, it draws out, and frequently fictionalises the threads that run through the lives of those involved, to create an eclectic portrait of a place, the times, and the people who make the art.
Gemma Tipton
The Irish Times

Cristín Leach

Books

Negative Space

From Ten till Dusk

About

TO THE LINE (MOBILE CUBE POEM), 2023

To the Line (mobile cube poem) 2023

selected Portfolio

Reviews & Recommendations

Clients & collaborators

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