He has also achieved a reputation as a literary critic: he has edited a book on Paul Durcan, The Kilfenora Teaboy (1997); The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction (1999); and has written The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English since 1950 (1999), with Carmen Callil; a collection of essays, Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodóvar (2002); and a study on Lady Gregory, Lady Gregory's Toothbrush (2002).
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His first Mothers and Sons which, as the name suggests, explores the relationship between mothers and their sons, was published in 2006 and was reviewed favourably (including by Pico Iyer in The New York Times).
She is included in several key Irish literature anthologies, including The Field Day Anthology (Edited by Seamus Deane), and The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction (edited by Colm Tóibín).
Colm Meaney | Colm Feore | Colm Mac Eochaidh | Colm Coyle | Colm Cooper | Colm Tóibín | Colm Toibin | Colm Wilkinson | Colm Ó Snodaigh | Colm O'Rourke | Colm Ó hEocha | Colm O'Gorman | Colm O'Connell | Colm McFadden | Colm McCullagh | Colm Mangan | Colm Kelleher | Colm Connolly | Colm Begley | Colm and Jim-Jim's Home Run |
Other notable projects included the page New Irish Writing for the Irish Press, which provided a forum for aspiring Irish authors, publishing most of the most important names in Irish fiction, many for the first time, including Dermot Bolger, Ita Daly, Anne Enright, Neil Jordan, Claire Keegan, John McGahern, Michael Feeney Callan, Bernard MacLaverty, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Joseph O'Connor, Colm Tóibín and William Wall.
Outline of My Lover was selected as an International Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement by Colm Toibin and adapted in part by The Forsythe Company, along with "Irony Is Not Enough: Essay On My Life As Catherine Deneuve (2nd draft)" by Anne Carson, for the multimedia production "Kammer/Kammer".
The imprint is known for publishing debuts - notables include Colm Toibin's The South, Michel Houellebecq's Whatever and David Peace's Nineteen Seventy-Four.